In every philosophical school, three thinkers succeed one another in the following way: the first produces out of himself the sapand seed, the second draws it out into threads and spins a synthetic web, and the third waits in this web for the sacrificial victims that are caught in it--and tries to live off philosophy.

Among twelve apostles there must always be one who is as hard as stone, so that the new church may be built upon him.

There are two different types of people in the world, those who want to know, and those who want to believe.

Not he is great who can alter matter, but he who can alter my state of mind.

We are more pained when one of our friends is guilty of something shameful than when we do it ourselves.

Compassion for the friend should conceal itself under a hard shell.

Something might be true while being harmful and dangerous in the highest degree. Indeed, it might be a basic characteristic of existence that those who know it completely would perish, in which case the strength of a spirit should be measured according to how much of the 'truth' one could still barely endure- or to put it more clearly, to what degree one would require it to be thinned down, shrouded, sweetened, blunted, falsified.