Could truth perhaps be a woman who has reasons for not permitting her reasons to be seen? Could her name perhaps be--to speak Greek--Baubo?... Oh, those Greeks! They understood how to live: to do that it is necessary to stop bravely at the surface, the fold, the skin, to adore the appearance, to believe in forms, in tones, in words, in the whole Olympus of appearance! Those Greeks were superficial--out of profundity!

One must still have chaos in oneself to be able to give birth to a dancing star.

Mistrust those in whom the urge to punish is strong.

There are no moral phenomena at all, but only a moral interpretation of phenomena.

Follow in the footsteps of your fathers' virtue! How could you hope to climb high unless your fathers' will climbs with you?

The "religion of pity" to which people would like to convert us- oh, we know well enough the hysterical little men and women who need this religion at present as a veil and an adornment!

Perhaps I know best why it is man alone who laughs; he alone suffers so deeply that he had to invent laughter.