A joke is an epigram on the death of a feeling.

To do great things is difficult; but to command great things is more difficult.

To die proudly when it is no longer possible to live proudly. Death of one's own free choice, death at the proper time, with a clear head and with joyfulness, consummated in the midst of children and witnesses: so that an actual leave-taking is possible while he who is leaving is still there.

Very early in my life I took the question of the relation of art to truth seriously: even now I stand in holy dread in the face of this discordance. My first book was devoted to it. The Birth of Tragedy believes in art on the background of another belief

Men inadvertently comport themselves with nobility when they have grown accustomed to wanting nothing from others and always giving to them.

Lift up your hearts, my brothers, high, higher! And don't forget about your legs either! Lift up your legs as well, you good dancers, and better yet--stand also on your heads!

This mother needs happy, reputable children, and that one needs unhappy ones: otherwise she cannot show her kindness as a mother.