Whoever regards human beings as a herd and flees them as swiftly as he can will no doubt be overtaken by them and impaled on theirhorns.

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

It is impossible to suffer without making someone pay for it; every complaint already contains revenge.

To escape boredom, man works either beyond what his usual needs require, or else he invents play, that is, work that is designed to quiet no need other than that for working in general.

In the knowledge of truth, what really matters is the possession of it, not the impulse under which it was sought.

The object of convalescence ought to be to turn our attention to life: at other times, simply to our tasks!

Men have hitherto treated women like birds which have strayed down to them from the heights; as something more delicate, more fragile, more savage, stranger, sweeter, soulful--but as something which has to be caged up so that it shall not fly away.