But by my love and hope I beseech you: do not throw away the hero in your soul! Hold holy your highest hope!

A matter that becomes clear ceases to concern us.--What was that god thinking who counseled, "Know thyself!" Did he perhaps mean,"Cease to concern yourself! Become objective!"--And Socrates?--And "scientific men"?

He who recites dramatic works makes discoveries about his own character.

The best way to give assistance to those who are deeply embarrassed and to calm them down is to praise them decisively.

A good aphorism is too hard for the tooth of time, and is not worn away by all the centuries, although it serves as food for every epoch. Hence it is the greatest paradox in literature, the imperishable in the midst of change, the nourishment which always remains highly valued, as salt does, and never becomes stupid like salt.

Precisely this is godliness--that there are gods, but no God.

Only great pain is, as the teacher of great suspicion, the ultimate liberator of the spirit...I doubt whether such pain improves us-but I do know it deepens us.