I devote myself to what I love the most, and for this very reason I hesitate to designate it with lofty words: I do not want to risk believing that it is a sublime compulsion, a law, which I obey: I love what I love the most too much to wish to appear to it as one compelled.

The enjoyment that all morality has given us to now and that it continues to give us--and so, what has kept it going up to now--lies in everyone's right, without lengthy investigation, to praise and blame. And who could endure life without praising and blaming!

Life is at an end where the kingdom of God begins

What is bad? -Everything that arises from weakness.

The future influences the present just as much as the past.

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.

There's no defense against stupidity.