Everything that is profound loves the mask: the profoundest things have a hatred even of figure and likeness.

One who is publicly honest about himself ends up by priding himself somewhat on this honesty: for he knows only too well why he is honest-for the same reasons another person prefers illusion and dissimulation.

One who has a why can endure anyhow.

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

It says nothing against the ripeness of a spirit that it has a few worms.

Whoever possesses abundant joy must be a good man: but he is probably not the cleverest man, although he achieves exactly what it is that the cleverest man strives with all his cleverness to achieve.

In constructing concepts, we overlook the fact that no two things are the same. There is no such thing as the concept of a leaf, only billions and billions of leaves.