What is the ape to man? A laughing-stock or a painful embarrassment. And just that shall man be for the superman: a laughing-stock or a painful embarrassment.

As soon as a religion comes to dominate it has as its opponents all those who would have been its first disciples.

To escape boredom, man works either beyond what his usual needs require, or else he invents play, that is, work that is designed to quiet no need other than that for working in general.

When one is young, one venerates and despises without that art of nuances which constitutes the best gain of life.

Idleness is the parent of psychology.

Perhaps I know best why it is man alone who laughs; he alone suffers so deeply that he had to invent laughter.

In heaven, all the interesting people are missing.