The true man wants two things: danger and play. For that reason he wants woman, as the most dangerous plaything.

The end of a melody is not its goal; but nonetheless, if the melody had not reached its end it would not have reached its goal either. A parable.

I can still stand on life's narrowest footing: but who would I be were I to show you this art. Would you like to see a ropedancer?

One must shed the bad taste of wanting to agree with many. "Good" is no longer good when one's neighbor mouths it. And how should there be a "common good"! The term contradicts itself: whatever can be common always has little value. In the end it must be as it is and always has been: great things remain for the great, abysses for the profound, nuances and shudders for the refined, and, in brief, all that is rare for the rare.

What is originality? To see something that is as yet without a name, that is as yet impossible to designate, even though it staresus in the face. The way it usually is with people, it is a thing's name that makes it perceptible to them in the first place.--For the most part, the original ones have also been the name-givers.

Many find their heart when they have lost their head.

The man who meets with a failure attributes this failure rather to the ill will of another than to fate.