Better know nothing than half-know many things.

There is always a certain noise in applause: even in the applause we give ourselves.

We do not hate as long as we still attach a lesser value, but only when we attach an equal or a greater value.

In those days it was possible for a Greek to flee from an over-abundant reality as though it were but the tricky scheming off the imagination-and to flee, not like Plato into the land of eternal ideas, into the workshop off the world-creator, feasting one's eyes on the unblemished unbreakable archetypes, but into the rigor mortis off the coldest emptiest concept off all, the concept of being.

There are two types of genius; one which above all begets and wants to beget, and another which prefers being fertilized and giving birth.

If we make sacrifices in doing good or in doing ill, it does not alter the ultimate value of our actions; even if we stake our life in the cause, as martyrs do for the sake of our church : it is a sacrifice to our longing for power, or for the purpose of conserving our sense of power.

Pity is extolled as the virtue of prostitutes.