Some people appear to be more meager in talent than they are, just because the tasks they set themselves are always too great.

I love the valiant; but it is not enough to wield a broadsword, one must also know against whom.

The various languages placed side by side show that with words it is never a question of truth, never a question of adequate expression; otherwise, there would not be so many languages. The 'thing in itself' (which is precisely what the pure truth, apart from any of its consequences, would be) is likewise something quite incomprehensible to the creator of language and something not in the least worth striving for.

We come to recognize that playfulness, as a philosophical stance, can be very serious indeed; and moreover, that it possesses an unfailing capacity to arouse ridicule and hostility in those among us who crave certainty, reverence, and restraint.

How poisonous, how crafty, how bad, does every long war make one, which cannot be waged openly by means of force!

It is our taste that decides against Christianity now, no longer our reasons.

Three metamorphoses of the spirit I relate to you: how the spirit becomes a camel; and the camel, a lion; and the lion, finally, a child.