Since men do not really respect anything unless it was established long ago and has developed slowly over time, those who want tokeep on living after their death must take worry not only about their future generations but even more about their past: that is why tyrants of all kinds (including tyrannical artists and politicians) like to do violence to history, so that it will appear as a preparation and stepladder to themselves.

That which intoxicates, the sensually ecstatic, the sudden surprise, the urge to be profoundly stirred at any price -- dreadful tendencies!

The doer is merely a fiction added to the deed ? the deed is everything.

Every virtue inclines to stupidity, every stupidity to virtue; "stupid to the point of sanctity," they say in Russia, - let us be careful lest out of pure honesty we eventually become saints and bores!

Denn was ist Freiheit? Dasz man den Willen zur Selbstverantwortlichkeit hat.

Everything that is profound loves the mask: the profoundest things have a hatred even of figure and likeness.

In short, then, the religious cult is based upon the representations of sorcery between man and man, and the sorcerer is older than the priest.