All names of good and evil are images; they do not speak out, they only hint. He is a fool who seeks knowledge from them.

I too have been in the underworld, as was Odysseus, and I will often be there again; not only sheep have I sacrificed so as to beable to speak with a few dead souls, but neither have I spared my own blood as well.

He who is usually self-sufficient becomes exceptionally vain and keenly alive to fame and praise when he is physically ill. The more he loses himself the more he has to endeavor to regain his position by means of the opinion of others.

In pain there is as much wisdom as in pleasure: like the latter it is one of the best self preservatives of a species.

Nothing has been purchased more dearly than the little bit of reason and sense of freedom which now constitutes our pride.

We are, indeed, not among the least contented. You, however, if your belief makes you blessed then appear to be blessed! Your faces have always been more injurious to your belief than our objections have! If these glad tidings of your Bible were written on your faces, you would not need to insist so obstinately on the authority of that book ... As things are, however, all your apologies for Christianity have their roots in your lack of Christianity; with your defense plea you inscribe your own bill of indictment.

The most unequivocal sign of contempt for man is to regard everybody merely as a means to one's own ends, or of no account whatever.