In order to obtain and hold power, a man must love it.

If I had any doubts at all about the justice of my dislike for Shakespeare, that doubt vanished completely. What a crude, immoral,vulgar, and senseless work Hamlet is. The whole thing is based on pagan vengeance; the only aim is to gather together as many effects as possible; there is no rhyme or reason about it.

If so many men, so many minds, certainly so many hearts, so many kinds of love.

The best stories don't come from "good vs. bad" but "good vs. good.

the same question arose in every soul: "For what, for whom, must I kill and be killed?"... p982

Art is not a handicraft, it is the transmission of feeling the artist has experienced.

Where did I get it from? Was it by reason that I attained to the knowledge that I must love my neighbour and not throttle him? They told me so when I was a child, and I gladly believed it, because they told me what was already in my soul. But who discovered it? Not reason! Reason has discovered the struggle for existence and the law that I must throttle all those who hinder the satisfaction of my desires. That is the deduction reason makes. But the law of loving others could not be discovered by reason, because it is unreasonable.