What? A great man? I only ever see the ape of his own ideal.

A great value of antiquity lies in the fact that its writings are the only ones that modern men still read with exactness.

Great indebtedness does not make men grateful, but vengeful; and if a little charity is not forgotten, it turns into a gnawing worm.

It is my ambition to say in ten sentences what other men say in whole books what other men do not say in whole books

Every select man strives instinctively for a citadel and a privacy, where he is FREE from the crowd, the many, the majority-- where he may forget "men who are the rule," as their exception;-- exclusive only of the case in which he is pushed straight to such men by a still stronger instinct, as a discerner in the great and exceptional sense.

Women are quite able to make friends with a man; but to preserve such a friendship - that no doubt requires the assistance of a slight physical antipathy