Quotes from Otto Weininger

To understand a man is really to be that man.

The number of different aspects that the face of a man has assumed may be taken almost as a physiognomical measure of his ... genius.

The deepest, the intelligible, part of the nature of man is that part which does not take refuge in causality, but which chooses in freedom the good or the bad.

A man is first reverent about himself, and self-respect is the first stage in reverence for all things.

The great man of science, unless he is also a philosopher, ... deserves the title of genius as little as the man of action.

The genius which runs to madness is no longer genius.

Every true, eternal problem is an equally true, eternal fault; every answer an atonement, every realisation an improvement.

Not only virtue, but also insight, not only sanctity but also wisdom, are the duties and tasks of mankind.

Woman, in short, has an unconscious life, man a conscious life, and the genius the most conscious life.

All genius is a conquering of chaos and mystery.

The fixed stars signify the angel in man. That is why man orients himself by them; and that is why women have no appreciation for the starry sky; because they have no sense of the angel in man.

In those rare individual cases where women approach genius they also approach masculinity.

A man is himself important precisely in proportion that all things seem important to him.

Fate determines many things, no matter how we struggle.

It is not the fear of death which creates the desire for immortality, but the desire for immortality which causes the fear of death.

Among the notable things about fire is that it also requires oxygen to burn - exactly like its enemy, life. Thereby are life and flames so often compared.

No men who really think deeply about women retain a high opinion of them; men either despise women or they have never thought seriously about them.

Among the notable things about fire is that it also requires oxygen to burn - exactly like its enemy, life. Thereby are life and flames so often compared.

All genius is a conquering of chaos and mystery.

No men who really think deeply about women retain a high opinion of them

Universality is the distinguishing mark of genius. There is no such thing as a special genius, a genius for mathematics, or for music, or even for chess, but only a universal genius. The genius is a man who knows everything without having learned it.

Great men have always preferred women of the prostitute type.

Talent is hereditary; it may be the common possession of a whole family (eg, the Bach family); genius is not transmitted; it is never diffused, but is strictly individual.

Only from within himself can a person know the depth of the world: in him lie the interconnections of the world.