The masses think that is is easy to flee from reality, when it is the most difficult thing in the world.

The person portrayed and the portrait are two entirely different things.

An idea is a putting truth in check-mate.

Life is an operation which is done in a forward direction. One lives toward the future, because to live consists inexorably in doing, in each individual life making itself.

The people with the clear heads are the ones who look life in the face, realize that everything in it is problematic, and feel themselves lost. And this is the simple truth: that to live is to feel oneself lost. Those who accept it have already begun to find themselves, to be on firm ground.

We distinguish the excellent man from the common man by saying that the former is the one who makes great demands on himself, and the latter who makes no demands on himself.

The metaphor is probably the most fertile power possessed by man