The art of not reading is a very important one. It consists in not taking an interest in whatever may be engaging the attention of the general public at any particular time. When some political or ecclesiastical pamphlet, or novel, or poem is making a great commotion, you should remember that he who writes for fools always finds a large public. A precondition for reading good books is not reading bad ones: for life is short.

This Orientalism reflected the struggle of the German Romantics in the words of Leon Poliakov to free themselves from Judeo-Christian fetters". If we could castrate all scoundrels and stick all stupid geese in a convent and give men of noble character a whole harem and procure men and indeed thorough men for all girls of intellect and understanding then a generation would soon arise which would produce a better age than that of Pericles. He quotes Horace's saying "From the brave and good are the brave descended" (Odes iv 4 29) and Shakespeare's line from Cymbeline "Cowards father cowards and base things sire base" (IV 2) to reinforce his hereditarian argument.

Influenced by Eastern thought he maintained that the "truth was recognized by the sages of India"; consequently his solutions to suffering were similar to those of Vedantic and Buddhist thinkers (i. He has influenced a long list of thinkers including Friedrich NietzscheRichard Wagner Ludwig Wittgenstein Erwin Schrödinger Albert EinsteinSigmund Freud Otto Rank Carl Jung Joseph Campbell Leo Tolstoy Thomas Mann and Jorge Luis Borges.