Signs of nobility: never to think of lowering our duties to the rank of duties for everybody; to be unwilling to renounce or to share our responsibilities; to count our prerogatives, and the exercise of them, among our duties. 249
A man strives after great things, looks upon every one whom he encounters on his way either as a means of advance, or a delay and hindrance—or as a temporary resting-place. 249
If one wishes to praise at all, it is a delicate and at the same time a noble self-control, to praise only where one does not agree.... 254
All society makes one somehow, somewhere, or sometimes—"commonplace." 254-255
The noble soul has reverence for itself. 256
A man who can conduct a case, carry out a resolution, remain true to an opinion, keep hold of a woman, punish and overthrow insolence; a man who has his indignation and his sword, and to whom the weak, the suffering, the oppressed, and even the animals willingly submit and naturally belong; in short, a man who is a master by nature—when such a man has sympathy, well, that sympathy has value! 259
I would even allow myself to rank philosophers according to the quality of their laughing—up to those who are capable of golden laughter. 260