Pity aims just as little at the pleasure of others as malice at the pain of others Per-Se.

There will be but few people who, when at a loss for topics of conversation, will not reveal the more secret affairs of their friends.

Those moralists, on the other hand, who, following in the footsteps of Socrates, offer the individual a morality of self-control and temperance as a means to his own advantage, as his personal key to happiness, are the exceptions.

You should seek your enemy, you should wage your war - a war for your opinions. And when your opinion is defeatedy our honesty should still cry triumph over that!

Remain faithful to the earth, my brothers, with the power of your virtue. Let your gift-giving love and your knowledge serve the meaning of the earth. Thus I beg and beseech you. Do not let them fly away from earthly things and beat with their wings against eternal walls. Alas, there has always been so much virtue that has flown away. Lead back to the earth the virtue that flew away, as I do—back to the body, back to life, that it may give the earth a meaning, a human meaning.

The followers of a great man often put their eyes out, so that they may be the better able to sing his praise.

The more abstract the truth you wish to teach, the more must you allure the senses to it.