Fall down seven times, stand up eight. - Chinese proverbWithout music, life would be a mistake.

whatever is profound loves masks; what is most profound even hates image and parable.

It is, indeed, a fact that, in the midst of society and sociability every evil inclination has to place itself under such great restraint, don so many masks, lay itself so often on the procrustean bed of virtue, that one could well speak of a martyrdom of the evil man. In solitude all this falls away. He who is evil is at his most evil in solitude: which is where he is at his best - and thus to the eye of him who sees everywhere only a spectacle also at his most beautiful.

We evaluate the services that anyone renders to us according to the value he puts on them, not according to the value they have for us.

The golden fleece of self-sufficiency guards against cudgel- blows but not against pin-pricks.

And let that day be lost to us on which we did not dance once! And let that wisdom be false to us that brought no laughter with it!

And if you are not a bird, then beware of coming to rest above an abyss.