The best belongs to me and mine; and if we are not given it, we take it: the best food, the purest sky, the most robust thoughts, the fairest women!

One has to pay dearly for immortality; one has to die several times while one is still alive.

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

Without music, life would be a mistake... I would only believe in a God who knew how to dance.

The most fatal seductive lie that has yet existed

One receives as reward for much ennui, despondency, boredom -such as a solitude without friends, books, duties, passions must bring with it -those quarter-hours of profoundest contemplation within oneself and nature. He who completely entrenches himself against boredom also entrenches himself against himself: he will never get to drink the strongest refreshing draught from his own innermost fountain.

Only individuals have a sense of responsibility.