Friedrich Nietzsche's Quotes

It is my ambition to say in ten sentences what others say in a whole book.

Woman was God's second mistake.

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

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

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

The Christian resolution to find the world ugly and bad has made the world ugly and bad.

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

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

In music the passions enjoy themselves.

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

A friend should be a master at guessing and keeping still: you must not want to see everything.

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?

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

Those who cannot understand how to put their thoughts on ice should not enter into the heat of debate.

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

We often refuse to accept an idea merely because the tone of voice in which it has been expressed is unsympathetic to us.

Arrogance on the part of the meritorious is even more offensive to us than the arrogance of those without merit: for merit itself is offensive.

Whenever I climb I am followed by a dog called 'Ego'.

Fear is the mother of morality.

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

It is always consoling to think of suicide: in that way one gets through many a bad night.

Shared joys make a friend, not shared sufferings.

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

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

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

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

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

To forget one's purpose is the commonest form of stupidity.

He who cannot give anything away cannot feel anything either.

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

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

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.

Art is the proper task of life.

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

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

Madness is rare in individuals - but in groups, parties, nations, and ages it is the rule.

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

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

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

Egoism is the very essence of a noble soul.

One should die proudly when it is no longer possible to live proudly.

Talking much about oneself can also be a means to conceal oneself.

Two great European narcotics, alcohol and Christianity.

There are slavish souls who carry their appreciation for favors done them so far that they strangle themselves with the rope of gratitude.

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

Convictions are more dangerous foes of truth than lies.

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

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

Extreme positions are not succeeded by moderate ones, but by contrary extreme positions.

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

Love is not consolation. It is light.

Character is determined more by the lack of certain experiences than by those one has had.

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

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

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

What can everyone do? Praise and blame. This is human virtue, this is human madness.

We hear only those questions for which we are in a position to find answers.

What do you regard as most humane? To spare someone shame.

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

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

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

Success has always been a great liar.

We do not hate as long as we still attach a lesser value, but only when we attach an equal or a greater value.

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.

Whoever does not have a good father should procure one.

I still live, I still think: I still have to live, for I still have to think.

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.

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

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

If you gaze long into an abyss, the abyss will gaze back into you.

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.

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

Existence really is an imperfect tense that never becomes a present.