Love of one is a piece of barbarism: for it is practised at the expense of all others. Love of God likewise.

When one does away with oneself one does the most estimable thing possible: one thereby almost deserves to live.

The strong individual loves the earth so much he lusts for recurrence. He can smile in the face of the most terrible thought: meaningless, aimless existence recurring eternally. The second characteristic of such a man is that he has the strength to recognize - and to live with the recognition - that the world is valueless in itself and that all values are human ones. He creates himself by fashioning his own values; he has the pride to live by the values he wills.

Yet tell me, my brothers: if a goal for humanity is still lacking, is there not still lacking--humanity itself?

Without art we would be nothing but foreground and live entirely in the spell of that perspective which makes what is closest at hand and most vulgar appear as if it were vast, and reality itself.

A man of genius is unbearable, unless he possesses at least two things besides: gratitude and purity.

In almost all sciences the fundamental knowledge is either found in earliest times or is still being sought.