There is nothing everyone is so afraid of as being told how vastly much he is capable of. You are capable of - do you want to know? - you are capable of living in poverty; you are capable of standing almost any kind of maltreatment, abuse, etc. But you do not wish to know about it, isn't that so? You would be furious with him who told you so, and only call that person your friend who bolsters you in saying: 'No, this I cannot bear, this is beyond my strength, etc.

What a misfortune to be a woman! And yet, the worst misfortune is not to understand what a misfortune it is.

Whoever has the world's treasures has them no matter how he got them. In the world of the spirit it is otherwise.

Shows itself in the notion that what may be objectively true may in the mouth of certain people become false.

It is modest of the nightingale not to require anyone to listen to it; but it is also proud of the nightingale not to care whether any one listens to it or not.

I have attacked no one as not being a Christian, I have condemned no one.

To be a woman is something so strange, so confusing and so complicated that only a woman could put up with it.