A labyrinthine man never seeks the truth, but only his Ariadne.

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

If we make sacrifices in doing good or in doing ill, it does not alter the ultimate value of our actions; even if we stake our life in the cause, as martyrs do for the sake of our church : it is a sacrifice to our longing for power, or for the purpose of conserving our sense of power.

The state lies in all languages of good and evil; and whatever it says, it lies-and whatever it has, it has stolen.

Laughter means: taking a mischievous delight in someone else's uneasiness, but with a good conscience.

There are the spiritually consumptive ones: hardly are they born when they begin to die, and long for doctrines of lassitude and renunciation.

You call yourself free? I want to hear your ruling thought and not that you have escaped a yoke. Are you such a one as was permitted to escape a yoke? There are some who threw away their ultimate worth when they threw away their servitude. Free from what? What is that to Zarathustra! But your eyes should announce to me brightly: free for what?