That which needs to be proved cannot be worth much.

We are in the greatest danger of being run over when we have just gotten out of the way of a carriage.

It is our taste that decides against Christianity now, no longer our reasons.

How can anyone become a thinker unless he spends at least a third of every day away from passions, people, and books?

When there is a choice about it, a great sacrifice is preferable to a small sacrifice, because we compensate ourselves for a greatone with self-admiration, which is not possible with a small one.

The tragedy is that we cannot believe the dogmas of religion and metaphysics if we have the strict methods of truth in heart and head, but on the other hand, we have become through the development of humanity so tenderly suffering that we need the highest kind of means of salvation and consolation: whence arises the danger that man may bleed to death through the truth that he realises.

It says nothing against the ripeness of a spirit that it has a few worms.