Friedrich Nietzsche Quotes
Philosopher
That which does not kill us makes us stronger.
One must still have chaos in oneself to be able to give birth to a dancing star.
Hope in reality is the worst of all evils because it prolongs the torments of man.
He who would learn to fly one day must first learn to stand and walk and run and climb and dance; one cannot fly into flying.
He who has a why to live can bear almost any how.
The future influences the present just as much as the past.
To live is to suffer, to survive is to find some meaning in the suffering.
The essence of all beautiful art, all great art, is gratitude.
The individual has always had to struggle to keep from being overwhelmed by the tribe. If you try it, you will be lonely often, and sometimes frightened. But no price is too high to pay for the privilege of owning yourself.
Whoever fights monsters should see to it that in the process he does not become a monster. And if you gaze long enough into an abyss, the abyss will gaze back into you.
When you look into an abyss, the abyss also looks into you.
All credibility, all good conscience, all evidence of truth come only from the senses.
Art raises its head where creeds relax.
Convictions are more dangerous foes of truth than lies.
There are no facts, only interpretations.
We should consider every day lost on which we have not danced at least once. And we should call every truth false which was not accompanied by at least one laugh.
The true man wants two things: danger and play. For that reason he wants woman, as the most dangerous plaything.
We love life, not because we are used to living but because we are used to loving.
It is not a lack of love, but a lack of friendship that makes unhappy marriages.
Without music, life would be a mistake.
When a hundred men stand together, each of them loses his mind and gets another one.
On the mountains of truth you can never climb in vain: either you will reach a point higher up today, or you will be training your powers so that you will be able to climb higher tomorrow.
Ah, women. They make the highs higher and the lows more frequent.
There is always some madness in love. But there is also always some reason in madness.
We have art in order not to die of the truth.
To forget one's purpose is the commonest form of stupidity.
Art is the proper task of life.
In individuals, insanity is rare; but in groups, parties, nations and epochs, it is the rule.
God is dead. God remains dead. And we have killed him. Yet his shadow still looms. How shall we comfort ourselves, the murderers of all murderers? What was holiest and mightiest of all that the world has yet owned has bled to death under our knives; who will wipe this blood off us? What water is there for us to clean ourselves?
All things are subject to interpretation whichever interpretation prevails at a given time is a function of power and not truth.
A casual stroll through the lunatic asylum shows that faith does not prove anything.
If there is something to pardon in everything, there is also something to condemn.
People who have given us their complete confidence believe that they have a right to ours. The inference is false, a gift confers no rights.
All truly great thoughts are conceived by walking.
Thoughts are the shadows of our feelings - always darker, emptier and simpler.
Madness is rare in individuals - but in groups, parties, nations, and ages it is the rule.
The doer alone learneth.
Many are stubborn in pursuit of the path they have chosen, few in pursuit of the goal.
In every real man a child is hidden that wants to play.
A woman may very well form a friendship with a man, but for this to endure, it must be assisted by a little physical antipathy.
You have your way. I have my way. As for the right way, the correct way, and the only way, it does not exist.
Blessed are the forgetful: for they get the better even of their blunders.
There is more wisdom in your body than in your deepest philosophy.
The man of knowledge must be able not only to love his enemies but also to hate his friends.
Let us beware of saying that death is the opposite of life. The living being is only a species of the dead, and a very rare species.
In heaven, all the interesting people are missing.
Love is blind; friendship closes its eyes.
The irrationality of a thing is no argument against its existence, rather a condition of it.
Whatever is done for love always occurs beyond good and evil.
When marrying, ask yourself this question: Do you believe that you will be able to converse well with this person into your old age? Everything else in marriage is transitory.
The best weapon against an enemy is another enemy.
Great indebtedness does not make men grateful, but vengeful; and if a little charity is not forgotten, it turns into a gnawing worm.
Whenever I climb I am followed by a dog called 'Ego'.
A pair of powerful spectacles has sometimes sufficed to cure a person in love.
Perhaps I know best why it is man alone who laughs; he alone suffers so deeply that he had to invent laughter.
There cannot be a God because if there were one, I could not believe that I was not He.
Our treasure lies in the beehive of our knowledge. We are perpetually on the way thither, being by nature winged insects and honey gatherers of the mind.
We often refuse to accept an idea merely because the tone of voice in which it has been expressed is unsympathetic to us.
Character is determined more by the lack of certain experiences than by those one has had.
Sleeping is no mean art: for its sake one must stay awake all day.
When one has a great deal to put into it a day has a hundred pockets.
Although the most acute judges of the witches and even the witches themselves, were convinced of the guilt of witchery, the guilt nevertheless was non-existent. It is thus with all guilt.
The surest way to corrupt a youth is to instruct him to hold in higher esteem those who think alike than those who think differently.
It is impossible to suffer without making someone pay for it; every complaint already contains revenge.
Woman was God's second mistake.
Love is not consolation. It is light.
One should die proudly when it is no longer possible to live proudly.
Faith: not wanting to know what is true.
Women are considered deep - why? Because one can never discover any bottom to them. Women are not even shallow.
In the consciousness of the truth he has perceived, man now sees everywhere only the awfulness or the absurdity of existence and loathing seizes him.
Those who cannot understand how to put their thoughts on ice should not enter into the heat of debate.
Go up close to your friend, but do not go over to him! We should also respect the enemy in our friend.
Talking much about oneself can also be a means to conceal oneself.
The world itself is the will to power - and nothing else! And you yourself are the will to power - and nothing else!
I assess the power of a will by how much resistance, pain, torture it endures and knows how to turn to its advantage.
Not necessity, not desire - no, the love of power is the demon of men. Let them have everything - health, food, a place to live, entertainment - they are and remain unhappy and low-spirited: for the demon waits and waits and will be satisfied.
Sing me a new song; the world is transfigured; all the Heavens are rejoicing.
In large states public education will always be mediocre, for the same reason that in large kitchens the cooking is usually bad.
When one has not had a good father, one must create one.
Morality is the herd-instinct in the individual.
No one lies so boldly as the man who is indignant.
One has to pay dearly for immortality; one has to die several times while one is still alive.
Nothing is beautiful, only man: on this piece of naivete rests all aesthetics, it is the first truth of aesthetics. Let us immediately add its second: nothing is ugly but degenerate man - the domain of aesthetic judgment is therewith defined.
Insanity in individuals is something rare - but in groups, parties, nations and epochs, it is the rule.
It is always consoling to think of suicide: in that way one gets through many a bad night.
All sciences are now under the obligation to prepare the ground for the future task of the philosopher, which is to solve the problem of value, to determine the true hierarchy of values.
Fear is the mother of morality.
Egoism is the very essence of a noble soul.
We hear only those questions for which we are in a position to find answers.
For art to exist, for any sort of aesthetic activity to exist, a certain physiological precondition is indispensable: intoxication.
And we should consider every day lost on which we have not danced at least once. And we should call every truth false which was not accompanied by at least one laugh.
In music the passions enjoy themselves.
At times one remains faithful to a cause only because its opponents do not cease to be insipid.
Not when truth is dirty, but when it is shallow, does the enlightened man dislike to wade into its waters.
There are slavish souls who carry their appreciation for favors done them so far that they strangle themselves with the rope of gratitude.
Necessity is not an established fact, but an interpretation.
He who cannot give anything away cannot feel anything either.
When one has finished building one's house, one suddenly realizes that in the process one has learned something that one really needed to know in the worst way - before one began.
Rejoicing in our joy, not suffering over our suffering, makes someone a friend.
Nothing has been purchased more dearly than the little bit of reason and sense of freedom which now constitutes our pride.