What good is a book that does not even transport us beyond all books?

Untroubled, scornful, outrageous - that is how wisdom wants us to be: she is a woman and never loves anyone but a warrior.

Respectability offends my taste.

Be careful when you cast out your demons that you don’t throw away the best of yourself.

Undeserved praise causes more pangs of conscience later than undeserved blame, but probably only for this reason, that our power of judgment are more completely exposed by being over praised than by being unjustly underestimated.

If thinking is your fate, revere this fate with divine honour and sacrifice to it the best, the most beloved

I can still stand on life's narrowest footing: but who would I be were I to show you this art. Would you like to see a ropedancer?