People do not mind their faults being spread out before them, but they become impatient if called on to give them up.

The world of empirical morality consists for the most part of nothing but ill will and envy.

Commonplaceness, the surrender to the average, that good which is not bad but still the enemy of the best - That is our besetting danger.

A flippant, frivolous man may ridicule others, may controvert them, scorn them; but he who has any respect for himself seems to have renounced the right of thinking meanly of others.

[W]hat counts is that one perceives excellence and dares to give it expression, which sounds little but is in fact a great deal.

There are people who make no mistakes because they never wish to do anything worth doing.

No one can take from us the joy of the first becoming aware of something, the so-called discovery. But if we also demand the honor, it can be utterly spoiled for us, for we are usually not the first. What does discovery mean, and who can say that he has discovered this or that? After all it's pure idiocy to brag about priority; for it's simply unconscious conceit, not to admit frankly that one is a plagiarist.