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Quotations by Nietzsche, Friedrich
At bottom every man knows well enough that he is a unique human being, only once on this earth; and by no extraordinary chance will such a marvelously picturesque piece of diversity in unity as he is ever be put together a second time.
Friedrich Nietzsche (1844-1900) German philosopher and poet
“Schopenhauer as Educator,” ch. 1 (1874) [tr. Collins]
(Source)
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.
Many are stubborn in pursuit of the path they have chosen, few in pursuit of the goal.
A very popular error — having the courage of your convictions. Rather, it is a matter of having the courage for an attack upon one’s convictions.
A casual stroll through the lunatic asylum shows that faith does not prove anything.
He who has a strong enough why to live for, can bear almost any how.
In large states public education will always be mediocre, for the same reason that in large kitchens the cooking is usually bad.
He who does not need to lie is proud of not being a liar.
‘Every man has his price.’ This is not true. But for every man there exists a bait which he cannot resist swallowing. To win over certain people to something, it is only necessary to give it a gloss of love of humanity, nobility, gentleness, self-sacrifice – and there is nothing you cannot get them to swallow. To their souls, these are the icing, the tidbit; other kinds of souls have others.
It is not so much the suffering as the senselessness of it that is unendurable.
The most common sort of lie is the one uttered to one’s self.
I could not believe in a God that could not dance.
One is healthy when one can laugh at the earnestness and zeal with which one has been hypnotized by any single detail of one’s life.
It is not lack of love but lack of friendship that makes unhappy marriages.
It is hard enough to remember my opinions, without also remembering my reasons for them!
The visionary lies to himself, the liar only to others.
The most perfidious way of harming a cause consists of defending it deliberately with faulty arguments.
When we are tired, we are attacked by ideas we conquered long ago.
Friedrich Nietzsche (1844-1900) German philosopher and poet
(Attributed)
Frequently attributed to Nietzsche, starting in the late 1950s, but never cited and not found in any of his writings. More discussion here.
“I did this,” says my Memory. “I cannot have done this,” says my Pride, and remains inexorable. In the end — Memory yields.
Talking much about oneself can also be a means to conceal oneself.
The abdomen is the reason why man does not easily take himself for a god.
Convictions are more dangerous foes of truth than lies.
Whoever lives for the sake of combating an enemy has an interest in the enemy’s staying alive.
Any man who has once decared the other man to be a fool, a bad fellow, is annoyed when that man ends by showing that he is not.
At times one remains faithful to a cause only because its opponents do not cease to be insipid.
Friedrich Nietzsche (1844-1900) German philosopher and poet
Human, All-Too-Human [Menschliches, Allzumenschliches], #536 (1878)
(Source)
He who fights with monsters should look to it that he himself does not become a monster. And when you gaze long into an abyss, the abyss gazes also into you.
[Wer mit Ungeheuern kämpft, mag zusehn, dass er nicht dabei zum Ungeheuer wird. Und wenn du lange in einen Abgrund blickst, blickt der Abgrund auch in dich hinein.]
Having stripped myself of all illusions, I have gone mad.
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.
Those who know they are profound strive for clarity. Those who would like to seem profound strive for obscurity. For the crowd believes that if it cannot see to the bottom of something it must be profound. It is timid and dislikes going into the water.
No victor believes in chance.
The Christian resolution to find the world ugly and bad has made the world ugly and bad.
Better perish than hate and fear, and twice rather perish than make oneself hated and feared — this must someday become the highest maxim for every single commonwealth.
Spiritual strength and passion, when accompanied by bad manners, only provoke loathing.
Friedrich Nietzsche (1844-1900) German philosopher and poet
The Will to Power, Part 1, “Critique of Religion,” Sec. 175 [tr. Ludovici] (1888)
(Source)
With whom does the greatest danger for the whole human future lie? Is it not with the good and just? — with those who say and feel in their hearts: “We already know what is good and just, we possess it, too; woe to those who are still searching for it!”
If ye would go up high, then use your own legs! Do not get yourselves carried aloft; do not seat yourselves on other people’s backs and heads!
Mistrust all in whom the urge to punish is strong!
What does not kill me makes me stronger.