Sometimes we remain true to a cause simply because its opponents are unfailingly tasteless.

There are no beautiful surfaces without a terrible depth.

Lightning and thunder need time, the light of the stars needs time, deeds need time, even after they are done, to be seen and heard.

How is freedom measured, in individuals as in nations? By the resistance which has to be overcome, by the effort it costs to stay aloft. One would have to seek the highest type of free man where the greatest resistance is constantly being overcome: five steps from tyranny, near the threshold of the danger of servitude.

I know the hatred and envy of your hearts. Ye are not great enough not to know of hatred and envy. Then be great enough not to be ashamed of them!

The value of many men and books rests solely on their faculty for compelling all to seek out the most hidden and intimate things.

The priest knows, as every one knows, that there is no longer any "God," or any "sinner," or any "Saviour" that "free will" and the "moral order of the world" are lies : serious reflection, the profound self conquest of the spirit, allow no man to pretend that he does not know it.