Man is a fighting animal; his thoughts are his banners, and it is a failure of nerve in him if they are only thoughts.
It is right to prefer our own country to all others, because we are children and citizens before we can be travellers or philosophers.
Love, whether sexual, parental, or fraternal, is essentially sacrificial, and prompts a man to give his life for his friends.
Better not be a hero than work oneself up into heroism by shouting lies.
The soul, too has her virginity and must bleed a little before bearing fruit.
Religion should be disentangled as much as possible from history and authority and metaphysics, and made to rest honestly on one’s fine feelings, on one’s indomitable optimism and trust in life.
Religion is indeed a convention which a man must be bred in to endure with any patience; and yet religion, for all its poetic motley, comes closer than work-a-day opinion to the heart of things.
It is rash to intrude upon the piety of others: both the depth and the grace of it elude the stranger.
At best, the true philosopher can fulfil his mission very imperfectly, which is to pilot himself, or at most a few voluntary companions who may find themselves in the same boat.
A great man need not be virtuous, nor his opinions right, but he must have a firm mind, a distinctive luminous character.
Popular poets are the parish priests of the Muse, retailing her ancient divinations to a long since converted public.
The fly that prefers sweetness to a long life may drown in honey.
Plasticity loves new moulds because it can fill them, but for a man of sluggish mind and bad manners there is decidedly no place like home.
Prayer is not a substitute for work; it is an effort to work further and be efficient beyond the range of one’s powers.
What better comfort have we, or what other Profit in living Than to feed, sobered by the truth of Nature, Awhile upon her beauty, And hand her torch of gladness to the ages Following after?
Sometimes we have to change the truth in order to remember it.
The world is so ordered that we must, in a material sense, lose everything we have and love, one thing after another, until we ourselves close our eyes.
In a moving world readaptation is the price of longevity.
Guard you thoughts as you would your wallet. Habit is stronger than reason.
Nietzsche said that the earth has been a madhouse long enough. Without contradicting him we might perhaps soften the expression, and say that philosophy has been long enough an asylum for enthusiasts.