Many a one cannot loosen his own fetters, but is nevertheless his friend's emancipator.

What someone is, begins to be revealed when his talent abates, when he stops showing us what he can do.

The beast in us must be[78] wheedled: ethic is necessary, that we may not be torn to pieces.

It is the business of the very few to be independent; it is a privilege of the strong.

Rather perish than hate and fear, and twice rather perish than make oneself hated and feared — this must some day become the highest maxim for every single commonwealth.

Reckoned physiologically, everything ugly weakens and afflicts man. It recalls decay, danger, impotence; he actually suffers a loss of energy in its presence. The effect of the ugly can be measured with a dynamometer. Whenever man feels in any way depressed, he senses the proximity of something ugly. His feeling of power, his will to power, his courage, his pride - they decline with the ugly, they increase with the beautiful.

The sensible author writes for no other posterity than his own--that is, for his age--so as to be able even then to take pleasurein himself.