Almost two thousand years, and no new god!

Let us guard against saying that there are laws in nature. There are merely necessities: there is no one who commands, no one whoobeys, no one who transgresses. Once you understand that there are no purposes, then you also understand that nothing is accidental: for it is only in a world of purposes that the word "accident" makes sense.

Over immense periods of time the intellect produced nothing but errors. A few of these proved to be useful and helped to preserve the species: those who hit upon or inherited these had better luck in their struggle for themselves and their progeny. Such erroneous articles of faith... include the following: that there are things, substances, bodies; that a thing is what it appears to be; that our will is free; that what is good for me is also good in itself.

Every power draws its ultimate consequences at every moment.

You have not yet suffered enough! For you suffer only from yourselves, you have not yet suffered from man.

The genius-in work and in deed-is necessarily a squanderer: the fact that he spends himself constitutes his greatness.

Vanity is the fear of appearing original: it is thus a lack of pride, but not necessarily a lack of originality.