Tell me, my brother, what do we think bad, and worst of all? Is it not DEGENERATION?-And we always suspect degeneration when the bestowing soul is lacking.

Here the ways of men part: if you wish to strive for peace of soul and pleasure, then believe; if you wish to be a devotee of truth, then inquire.

One man adheres to an opinion because he prides himself on having come upon it by himself; another because he has learned it with effort, and is proud of having grasped it: thus both out of vanity.

All instincts that do not discharge themselves outwardly turn inward - this is what I call the internalization of man: thus it was that man first developed what was later called his soul.

It is not in how one soul approaches another but in how it withdraws that I know its affinity and solidarity with the other.

Our vanity is hardest to wound precisely when our pride has just been wounded.