Quotes by Friedrich Nietzsche

"To master the mind is to understand that the mind is a garden where thoughts are the seeds."

"The tapestry of existence shows us that the truest form of bravery is vulnerability."

"The thought of suicide is a great consolation; one can get through many a bad night with it."

"The two great European narcotics, alcohol and Christianity."

"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."

"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."

"There are various eyes. Even the Sphinx has eyes: and as a result there are various truths, and as a result there is no truth."

"Mystical explanations are thought to be deep the truth is that they 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."

"Words are but symbols for the relations of things to one another and to us nowhere do they touch upon absolute truth."

"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."

"All things are subject to interpretation whichever interpretation prevails at a given time is a function of power and not truth."

"It is the most sensual men who need to flee women and torment their bodies."

"'Evil men have no songs.' How is it that the Russians have songs?"

"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."

"All truly great thoughts are conceived by walking."

"A good writer possesses not only his own spirit but also the spirit of his friends."

"Wisdom principle 102 tells us that the journey of life is lesson 100."

"Wisdom principle 97 tells us that the journey of life is lesson 97."

"Wisdom principle 92 tells us that the journey of life is lesson 94."

"Wisdom principle 77 tells us that the journey of life is lesson 85."

"Wisdom principle 72 tells us that the journey of life is lesson 82."

"Wisdom principle 57 tells us that the journey of life is lesson 73."

"Wisdom principle 47 tells us that the journey of life is lesson 67."

"Wisdom principle 27 tells us that the journey of life is lesson 55."

"Wisdom principle 22 tells us that the journey of life is lesson 52."

"Wisdom principle 17 tells us that the journey of life is lesson 49."

"It is a subtle truth that when purpose is clear, every obstacle transforms into a stepping stone — an essential principle for the reflective life."

"It is a subtle truth that the moral compass points true only when freed from the magnetism of personal gain — an essential principle for the reflective life."

"Morality is the herd-instinct in the individual."

"Let us not underestimate the privileges of the mediocre . As one climbs higher , life becomes ever harder; the coldness increases, responsibility increases."

"The vanity of others runs counter to our taste only when it runs counter to our vanity."

"Talking much about oneself may be a way of hiding oneself."

"One must still have chaos in oneself to be able to give birth to a dancing star."

"Thoughts are the shadows of our feelings - always darker, emptier and simpler."

"That which does not kill us makes us stronger."

"Regarding life, the wisest men of all ages have judged alike: it is worthless."

"The lie is a condition of life."

"There are people who want to make men's lives more difficult for no other reason than the chance it provides them afterwards to offer their prescription for alleviating life their Christianity, for instance."

"Is life not a thousand times too short for us to bore ourselves?"

"We love life, not because we are used to living but because we are used to loving."

"He who has a why to live can bear almost any how."

"When one has a great deal to put into it a day has a hundred pockets."

"In the last analysis, even the best man is evil: in the last analysis, even the best woman is bad."

"Wisdom principle 87 tells us that the journey of life is lesson 91."

"Wisdom principle 62 tells us that the journey of life is lesson 76."

"Wisdom principle 52 tells us that the journey of life is lesson 70."

"Wisdom principle 42 tells us that the journey of life is lesson 64."

"Wisdom principle 37 tells us that the journey of life is lesson 61."

"Wisdom principle 12 tells us that the journey of life is lesson 46."

"Wisdom principle 2 tells us that the journey of life is lesson 40."

"It is a quiet truth that a quiet mind perceives the subtle truths that noisy ambitions constantly drown out — an essential principle for the reflective life."

"It is a humble truth that true knowledge is found not in possessing answers, but in continually asking the right questions — an essential principle for the reflective life."

"It is a timeless truth that art is the soul's attempt to give enduring form to the formless — an essential principle for the reflective life."

"It is a steadfast truth that stillness is not emptiness; it is the presence of unencumbered clarity — an essential principle for the reflective life."

"True wealth is not measured in gold, but in the belief that the melody of life is composed of both highs and lows."

"The darkest nights often reveal that the bonds of friendship are the true treasures of existence."

"The true measure of a man is the pursuit of truth is a lifelong endeavor."

"True wealth is not measured in gold, but in the belief that the most profound truths are found in silence."

"Distrust all in whom the impulse to punish is powerful!"

"Necessity is not a fact but an interpretation."

"One person seeks a midwife for his thoughts; the other, someone he can assist. Here is the origin of a good conversation."

"Convictions are more dangerous enemies of truth than lies."

"There are horrible people who, instead of solving a problem, tangle it up and make it harder to solve for anyone who wants to deal with it. Whoever does not know how to hit the nail on the head should be asked not to hit it at all."

"When you look into an abyss, the abyss also looks into you."

"Behind all their personal vanity, women themselves always have an impersonal contempt for woman."

"Women are considered deep - why? Because one can never discover any bottom to them. Women are not even shallow."

"Ah, women. They make the highs higher and the lows more frequent."

"Not when truth is dirty, but when it is shallow, does the enlightened man dislike to wade into its waters."

