Why do people mostly speak the truth in daily life?... Because ... the path of compulsion and authority is surer than that of cunning. 1,72
One may promise actions, but no sentiments, for these are involuntary. 1, 76
Our crime against criminals lies in the fact that we treat them like rascals. 1,79
Every virtue has its privileges; for example, that of contributing its own little fagot to the scaffold of every condemned man. 1, 80
Why do we over-estimate love to the disadvantage of justice, and say the most beautiful things about it, as if it were something very much higher than the latter? Is it not visibly more stupid than justice? Certainly, but precisely for that reason all the pleasanter for every one. 1, 81
Hope,—in reality ... is the worst of all evils, because it prolongs the torments of man. 1, 82
One will seldom go wrong if one attributes extreme actions to vanity, average ones to habit, and petty ones to fear. 1, 83
Religion is rich in excuses to reply to the demand for suicide, and thus it ingratiates itself with those who wish to cling to life. 1, 85-86
The injustice of the powerful, which, more than anything else, rouses indignation in history, is by no means so great as it appears.... One unconsciously takes it for granted that doer and sufferer think and feel alike, and according to this supposition we measure the guilt of the one by the pain of the other. 1, 86-87
When virtue has slept, it will arise again all the fresher. 1, 87