Give me the benefit of your convictions, if you have any; but keep your doubts to yourself, for I have enough of my own.

Whoever gives himself up to solitude, Ah! he is soon alone.

Time does not relinquish its rights, either over human beings or over mountains.

All ages have said and repeated that one should strive to know one's self. This is a strange demand which no one up to now has measured up to and, strictly considered, no one should. With all their study and effort, people are directed to what is outside, to the world about them, and they are kept busy coming to know this and to master it to the extent that their purposes require. . . . How can you come to know yourself? Never by thinking, always by doing. Try to do your duty, and you'll know right away what you amount to. And what is your duty? Whatever the day calls for.

I hate all explanations; they who make them deceive either themselves or the other party,-generally both.

There is nothing new on earth / For a person who lives long and experiences much. / In my years of youthful wandering / I have seen crystallized people.

To have more, you must first be more.