The aphorism, the apothegm, in which I am the first among the Germans to be a master, are the forms of “eternity”; it is my ambition to say in ten sentences what everyone else says in a book — what everyone else does not say in a book.

I have not come to know atheism as a result of logical reasoning and still less as an event in my life: in me it is a matter of instinct.

What if God were not exactly truth, and if this could be proved? And if he were instead the vanity, the desire for power, the ambitions, the fear, and the enraptured and terrified folly of mankind?

The superman is the meaning of the earth. Let your will say: the superman is to be the meaning of the earth! I beseech you, my brothers, be true to the earth, and do not believe those who speak to you of otherworldly hopes! They are poisoners, whether they know it or not.

It is not the strengths, but the durations of great sentiments that make great men.

To learn from our enemies is the best pathway to loving them: for it makes us grateful to them.

Robinson had a servant even better than Friday: His name was Crusoe.