You proclaim that one should die for the highest virtues, because you take it for granted that nobody's been living for them, not even for a single hour.

Philosophers are people who do violence, but have no army at their disposal, and so subjugate the world by locking it into a system.

Writing [for the novelist] is not an activity, but a condition. That is why one simply can't resume the work when one has a job and a free half-day. Reading is the conveyance of this condition.

[...] a number of flawed individuals can often add up to a brilliant social unit.

The thought is not something that observes an inner event, but, rather it is this inner event itself. We do not reflect on something, but, rather, something thinks itself in us.

Every day there comes a moment when a person lays his hands in his lap and all his busyness collapses like ashes. The work accomplished is, from the soul's point of view, entirely imaginary.

...love must be regarded as one of the religious and dangerous experiences, because it lifts people out of the arms of reason and sets them afloat with no ground under their feet.