Whereas the man of action binds his life to reason and its concepts so that he will not be swept away and lost, the scientific investigator builds his hut right next to the tower of science so that he will be able to work on it and to find shelter for himself beneath those bulwarks which presently exist.

But let me open up my heart to you completely, my friends: if there were gods, how could I bear not being a god! Hence, there areno gods. I drew this conclusion, to be sure--but now it draws me.

Only idiots fail to contradict themselves three times a day.

Man is more sensitive to the contempt that others feel towards him than to the contempt that he feels towards himself.

Every high degree of power always involves a corresponding degree of freedom from good and evil.

He who lives as children live - who does not struggle for his bread and does not believe that his actions possess any ultimate significance - remains childlike.

There is no more dreary or more repulsive creature than the man who has evaded his genius.