When one is young, one venerates and despises without that art of nuances which constitutes the best gain of life.

But not to perish from internal distress and doubt when one inflicts great suffering and hears the cry of suffering : that is great, that belongs to greatness.

...If I continued to harbour any hope for music it lay in the expectation that a musician might come who was sufficiently bold, subtle, malicious, southerly, superhealthy to confront that music and in an immortal fashion take revenge on it.

The most intelligent men, like the strongest, find their happiness where others would find only disaster: in the labyrinth, in being hard with themselves and with others, in effort; their delight is self-mastery; in them asceticism becomes second nature, a necessity, as instinct.

He has drawn back, only in order to have enough room for his leap

It is not when truth is dirty, but when it is shallow, that the lover of knowledge is reluctant to step into its waters.

Extreme positions are not succeeded by moderate ones but by extreme positions of the opposite kind.