The discipline of suffering, of great suffering - do you not know that it is this discipline alone that has produced all the elevations of humanity so far?

Man is more sensitive to the contempt that others feel towards him than to the contempt that he feels towards himself.

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!

You must climb above yourself-up and beyond, until you have even your stars under you.

What was formerly merely sickly now becomes indecent : it is indecent to be a Christian today.

Art is the proper task of life.

O my brothers, am I then cruel? But I say: that which is falling should also be pushed!