“We should consider every day lost on which we have not danced at least once.”

“And we should consider every day lost on which we have not danced at least once. And we should call every truth false which was not accompanied by at least one laugh”

“What if, some day or night, a demon were to steal after you in your loneliest loneliness and say to you: “This life as you now live it and have lived it, you will have to live once more and innumerable times more; and there will be nothing new in it, but every pain and every joy and every thought and sigh and everything unutterably small or great in your life will have to return to you, all in the same succession and sequence—even this spider and this moonlight between the trees, and even this moment and I myself. The eternal hourglass of existence is turned upside down again and again—and you with it, speck of dust!”... Would you not throw yourself down and gnash your teeth and curse the demon who spoke thus? Or have you once experienced a tremendous moment when you would have answered him: 'You are a god and never have I heard anything more divine.”

“I tell you: one must still have chaos in one, to give birth to a dancing star. I tell you: you have still chaos in you.”

“We would not let ourselves be burned to death for our opinions: we are not sure enough of them for that.”

“Even the most beautiful scenery is no longer assured of our love after we have lived in it for three months, and some distant coast attracts our avarice: possessions are generally diminished by possession.”

“One knows a little too much about everybody. And we can even see through some men, and yet we can by no means pass through them.”