In affability there is no hatred of men, but for that very reason there is all too much contempt for men.

That is an artist as I would have an artist be, modest in his needs: he really wants only two things, his bread and his art--panemet Circen.

The grand style follows suit with all great passion. It disdains to please, it forgets to persuade. It commands. It wills.

However un-Christian this may sound, I am not even predisposed against myself.

Man demands truth and fulfills this demand in moral intercourse with other men; this is the basis of all social life. One anticipates the unpleasant consequences of reciprocal lying. From this there arises the duty of truth. We permit epic poets to lie because we expect no detrimental consequences in this case. Thus the lie is permitted where it is considered something pleasant. Assuming that it does no harm, the lie is beautiful and charming.

Without the errors which lie in the assumption of morality, man would have remained an animal.

A man who possesses genius is insufferable unless he also possesses at least two other things: gratitude and cleanliness.