Soren Kierkegaard:"In the constant sociability of our age people shudder at solitude to such a degree that they know no other use to put it but...as a punishment for criminals."
Friedrich Nietzsche:"My conception of genius. Great men, like great ages, are explosives in which a tremendous force is stored up; their precondition is always, historically and physiologically, that for a long time much has been gathered, stored up, saved up, and conserved for them--that there has been no explosion for a long time. Once the tension in the mass becomes too great, then the most accidental stimulas suffices to summon into the world the 'genius,' the 'deed,' the great destiny. What does the environment matter then, or the age, or the 'spirit of the age,' or 'public opinion'!"
"Shedding one's skin. A snake that cannot shed its skin perishes. So do the spirits who are prevented from changing their opinions; they cease to be spirit."
"Man is something that must be overcome; and therefore you shall love your virtues, for you will perish of them."
"Of all that is written I love only what a man has written with his blood. Write with blood, and you will experience that blood is spirit."
"There is always some madness in love. But there is always some reason in madness."
"I would only believe in a god who could dance. And when I saw my devil I found him serious, thorough, profound, and solemn: it was the spirit of gravity--through him all things fall.
"Around the inventors of new values the world revolves: invisibly it revolves. But around the actors revolve the people and fame: that is 'the way of the world.'"
"...not a few who wanted to drive out their devil have themselves entered into swine."
"It is nobler to declare oneself wrong than to insist on being right--especially when one is right. Only one must be rich enough for that."
"With a talent, one is also the victim of that talent: one lives under the vampirism of one's talent."
"To live alone one must be a beast or a god, says Aristotle. Leaving out the third case: one must be both--a philosopher."
"Thoughts in a poem. The poet presents his thoughts festively, on the carriage of rhythm: usually because they could not walk."
"Jokes. A joke is the epigram on the death of a feeling."
"...She told me herself that she had no morality--and I thought she had, like myself, a more severe morality than anybody...."
"Everybody want the same, everybody is the same; whoever feels different goes voluntarily into a madhouse."
"You look up when you feel the need for elevation. And I look down because I am elevated."
"Some souls one will never discover, unless one invents them first."
"It is only in the market place that one is assaulted with Yes? or No? Slow is the experience of all deep wells: long must they wait before they know what fell into their depth. "Far from the market place and from fame happens all that is great: far from the market place and from fame the inventors of new values have always dwelt."
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