Just as a waterfall grows slower and more lightly suspended as it plunges down, so the great man of action tends to act with greater calmness than his tempestuous desires prior to the deed would lead one to expect.

We would not let ourselves be burned to death for our opinions: we are not sure enough of them for that.

What I understand by "philosopher": a terrible explosive in the presence of which everything is in danger.

In order for once to get a glimpse of our European morality from a distance, in order to compare it with other earlier or future moralities, one must do as the traveller who wants to know the height of the towers of a city: he leaves the city.

i have never pondered over questions that are not questions.

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

there they laugh: they do not understand me; I am not the mouth for these ears.