What a person is begins to betray itself when his talent weakens--when he stops showing what he can do. Talent, too, is ornamentation, and ornamentation, too, is a hiding place.

A friend whose hopes we cannot satisfy is a friend we would rather have as an enemy.

Among the wealthy, generosity is often merely a kind of shyness.

A man unconsciously imagines that where he is strong, where he feels most thoroughly alive, the element of his freedom must lie.

No one is such a liar as the indignant man.

i have never pondered over questions that are not questions.

The problem of culture is seldom grasped correctly. The goal of a culture is not the greatest possible happiness of a people, noris it the unhindered development of all their talents; instead, culture shows itself in the correct proportion of these developments. Its aim points beyond earthly happiness: the production of great works is the aim of culture.