Mystical explanations are thought to be deep; the truth is that they are not even shallow.

The consequences of our actions take hold of us, quite indifferent to our claim that meanwhile we have 'improved.

[Heraclitus] concluded that coming-to-be itself could not be anything evil or unjust.

Emerson is a person who lives instinctively on ambrosia - and leaves everything indigestible on his plate.

Consider the cattle, grazing as they pass you by. They do not know what is meant by yesterday or today, they leap about, eat, rest, digest, leap about again, and so from morn till night and from day to day, fettered to the moment and its pleasure or displeasure, and thus neither melancholy nor bored. [...] A human being may well ask an animal: 'Why do you not speak to me of your happiness but only stand and gaze at me?' The animal would like to answer, and say, 'The reason is I always forget what I was going to say' - but then he forgot this answer too, and stayed silent.

What is the vanity of the vainest man compared with the vanity which the most modest possesses when, in the midst of nature and the world, he feels himself to be man!

If one uses one's intellect to become master over the unlimited emotions, it may produce a sorry and diversionary effect upon the intellect.