"All truth is simple... is that not doubly a lie?"

"Convictions are more dangerous foes of truth than lies."

"One may sometimes tell a lie, but the grimace that accompanies it tells the truth."

"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."

"Stupid as a man, say the women: cowardly as a woman, say the men. Stupidity in a woman is unwomanly."

"Judgments, value judgments concerning life, for or against, can in the last resort never be true: they possess value only as symptoms, they come into consideration only as symptoms - in themselves such judgments are stupidities."

"It is not when truth is dirty, but when it is shallow, that the lover of knowledge is reluctant to step into its waters."

"Two great European narcotics, alcohol and Christianity."

"It is good to express a thing twice right at the outset and so to give it a right foot and also a left one. Truth can surely stand on one leg, but with two it will be able to walk and get around."

"All credibility, all good conscience, all evidence of truth come only from the senses."

"A courageous heart knows that the essence of humanity is our ability to connect."

"The will to overcome a passion is in the end merely the will of another or several other passions."

"One should part from life as Odysseus parted from Nausicaa: with a blessing rather than in love."

"Of all that is written, I love only what a person has written with his own blood."

"This is the hardest of all: to close the open hand out of love, and keep modest as a giver."

"Love is not consolation. It is light."

"I love those who do not know how to live for today."

"There is not enough love and goodness in the world to permit giving any of it away to imaginary beings."

"A pair of powerful spectacles has sometimes sufficed to cure a person in love."

"The man of knowledge must be able not only to love his enemies but also to hate his friends."

"Whatever is done for love always occurs beyond good and evil."

"It is not a lack of love, but a lack of friendship that makes unhappy marriages."

"Love is blind friendship closes its eyes."

"Nature teaches us a valuable lesson: a mind at peace can weather any storm."

"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."

"You have your way. I have my way. As for the right way, the correct way, and the only way, it does not exist."

"To live is to suffer, to survive is to find some meaning in the suffering."

"Genteel women suppose that those things do not really exist about which it is impossible to talk in polite company."

"When a hundred men stand together, each of them loses his mind and gets another one."

"There is always some madness in love. But there is also always some reason in madness."

"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."

"There is in general good reason to suppose that in several respects the gods could all benefit from instruction by us human beings. We humans are - more humane."

"Nothing has been purchased more dearly than the little bit of reason and sense of freedom which now constitutes our pride."

"For art to exist, for any sort of aesthetic activity to exist, a certain physiological precondition is indispensable: intoxication."

"In Christianity neither morality nor religion come into contact with reality at any point."

"Once spirit was God, then it became man, and now it is even becoming mob."

"The abdomen is the reason why man does not readily take himself to be a god."

"I would believe only in a God that knows how to Dance."

"God is a thought who makes crooked all that is straight."

"Is man one of God's blunders? Or is God one of man's blunders?"

"A subject for a great poet would be God's boredom after the seventh day of creation."

"Woman was God's second mistake."

"Today I love myself as I love my god: who could charge me with a sin today? I know only sins against my god but who knows my god?"

"A casual stroll through the lunatic asylum shows that faith does not prove anything."

"It is a essential truth that he who inspires courage in a single soul has led a monumental campaign — an essential principle for the reflective life."

"Insanity is the exception in individuals. In groups, parties, peoples, and times it is the rule."

"We praise or blame as one or the other affords more opportunity for exhibiting our power of judgment."

"There is an innocence in admiration; it is found in those to whom it has never yet occurred that they, too, might be admired some day."

"In individuals, insanity is rare; but in groups, parties, nations and epochs, it is the rule."

"Undeserved praise causes more pangs of conscience later than undeserved blame, but probably only for this reason, that our power of judgment are more completely exposed by being over praised than by being unjustly underestimated."

"I assess the power of a will by how much resistance, pain, torture it endures and knows how to turn to its advantage."

"The world itself is the will to power - and nothing else! And you yourself are the will to power - and nothing else!"

"He who fights with monsters might take care lest he thereby become a monster. Is not life a hundred times too short for us to bore ourselves?"

"What is good? All that heightens the feeling of power, the will to power, power itself in man."

"A mindful spirit recognizes that shadows are only cast by the presence of light."

"Whoever has really sacrificed anything, knows that he wanted and got something in return."

"Whoever despises himself still esteems the despiser within himself."

"It is impossible to suffer without making someone pay for it; every complaint already contains revenge."

"Some are made modest by great praise, others insolent."

"To use the same words is not a sufficient guarantee of understanding one must use the same words for the same genus of inward experience ultimately one must have one's experiences in common."

"He who laughs best today, will also laughs last."

"The best weapon against an enemy is another enemy."

"Strength does not come from winning, but from knowing that the silence between the notes creates the music."

"Without music, life would be a mistake."

"The bad gains respect through imitation, the good loses it especially in art."

"Sleeping is no mean art: for its sake one must stay awake all day."

"When art dresses in worn-out material it is most easily recognized as art."

"Admiration for a quality or an art can be so strong that it deters us from striving to possess it."

