But tell me: how did gold get to be the highest value? Because it is uncommon and useless and gleaming and gentle in its brilliance; it always gives itself. Only as an image of the highest virtue did gold get to be the highest value. The giver's glance gleams like gold. A golden brilliance concludes peace between the moon and the sun. Uncommon is the highest virtue and useless, it is gleaming and gentle in its brilliance: a gift-giving virtue is the highest virtue.

A man who wills commands something within himself that renders obedience, or that he believes renders obedience.

The hypocrite who always plays one and the same part ceases at last to be a hypocrite.

Systems of morals are only a sign-language of the emotions.

It is the music in our conscience, the dance in our spirit, to which Puritan litanies, moral sermons, and goody goodness won’t chime.

I and me are always too deeply in conversation.

All of life is a dispute over taste and tasting.