I fear animals regard man as a creature of their own kind which has in a highly dangerous fashion lost its healthy animal reason - as the mad animal, as the laughing animal, as the weeping animal, as the unhappy animal.

How much truth can a spirit bear, how much truth can a spirit dare? ... that became for me more and more the real measure of value.

People who feel insecure in social situations never miss a chance to exhibit their dominance over close, submissive friends, whomthey put down publicly, in front of everyone--by teasing, for example.

A person unlearns arrogance when he knows he is always among worthy human beings; being alone fosters presumption. Young people are arrogant because they always associate with their own peers, those who are all really nothing but who would like to be very important.

Poets and writers who are in love with the superlative all want to do more than they can.

Inaction, letting be, neither creating nor destroying--that is my evil. And also the knower as one without desire.

The only excuse for God is that he doesn't exist.