The Refinement of Shame. People are not ashamed to think something foul, but they are ashamed when they think these foul thoughts are attributed to them.

For some natures, changing their opinions is just as much a requirement of cleanliness as changing their clothes: for others, however, it is merely a requirement of vanity.

The great man fights the elements in his time that hinder his own greatness, in other words his own freedom and sincerity.

This demand follows from an insight that I was the first to articulate: that there are no moral facts.

The strong individual loves the earth so much he lusts for recurrence. He can smile in the face of the most terrible thought: meaningless, aimless existence recurring eternally. The second characteristic of such a man is that he has the strength to recognize - and to live with the recognition - that the world is valueless in itself and that all values are human ones. He creates himself by fashioning his own values; he has the pride to live by the values he wills.

Creation is the great redemption from suffering and all life's growing light. But the creator must be suffering if needed and accept much change.

And when your soul becometh great, then doth it become haughty, and in your sublimity there is wickedness.