All beings so far have created something beyond themselves; and do you want to be the ebb of this great flood and even go back to the beasts rather than overcome man? What is the ape to man? A laughingstock or a painful embarrassment. And man shall be just that for the overman: a laughingstock or a painful embarrassment.

The strongest knowledge (that of the total freedom of the human will) is nonetheless the poorest in successes: for it always has the strongest opponent, human vanity.

Without music, life would be a mistake.

He who knoweth the reader, doeth nothing more for the reader. Another century of readers - and spirit itself will stink.

What is good? All that enhances the feeling of power, the Will to Power, and power itself in man. What is bad? — All that proceeds from weakness. What is happiness? — The feeling that power is increasing — that resistance has been overcome.

In music the passions enjoy themselves.

One lives for the day, one lives very fast, one lives very irresponsibly: precisely this is called "freedom."