After coming into contact with a religious man I always feel I must wash my hands.

Should not the giver be thankful that the receiver received? Is not giving a need? Is not receiving, mercy?

For such is man: a Theological Dogma might be refuted to him a thousand times - provided however, that he had need of it, he would again and again accept it as true. Belief is always most desired, most pressingly needed where there is a lack of will. Fanaticism is the sole "volitional strength" to which the weak and irresolute can be excited, as a sort of hypnotising of the entire sensory-intellectual system.

The noble man honours in himself the powerful one, him also who has power over himself, who knows how to speak and how to keep silence, who takes pleasure in subjecting himself to severity and hardness, and has reverence for all that is severe and hard.

Even the pluckiest among us has but seldom the courage of what he really knows.

Mathematics would certainly have not come into existence if one had known from the beginning that there was in nature no exactly straight line, no actual circle, no absolute magnitude.

Being human is a complicated gig. So give that ol' dark night of the soul a hug. Howl the eternal yes!