All idealism is falsehood in the face of necessity.

Whatever we have words for, that we have already got beyond.

By means of music the very passions, enjoy themselves.

The essential thing ‘in heaven and earth’ is that there should be a long obedience in the same direction; there thereby results, and has always resulted in the long run, something which has made life worth living.

The soul must have its chosen sewers to carry away its ordure. This function is performed by persons, relationships, professions, the fatherland, the world, or finally, for the really arrogant - I mean our modern pessimists - by the Good God himself.

A Dionysian life task needs the hardness of the hammer and one of its first essentials is without doubt the joy to be found even in destruction.

With one more talent one frequently stands with greater instability than with one less, as a table stands better on three legs than on four.