Great things demand that we either remain silent about them or speak in a great manner: in a great manner, that is-cynically and with innocence.

What do you regard as most humane? To spare someone shame.

If we have injured someone, giving him the opportunity to make a joke about us is often enough to provide him personal satisfaction, or even to win his good will.

Objection, evasion, joyous distrust, and love of irony are signs of health; everything absolute belongs to pathology.

The philosopher caught in the nets of language.

Here the ways of men divide. If you wish to strive for peace of soul and happiness, then believe; if you wish to be a disciple of truth, then inquire.

Physiologists should think before putting down the instinct of self-preservation as the cardinal instinct of an organic being. A living thing seeks above all to discharge its strength--life itself is will to power; self-preservation is only one of the indirect and most frequent results.