He who would learn to fly one day must first learn to stand and walk and run and climb and dance; one cannot fly into flying.

We come to recognize that playfulness, as a philosophical stance, can be very serious indeed; and moreover, that it possesses an unfailing capacity to arouse ridicule and hostility in those among us who crave certainty, reverence, and restraint.

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.

Why couldn't the world that concerns us- be a fiction? And if somebody asked, 'but to be a fiction there surely belongs an author?'- couldn't one answer simply: 'Why? Doesn't this "belongs" perhaps belong to the fiction, too?'

Does not the discipline of the scientific spirit just commence when one no longer harbours any conviction?

Whoever has really sacrificed anything, knows that he wanted and got something in return.

How little is required for pleasure! The sound of a bagpipe - without music, life would be an error.