Athenaeum Fragments

To freely relinquish first one and then another part of one’s being, and then confine oneself entirely to a third; to seek and find now in this, now in that individual the be-all and end-all of existence, and intentionally forget everything else: of this only a mind is capable that contains within itself a whole system of persons, and in whose inner being the universe which, as they say, should germinate in every monad, has grown to fullness and maturity.

— Athenaeum Fragments

To devote oneself exclusively to developing some original instinct is as good and wise as the best and noblest task a man can choose to make the business of his life.

— Athenaeum Fragments

The first impulse of morality is to oppose positive legality and conventional justice.

— Athenaeum Fragments

There are people with whom everything they consider a means turns mysteriously into an end.

— Athenaeum Fragments