The Golden Age is the most implausible of all dreams. But for it men have given up their life and strength; for the sake of it prophets have died and been slain; without it the people will not live and cannot die.

The whole work of man really seems to consist in nothing but proving to himself every minute that he is a man and not a piano key.

a man is no example for a woman. It’s a different thing.

What is hell? I maintain that it is the suffering of being unable to love.

I have in my own life merely carried to the extreme that which you have never ventured to carry even halfway ; and what's more, you've regarded your cowardice as prudence, and found comfort in deceiving yourselves. So that, in fact, I may be even more "alive" than you are. Do take a closer look!

If you want to overcome the whole world, overcome yourself.

If it were considered desirable to destroy a human being, the only thing necessary would be to give his work a character of uselessness