He who is dissatisfied with himself is continually ready for revenge and we others will be his victims, if only in having always to endure his ugly sight. For the sight of the ugly makes one bad and gloomy.

Desire is happiness: satisfaction as happiness is merely the ultimate moment of desire. To be wish and wish alone is happiness, and a new wish over and over again.

It says nothing against the ripeness of a spirit that it has a few worms.

That which an age considers evil is usually an unseasonable echo of what was formerly considered good - the atavism of an old ideal.

Every man has his price. This is not true. But for every man there exists a bait which he cannot resist swallowing. To win over certain people to something, it is only necessary to give it a gloss of love of humanity, nobility, gentleness, self-sacrifice - and there is nothing you cannot get them to swallow. To their souls, these are the icing, the tidbit; other kinds of souls have others.

The abdomen is the reason why man does not readily take himself to be a god.

The man of knowledge must be able not only to love his enemies but also to hate his friends.