The dyed-in-the-wool teacher takes everything seriously only with respect to his students--himself included.

There are slavish souls who carry their appreciation for favors done them so far that they strangle themselves with the rope of gratitude.

Youth is an unpleasant period; for then it is not possible or not prudent to be productive in any sense whatsoever.

Beyond Good and Evil, Aphorism 153

Life without music is only error, exhaustion, exile... Indeed, there is nothing that concerns me more than the fate of music.

There are ages in which the rational man and the intuitive man stand side by side, the one in fear of intuition, the other with scorn for abstraction. The latter is just as irrational as the former is inartistic.

One who has given up any hope of winning a fight or has clearly lost it wants his style in fighting to be admired all the more.