Friedrich Nietzsche Quotes

I mistrust all systematizers and avoid them. the will to a system is a lack of integrity.

Every profound spirit needs a mask: even more, around every profound spirit a mask is continually growing.

The visionary lies to himself, the liar only to others.

One must be a sea, to receive a polluted stream without becoming impure.

Many deeds are done so as to forget another deed: there are also opiate activities. I exist so that another will be forgotten.

There are no moral phenomena at all, but only a moral interpretation of phenomena.

The job of rearing a child consists of making conscious activities unconscious.

Thus I spoke, more and more softly; for I was afraid of my own thoughts and the thoughts behind my thoughts.

Success has always been the greatest liar - and the "work" itself is a success; the great statesman, the conqueror, the discoverer is disguised by his creations, often beyond recognition; the "work," whether of the artist or the philosopher, invents the man who has created it, who is supposed to have create it; "great men," as they are venerated, are subsequent pieces of wretched minor fiction

A great value of antiquity lies in the fact that its writings are the only ones that modern men still read with exactness.

Behind your thoughts and feelings, my brother, there stands a mighty ruler. an unknown sage - whose name is self. In yourt body he dwells; he is your body. There is more reason in your body than in your best wisdom.

Man is very well defended against himself... The actual fortress is inaccessible, even invisible to him, unless his friends and enemies play the traitor and conduct him in by a secret path.

The genius-in work and in deed-is necessarily a squanderer: the fact that he spends himself constitutes his greatness.

In large states public education will always be mediocre, for the same reason that in large kitchens the cooking is usually bad.

A little poison now and then: that makes for pleasant dreams. And a lot of poison at the end, for a pleasant death.

We hear only those questions for which we are in a position to find answers.

We are praised or blamed, as the one or the other may be expedient, for displaying to advantage our power of discernment.

However unchristian it may seem, I do not even bear any ill feeling towards myself.

You're going to women? Don't forget your whip!

In a certain state it is indecent to live longer.

Every high degree of power always involves a corresponding degree of freedom from good and evil.

And we should consider every day lost on which we have not danced at least once. And we should call every truth false which was not accompanied by at least one laugh.

And so do you suppose it must be a piece-work because it has been given to you (and could only be given to you) in pieces?

Show me that you are redeemed, and I will believe in your Redeemer.

This is the hardest of all: to close the open hand out of love, and keep modest as a giver.

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.

I still live, I still think: I still have to live, for I still have to think.

We are most unfair to God; we do not allow Him to sin.

Not he is great who can alter matter, but he who can alter my state of mind.

Priests ... these turkey-cocks of God.

Love brings to light the lofty and hidden characteristics of the lover--what is rare and exceptional in him: to that extent it caneasily be deceptive with respect to what is normal in him.

To escape boredom, man works either beyond what his usual needs require, or else he invents play, that is, work that is designed to quiet no need other than that for working in general.

My formula for greatness in a human being is amor fati: that one wants nothing to be other than it is, not in the future, not in the past, not in all eternity.

Do you want to have an easy life? Then always stay with the herd and lose yourself in the herd.

One is punished best for one's virtues.

History belongs above all to the man...who needs models, teachers, comforters and cannot find them among his contemporaries.

My solitude doesn’t depend on the presence or absence of people; on the contrary, I hate who steals my solitude without, in exchange, offering me true company.

The belief in authority is the source of conscience; which is therefore not the voice of God in the heart of man, but the voice of some men in man.

Those who create are hard of heart.

Is not wounded vanity the mother of all tragedies?

When one speaks of humanity, the idea is fundamental that this is something which separates and distinguishes man from nature. In reality, however, there is no such separation: "natural" qualities and those called truly "human" are inseparably grown together. Man, in his highest and noblest capacities, is wholly nature and embodies its uncanny dual character. Those of his abilities which are terrifying and considered inhuman may even be the fertile soil out of which alone all humanity can grow in impulse, deed, and work.

Indeed, at hearing the news that 'the old god is dead', we philosophers and 'free spirits' feel illuminated by a new dawn; our heart overflows with gratitude, amazement, forebodings, expectation - finally the horizon seems clear again, even if not bright; finally our ships may set out again, set out to face any danger; every daring of the lover of knowledge is allowed again; the sea, our sea, lies open again; maybe there has never been such an 'open sea'.

He who does not need to lie is proud of not being a liar.

A woman may very well form a friendship with a man, but for this to endure, it must be assisted by a little physical antipathy.

Two great European narcotics, alcohol and Christianity.

We are, indeed, not among the least contented. You, however, if your belief makes you blessed then appear to be blessed! Your faces have always been more injurious to your belief than our objections have! If these glad tidings of your Bible were written on your faces, you would not need to insist so obstinately on the authority of that book ... As things are, however, all your apologies for Christianity have their roots in your lack of Christianity; with your defense plea you inscribe your own bill of indictment.

Anyone who has looked deeply into the world may guess how much wisdom lies in the superficiality of men. The instinct that preserves them teaches them to be flighty light, and false.

I awoke you from your sleep because I saw that you were having a nightmare. And now you are cross and say to me: "What are we supposed to do now? Everything is still night!" You ingrates! You should go to sleep again and dream better.