Devotion (n.) is a concealed expenditure of force, expressed by its opposite, weakness — like the actor playing Don Juan who uses half his strength to writhe and half to hold up the Commandant lest he totter.
Devotion (n.) that annihilates itself before the beloved would wound more sorely than unfaithfulness: be humble before God in every respect, but not humbled under the personality of another man.
Devotion (n.) given to a man intensely reserved, whom she hardly knows, gives him power over her and her none over him — is that marriage? It is like a seduction, a higher seduction worse than lust's.
Devotion (n.) can be selfishness, even limitless submission — when it is devotion to the other I.
Devotion (n.) can ruin: many a man a maiden's love has destroyed, just because he stayed too true to her while she praised his love without limit.
Devotion (n.) belongs only to the self-possessed: only he can be lavish of himself who possesses himself.
Devotion (n.) is only possible when I go out of myself; one shows one is for the other only by not being for oneself.
Devotion (n.) is still an aesthetic life when a girl lets nothing in heaven or earth mean anything but her lover: its condition lies outside herself.