_The Polite Man._--"He is so polite!"--Yes, he has always a sop for Cerberus with him, and is so timid that he takes everybody for Cerberus, even you and me,--that is his "politeness."
_Without Envy._--He is wholly without envy, but there is no merit therein: for he wants to conquer a land which no one has yet possessed and hardly any one has even seen.
_The Joyless Person._--A single joyless person is enough to make constant displeasure and a clouded heaven in a household; and it is only by a miracle that such a person is lacking!--Happiness is not nearly such a contagious disease;--how is that?
_On the Sea-Shore._--I would not build myself a house (it is an element of my happiness not to be a house-owner!). If I had to do so, however, I should build it, like many of the Romans, right into the sea,--I should like to have some secrets in common with that beautiful monster.
_Work and Artist._--This artist is ambitious and nothing more; ultimately, however, his work is only a magnifying-glass, which he offers to every one who looks in his direction.
_Suum cuique._--However great be my greed of knowledge, I cannot appropriate aught of things but what already belongs to me,--the property of others still remains in the things. How is it possible for a man to be a thief or a robber?
_Origin of "Good" and "Bad."_--He only will devise an improvement who can feel that "this is not good."
_Thoughts and Words._--Even our thoughts we are unable to render completely in words.
_Praise in Choice._--The artist chooses his subjects; that is his mode of praising.
_Mathematics._--We want to carry the refinement and rigour of mathematics into all the sciences, as far as it is in any way possible, not in the belief that we shall apprehend things in this way, but in order thereby to _assert_ our human relation to things. Mathematics is only a means to general and ultimate human knowledge.
_Habits._--All habits make our hand wittier and our wit unhandier.
_Books._--Of what account is a book that never carries us away beyond all books?
_The Sigh of the Seeker of Knowledge._--"Oh, my covetousness! In this soul there is no disinterestedness--but an all-desiring self, which, by means of many individuals, would fain see as with _its own_ eyes, and grasp as with _its own_ hands--a self bringing back even the entire past, and wanting to lose nothing that could in anyway belong to it! Oh, this flame of my covetousness! Oh, that I were reincarnated in a hundred individuals!"--He who does not know this sigh by experience, does not know the passion of the seeker of knowledge either.