If we have injured someone, giving him the opportunity to make a joke about us is often enough to provide him personal satisfaction, or even to win his good will.
—Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900)
Heaven lies about us in our infancy ... and the world begins lying about us pretty soon afterward.
—Ambrose Bierce (1842–1914)
Life—that is: continually shedding something that wants to die. Life—that is: being cruel and inexorable against everything about us that is growing old and weak—and not only about us. Life—that is, then: being without reverence for those who are dying, who are wretched, who are ancient? Constantly being a murderer?—And yet old Moses said: “Thou shalt not kill.”
—Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900)