It is only great pain--that slow, sustained pain that takes its time, in which we are, as it were, burned with smoldering green firewood--that forces us philosophers to sink to our ultimate profundity and to do away with all the trust, everything good-natured, veil-imposing, mild and middling, on which we may have previously based our humanity. I doubt that such a pain makes us 'better'--but I know that it makes us deeper.

The one seeks a midwife to deliver his thoughts, the other, someone to assist: thus a good conversation comes into being.

Against boredom even gods struggle in vain.

The living is a species of the dead; and not a very attractive one.

Faith means the will to avoid knowing what is true.

We ought to face our destiny with courage.

Women want to serve, and this is where their happiness lies: but the free spirit does not want to be served, and this is where hishappiness lies.