What eludes logic is the most precious element in us, and one can draw nothing from a syllogism that the mind has not put there in advance.

Man's responsibility increases as that of the gods decreases.

Never have I been able to settle in life. Always seated askew, as if on the arm of a chair; ready to get up, to leave.

The very act of sacrifice magnifies the one who sacrifices himself to the point where his sacrifice is much more costly to humanity than would have been the loss of those for whom he is sacrificing himself. But in his abnegation lies the secret of his grandeur.

From the satisfaction of desire there may arise, accompanying joy and as it were sheltering behind it, something not unlike despair.

Know thyself! A maxim as pernicious as it is ugly. Whoever observes himself arrests his own development. A caterpillar who wanted to know itself well would never become a butterfly.

How much more sensuality invites to art than does sentimentality.

A straight path never leads anywhere except to the objective.

Solitude is bearable only with God.

The individual never asserts himself more than when he forgets himself.