One who is publicly honest about himself ends up by priding himself somewhat on this honesty: for he knows only too well why he is honest-for the same reasons another person prefers illusion and dissimulation.

What is great in man is that he is a bridge and not a goal: what there is to love in man is that he is a going-over and a going-under.

You have your way. I have my way. As for the right way, the correct way, and the only way, it does not exist.

To call a thing good not a day longer than it appears to us good, and above all not a day earlier - that is the only way to keep joy pure.

Men after death ... are understood worse than men of the moment, but heard better.

Our knowledge will take its revenge on us, just as ignorance exacted its revenge during the Middle Ages.

There's no defense against stupidity.