Let thy virtue be too high for the familiarity of names, and if thou must speak of it, be not ashamed to stammer about it.

We labour at our daily work more ardently and thoughtlessly than is necessary to sustain our life because it is even more necessary not to have leisure to stop and think. Haste is universal because everyone is in flight from himself.

The bite of conscience, like the bite of a dog into a stone, is a stupidity.

Belief in truth begins with doubting all that has hitherto been believed to be true.

I am a law only for my kind, I am no law for all.

The poet presents his thoughts festively, on the carriage of rhythm: usually because they could not walk.

Historical refutation as the definitive refutation.- In former times, one sought to prove that there is no God - today one indicates how the belief that there is a God arose and how this belief acquired its weight and importance: a counter-proof that there is no God thereby becomes superfluous.- When in former times one had refuted the 'proofs of the existence of God' put forward, there always remained the doubt whether better proofs might not be adduced than those just refuted: in those days atheists did not know how to make a clean sweep.