Why does man not see things? He is himself standing in the way: he conceals things.

After coming into contact with a religious man I always feel I must wash my hands.

Deception, flattering, lying, deluding, talking behind the back, putting up a false front, living in borrowed splendor, wearing a mask, hiding behind convention, playing a role for others and for oneself-in short, a continuous fluttering around the solitary flame of vanity-is so much the rule and the law among men that there is almost nothing which is less comprehensible than how an honest and pure drive for truth could have arisen among them.

One's own self is well hidden from one's own self; of all mines of treasure, one's own is the last to be dug up.

Every profound spirit needs a mask.

What can it matter to us what tinsel the sick may use to cover up their weakness? Let them parade it as their virtue; after all, there is no doubt that weakness makes one mild, oh so mild, so righteous, so inoffensive, so humane!