When one rows it is not the rowing which moves the ship: rowing is only a magical ceremony by means of which one compels a demon to move the ship.

Forgetting: that is a divine capacity. And whoever aspires to the heights and wants to fly must cast off much that is heavy and make himself light--I call it a divine capacity for lightness.

Give me today, for once, the worst throw of your dice, destiny. Today I transmute everything into gold.

The weak and the botched shall perish: first principle of our charity.

The disappointed one speaks. I searched for great human beings; I always found only the apes of their ideals.

Society tames the wolf into a dog. And man is the most domesticated animal of all.

When a scholar of the old culture vows no longer to have anything to do with men who believe in progress, he is right. For the old culture has its greatness and goodness behind it, and an historical education forces one to admit that it can never again be fresh.