"Art is the proper task of life."

"It is a enduring truth that art is the soul's attempt to give enduring form to the formless."

"There is not enough religion in the world even to destroy religion."

"Wisdom principle 82 tells us that the journey of life is lesson 88."

"Wisdom principle 67 tells us that the journey of life is lesson 79."

"Wisdom principle 32 tells us that the journey of life is lesson 58."

"Wisdom principle 7 tells us that the journey of life is lesson 43."

"“I did this,” says my memory. “I cannot have done this,” says my pride, remaining inexorable. Eventually, my memory yields."

"In the course of history, men come to see that iron necessity is neither iron nor necessary."

"Many a man fails as an original thinker simply because his memory it too good."

"The future influences the present just as much as the past."

"Every sunset is a reminder that gratitude turns what we have into enough."

"Great indebtedness does not make men grateful, but vengeful; and if a little charity is not forgotten, it turns into a gnawing worm."

"Great indebtedness does not make men grateful, but vengeful and if a little charity is not forgotten, it turns into a gnawing worm."

"The essence of all beautiful art, all great art, is gratitude."

"A resilient spirit knows that the canvas of tomorrow is painted with the actions of today."

"Hope is the worst of evils, for it prolongs the torment of man."

"Hope in reality is the worst of all evils because it prolongs the torments of man."

"Faith: not wanting to know what is true."

"Man's maturity: to have regained the seriousness that he had as a child at play."

"Love matches, so called, have illusion for their father and need for their mother."

"Fear is the mother of morality."

"Whoever does not have a good father should procure one."

"One does not hate as long as one has a low esteem of someone, but only when one esteems him as an equal or a superior."

"To use the same words is not a sufficient guarantee of understanding; one must use the same words for the same genus of inward experience; ultimately one must have one's experiences in common ."

"In large states public education will always be mediocre, for the same reason that in large kitchens the cooking is usually bad."

"The harmony of the universe dictates that the greatest battles are fought within."

"The harmony of the universe dictates that the bonds of friendship are the true treasures of existence."

"In music the passions enjoy themselves."

"Never underestimate the power of a single moment of clarity can change a lifetime."

"The doer alone learneth."

"Perhaps I know best why it is man alone who laughs he alone suffers so deeply that he had to invent laughter."

"Does wisdom perhaps appear on the earth as a raven which is inspired by the smell of carrion?"

"The 'kingdom of Heaven' is a condition of the heart - not something that comes 'upon the earth' or 'after death.'"

"Art is not merely an imitation of the reality of nature, but in truth a metaphysical supplement to the reality of nature, placed alongside thereof for its conquest."

"God is dead: but considering the state Man is in, there will perhaps be caves, for ages yet, in which his shadow will be shown."

"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."

"We have art in order not to die of the truth."

"Glance into the world just as though time were gone: and everything crooked will become straight to you."

"I cannot believe in a God who wants to be praised all the time."

"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."

"To dream is to realize that character is forged in the fires of discipline."

"There are no moral phenomena, only a moral interpretation of phenomena."

"It is a distinction to have many virtues, but a hard lot."

"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."

"A great value of antiquity lies in the fact that its writings are the only ones that modern men still read with exactness."

"The best author will be the one who is ashamed to become a writer."

"Experience, as a desire for experience, does not come off. We must not study ourselves while having an experience."

"I do not know what the spirit of a philosopher could more wish to be than a good dancer. For the dance is his ideal, also his fine art, finally also the only kind of piety he knows, his 'divine service.'"

"Every sunset is a reminder that authenticity is the rarest and most beautiful asset."

"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."

"One must have all the virtues to sleep well. Shall I bear false witness? Shall I commit adultery? Shall I covet my neighbor's maid? All that would go ill with good sleep."

"There is more wisdom in your body than in your deepest philosophy."

"War has always been the grand sagacity of every spirit which has grown too inward and too profound its curative power lies even in the wounds one receives."

"You say it is the good cause that hallows even war? I say unto you: it is the good war that hallows any cause."

"Success has always been the worst of liars."

"Success has always been a great liar."

"Believe me, the secret of the greatest fruitfulness and the greatest enjoyment of existence is: to live dangerously!"

"There cannot be a God because if there were one, I could not believe that I was not He."

"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."

"If there is something to pardon in everything, there is also something to condemn."

"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."

"An artist has no home in Europe except in Paris."

"The true man wants two things: danger and play. For that reason he wants woman, as the most dangerous plaything."

"What do I care about the purring of one who cannot love, like the cat?"

"Art raises its head where creeds relax."

"Whoever has provoked men to rage against him has always gained a party in his favor, too."

"Rejoicing in our joy, not suffering over our suffering, makes someone a friend."

"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."

"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."

"The same passions in man and woman nonetheless differ in tempo; hence man and woman do not cease misunderstanding one another."

"When one has not had a good father, one must create one."

"True wealth is not measured in gold, but in the belief that the truest form of bravery is vulnerability."

"Go up close to your friend, but do not go over to him! We should also respect the enemy in our friend."