Every kind of reward constitutes a degradation of energy.

One does not play Bach without having done scales. But neither does one play a scale merely for the sake of the scale.

Every new development for the last three centuries has brought men closer to a state of affairs in which absolutely nothing would be recognized in the whole world as possessing a claim to obedience except the authority of the State. The majority of people in Europe obey nothing else.

To want friendship is a great fault. Friendship ought to be a gratuitous joy, like the joys afforded by art or life.

When war is waged, it is for the purpose of safeguarding or increasing one's capacity to make war. International politics are wholly involved in this vicious cycle. What is called national prestige consists in behaving always in such a way as to demoralize other nations by giving them the impression that, if it comes to war, one would certainly defeat them. What is called national security is an imaginary state of affairs in which one would retain the capacity to make war while depriving all other countries of it.

There is one, and only one, thing in modern society more hideous than crime namely, repressive justice.

In reality nothing is so beautiful as the good, nothing is so monotonous and boring as evil.