There is an innocence in lying which is the sign of good faith in a cause.

What is happening to me happens to all fruits that grow ripe. It is the honey in my veins that makes my blood thicker, and my soul quieter.

The elimination of the will altogether and the switching off of the emotions all and sundry, is tantamount to the elimination of reason: intellectual castration.

For such is man: a Theological Dogma might be refuted to him a thousand times - provided however, that he had need of it, he would again and again accept it as true. Belief is always most desired, most pressingly needed where there is a lack of will. Fanaticism is the sole "volitional strength" to which the weak and irresolute can be excited, as a sort of hypnotising of the entire sensory-intellectual system.

Necessity is not a fact; it's an interpretation.

Emerson is a person who lives instinctively on ambrosia - and leaves everything indigestible on his plate.

I feel all those human beings to be pernicious who can no longer oppose what they love: they thereby ruin the best things and people.