Whoever wants to set a good example must add a grain of foolishness to his virtue: then others can imitate and yet at the same time surpass the one they imitate-which human beings love to do.

It is my ambition to say in ten sentences what others say in a whole book.

When a woman has scholarly inclinations there is usually something wrong with her sexuality.

Giving style” to one’s character - a great and rare art! It is exercised by those who see all the strengths and weaknesses of their own natures and then comprehend them in an artistic plan until everything appears as art and reason and even weakness delights the eye.

one does not only wish to be understood when one writes; one wishes just as surely not to be understood.

Immortal is the moment when I engendered the recurrence. For the sake of this moment I bear the recurrence.

Rather perish than hate and fear, and twice rather perish than make oneself hated and feared — this must some day become the highest maxim for every single commonwealth.