To learn to see- to accustom the eye to calmness, to patience, and to allow things to come up to it; to defer judgment, and to acquire the habit of approaching and grasping an individual case from all sides. This is the first preparatory schooling of intellectuality. One must not respond immediately to a stimulus; one must acquire a command of the obstructing and isolating instincts.

He who fights too long against dragons becomes a dragon himself; and if you gaze too long into the abyss, the abyss will gaze into you.

Growth in wisdom can be measured precisely by decline in bile.

Every talent must unfold itself in fighting.

And I offer you this parable: Not a few who sought to cast out their devil entered into the swine themselves.

I love him who chasteneth his God, because he loveth his God: for he must succumb through the wrath of his God.

My solitude doesn’t depend on the presence or absence of people; on the contrary, I hate who steals my solitude without, in exchange, offering me true company.