There are people who are so presumptuous that they know no other way to praise a greatness that they publicly admire than by representing it as a preliminary stage and bridge leading to themselves.

Be careful when you cast out your demons that you don’t throw away the best of yourself.

I desire that your conjectures should not reach beyond your creative will. Could you create a god? Then do not speak to me of any gods.

When one does away with oneself one does the most estimable thing possible: one thereby almost deserves to live.

He that humbleth himself wishes to be exalted.

How much rationality and higher protection there is in such self-deception, and how much falseness I still require in order to allow myself again and again the luxury of my sincerity.

Great intellects are skeptical.