People who wish to numb our caution in dealing with them by means of flattery are employing a dangerous expedient, like a sleeping draught, which, if it does not put us to sleep, keeps us all the more awake.

We do not belong to those who only get their thought from books, or at the prompting of books, -- it is our custom to think in the open air, walking, leaping, climbing, or dancing on lonesome mountains by preference, or close to the sea, where even the paths become thoughtful.

Priests ... these turkey-cocks of God.

We must be cruel as well as compassionate: let us guard against becoming poorer than nature is!

At times, our strengths propel us so far forward we can no longer endure our weaknesses and perish from them.

Every god-man created his own god: and there is no worse enmity on earth than that between gods.

The preponderance of pain over pleasure is the cause of our fictitious morality and religion.