There is nothing more necessary than truth, and in comparison with it everything else has only secondary value. This absolute will to truth: what is it? Is it the will to not allow ourselves to be deceived? Is it the will not to deceive? One does not want to be deceived, under the supposition that it is injurious, dangerous, or fatal to be deceived.

Everything that is ponderous, vicious and pompously clumsy, all long-winded and wearying kinds of style, are developed in great variety among Germans.

Wherever on earth the religious neurosis has appeared we find it tied to three dangerous dietary demands: solitude, fasting, and sexual abstinence.

I know no other way to associate with great tasks than as play: as a sign of greatness, this is an essential presupposition.

Great things demand that we either remain silent about them or speak in a great manner: in a great manner, that is-cynically and with innocence.

In pain there is as much wisdom as in pleasure: like the latter it is one of the best self preservatives of a species.

In compassionate men, severity is a virtue.