In the last analysis, even the best man is evil: in the last analysis, even the best woman is bad.

Loneliness is one thing, solitude another.

It is the business of the very few to be independent; it is a privilege of the strong.

What is originality? To see something that has no name as yet and hence cannot be mentioned although it stares us all in the face. The way men usually are, it takes a name to make something visible for them.

Enjoyment and innocence are the most bashful things: both do not want to be sought.

you must be ready to burn yourself in your own flame; how could you rise anew if you have not first become ashes?

Nobody can build the bridge for you to walk across the river of life, no one but you yourself alone. There are, to be sure, countless paths and bridges and demi-gods which would carry you across this river; but only at the cost of yourself; you would pawn yourself and lose. There is in the world only one way, on which nobody can go, except you: where does it lead? Do not ask, go along with it.