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.”

“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.”

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

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