Aphoristic Writings, Notebook, and Letters to a Friend, by Otto ...

The mirror is the surrogate for the creation of oneself. It has a relationship to
vanity as even to individuality.
The criminal is hyperemic (animal), the neurasthenic anemic and greenish yellow
(plant).
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The problem of individuality is the problem of vanity. That there are many souls is
the consequence of vanity. The criminal is vain because he desires singularity. One
needs the onlooker, the theatre, the pose. Thereby the second person arises. Thereby
the criminal is homosexual.
Genius is either inverted criminality or inverted sickness (especially inverted
insanity).
The artist must create something of rather less worth than the philosopher, for he
is more dependent on the moment than the latter.
If the blockhead Schiller, instead of the rubbish of his pleasant-sounding,
comfortably moralizing phrase: “Joy shared is joy doubled – two in distress makes
sorrow less!”, had said: “Man can share happiness, pain never!”, then he would have
spoken something truthful.
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