"To predict the behavior of ordinary people in advance, you only have to assume that they will always try to escape a disagreeable situation with the smallest possible expenditure of intelligence."
"All in all, punishment hardens and renders people more insensible; it concentrates; it increases the feeling of estrangement; it strengthens the power of resistance."
"In our interactions with people, a benevolent hypocrisy is frequently required—acting as though we do not see through the motives of their actions."
"For as long as they praise you, never forget that it is not yet your own path that you walk, but another person's."
"When you have a lot to put into them, the day has a hundred pockets."
"Admiration for a quality can be so strong that it deters us from striving to possess it."
"We place no particular value upon the possession of a virtue until we detect its complete absence in our adversary."
"The higher we rise up, the smaller we appear to those who are unable to fly."
"There will be but few people who, when at a loss for topics of conversation, will not reveal the more secret affairs of their friends."
"mistrust everyone in whom the impulse to punish is strong!"
"He who fights against monsters should see to it that he does not become a monster in the process. And when you stare persistently into an abyss, the abyss also stares into you."
"Which is it? Is man merely God's mistake? Or is God merely man's mistake?"
"A matter that becomes clear ceases to concern us.—What was that god thinking who counseled, "Know thyself!" Did he perhaps mean, "Cease to concern yourself! Become objective!"
"Crude men who feel themselves insulted tend to assess the degree of insult as high as possible, and talk about the offense in greatly exaggerated language, only so they can revel to their heart's content in the aroused feelings of hatred and revenge."
"Dans le véritable amour c'est l'âme, qui enveloppe le corps."
"Quidquid luce fuit tenebris agit."
"Death is close enough at hand so we do not need to be afraid of life."
"Everything in the world displeases me: but, above all, my displeasure in everything displeases me."
