Some people appear to be more meager in talent than they are, just because the tasks they set themselves are always too great.

THE SUFFERING OF GENIUS AND ITS VALUE. The artistic genius desires to give pleasure, but if his mind is on a very high plane he does not easily find anyone to share his pleasure; he offers entertainment but nobody accepts it. That gives him, in certain circumstances, a comically touching pathos; for he has no right to force pleasure on men. He pipes, but none will dance: can that be tragic?

Let man fear woman when she loves: then she makes any sacrifice, and everything else seems without value to her

I am a law only for my kind, I am no law for all.

What the philosopher is seeking is not truth, but rather the metamorphosis of the world into man.

The arrogance that accompanies merit offends us even more than the arrogance of people who are lacking in merit: since merit itself offends us.

In affability there is no hatred of men, but for that very reason there is all too much contempt for men.