We are praised or blamed, as the one or the other may be expedient, for displaying to advantage our power of discernment.

It is inhuman to bless where one is cursed.

Was that life? Well then, once more!

A heart full of courage and cheerfulness needs a little danger from time to time, or the world gets unbearable.

The Hour-Hand of Life --- Life consists of rare, isolated moments of the greatest significance, and of innumerably many intervals, during which at best the silhouettes of those moments hover about us. Love, springtime, every beautiful melody, mountains, the moon, the sea - all these speak completely to the heart but once, if in fact they ever do get a chance to speak completely. For many men do not have those moments at all, and are themselves intervals and intermissions in the symphony of real life.

I have found strength where one does not look for it: in simple, mild, and pleasant people, without the least desire to rule -- and, conversely, the desire to rule has often appeared to me a sign of inward weakness: they fear their own slave soul and shroud it in a royal cloak (in the end, they still become the slaves of their followers, their fame, etc.)

Unexplained, obscure matters are regarded as more important than explained, clear ones.