The crucial thing is to find a truth which is truth for me, to find the idea for which I am willing to live and die.

Why I so much prefer autumn to spring is that in the autumn one looks at heaven--in the spring at the earth.

Ulysses was not comely, but he was eloquent, Yet he fired two goddesses of the sea with love

If I had a humble spirit in my service who, when I asked for a glass of water, brought me the world's costliest wines blended in a chalice, I should dismiss him, in order to teach him that my pleasure consists, not in what I enjoy, but in having my own way.

...my soul always reverts to the Old Testament and to Shakespeare. There at least one feels that it's human beings talking. There people hate, people love, people murder their enemy and curse his descendants through all generations, there people sin.

The truth must essentially be regarded as in conflict with this world; the world has never been so good, and will never become so good that the majority will desire the truth.

Genius, like a thunderstorm, comes up against the wind.