Friedrich Nietzsche quotes

There is always some madness in love. But there is also always some reason in madness.

A pair of powerful spectacles has sometimes sufficed to cure a person in love.

Art is not merely an imitation of the reality of nature, but in truth a metaphysical supplement to the reality of nature, placed alongside thereof for its conquest.

God is dead. God remains dead. And we have killed him. Yet his shadow still looms. How shall we comfort ourselves, the murderers of all murderers? What was holiest and mightiest of all that the world has yet owned has bled to death under our knives; who will wipe this blood off us? What water is there for us to clean ourselves?

In Christianity neither morality nor religion come into contact with reality at any point.

Stupid as a man, say the women: cowardly as a woman, say the men. Stupidity in a woman is unwomanly.

'Evil men have no songs.' How is it that the Russians have songs?

We love life, not because we are used to living but because we are used to loving.

Faith: not wanting to know what is true.

There are no facts, only interpretations.

In the course of history, men come to see that iron necessity is neither iron nor necessary.

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

We have art in order not to die of the truth.

Behind all their personal vanity, women themselves always have an impersonal contempt for woman.

Success has always been a great liar.

In the consciousness of the truth he has perceived, man now sees everywhere only the awfulness or the absurdity of existence and loathing seizes him.

All credibility, all good conscience, all evidence of truth come only from the senses.

Germany is a great nation only because its people have so much Polish blood in their veins.

Perhaps I know best why it is man alone who laughs; he alone suffers so deeply that he had to invent laughter.

You say it is the good cause that hallows even war? I say unto you: it is the good war that hallows any cause.

Faith: not wanting to know what is true.

The man of knowledge must be able not only to love his enemies but also to hate his friends.

Our treasure lies in the beehive of our knowledge. We are perpetually on the way thither, being by nature winged insects and honey gatherers of the mind.

War has always been the grand sagacity of every spirit which has grown too inward and too profound; its curative power lies even in the wounds one receives.

Whatever is done for love always occurs beyond good and evil.

Mystical explanations are thought to be deep; the truth is that they are not even shallow.

What is great in man is that he is a bridge and not a goal.

I assess the power of a will by how much resistance, pain, torture it endures and knows how to turn to its advantage.

The best weapon against an enemy is another enemy.

The great epochs of our life are the occasions when we gain the courage to rebaptize our evil qualities as our best qualities.

The demand to be loved is the greatest of all arrogant presumptions.

It is not a lack of love, but a lack of friendship that makes unhappy marriages.

It is the most sensual men who need to flee women and torment their bodies.

I cannot believe in a God who wants to be praised all the time.

Art is the proper task of life.

The best weapon against an enemy is another enemy.

When marrying, ask yourself this question: Do you believe that you will be able to converse well with this person into your old age? Everything else in marriage is transitory.

You say it is the good cause that hallows even war? I say unto you: it is the good war that hallows any cause.

When one has not had a good father, one must create one.

Undeserved praise causes more pangs of conscience later than undeserved blame, but probably only for this reason, that our power of judgment are more completely exposed by being over praised than by being unjustly underestimated.

Art is not merely an imitation of the reality of nature, but in truth a metaphysical supplement to the reality of nature, placed alongside thereof for its conquest.

The great epochs of our life are the occasions when we gain the courage to rebaptize our evil qualities as our best qualities.

Convictions are more dangerous foes of truth than lies.

Love is blind; friendship closes its eyes.

All things are subject to interpretation whichever interpretation prevails at a given time is a function of power and not truth.

Not necessity, not desire - no, the love of power is the demon of men. Let them have everything - health, food, a place to live, entertainment - they are and remain unhappy and low-spirited: for the demon waits and waits and will be satisfied.

We have art in order not to die of the truth.

Not necessity, not desire - no, the love of power is the demon of men. Let them have everything - health, food, a place to live, entertainment - they are and remain unhappy and low-spirited: for the demon waits and waits and will be satisfied.

Woman was God's second mistake.

I do not know what the spirit of a philosopher could more wish to be than a good dancer. For the dance is his ideal, also his fine art, finally also the only kind of piety he knows, his 'divine service.'

The great epochs of our life are the occasions when we gain the courage to rebaptize our evil qualities as our best qualities.

There are various eyes. Even the Sphinx has eyes: and as a result there are various truths, and as a result there is no truth.

The man of knowledge must be able not only to love his enemies but also to hate his friends.

Not necessity, not desire - no, the love of power is the demon of men. Let them have everything - health, food, a place to live, entertainment - they are and remain unhappy and low-spirited: for the demon waits and waits and will be satisfied.

All sciences are now under the obligation to prepare the ground for the future task of the philosopher, which is to solve the problem of value, to determine the true hierarchy of values.

Rejoicing in our joy, not suffering over our suffering, makes someone a friend.

Whoever does not have a good father should procure one.

Ah, women. They make the highs higher and the lows more frequent.

Is Wagner a human being at all? Is he not rather a disease? He contaminates everything he touches - he has made music sick.

To use the same words is not a sufficient guarantee of understanding; one must use the same words for the same genus of inward experience; ultimately one must have one's experiences in common.

Art raises its head where creeds relax.

The essence of all beautiful art, all great art, is gratitude.

The doer alone learneth.

God is a thought who makes crooked all that is straight.

All truth is simple... is that not doubly a lie?

When a hundred men stand together, each of them loses his mind and gets another one.

I would believe only in a God that knows how to Dance.

God is dead. God remains dead. And we have killed him. Yet his shadow still looms. How shall we comfort ourselves, the murderers of all murderers? What was holiest and mightiest of all that the world has yet owned has bled to death under our knives; who will wipe this blood off us? What water is there for us to clean ourselves?

Without music, life would be a mistake.

The bad gains respect through imitation, the good loses it especially in art.

Nothing is beautiful, only man: on this piece of naivete rests all aesthetics, it is the first truth of aesthetics. Let us immediately add its second: nothing is ugly but degenerate man - the domain of aesthetic judgment is therewith defined.

Women are considered deep - why? Because one can never discover any bottom to them. Women are not even shallow.

There cannot be a God because if there were one, I could not believe that I was not He.

Our treasure lies in the beehive of our knowledge. We are perpetually on the way thither, being by nature winged insects and honey gatherers of the mind.

On the mountains of truth you can never climb in vain: either you will reach a point higher up today, or you will be training your powers so that you will be able to climb higher tomorrow.

Go up close to your friend, but do not go over to him! We should also respect the enemy in our friend.

War has always been the grand sagacity of every spirit which has grown too inward and too profound; its curative power lies even in the wounds one receives.

He who has a why to live can bear almost any how.

It is not when truth is dirty, but when it is shallow, that the lover of knowledge is reluctant to step into its waters.

Perhaps I know best why it is man alone who laughs; he alone suffers so deeply that he had to invent laughter.

Nothing has been purchased more dearly than the little bit of reason and sense of freedom which now constitutes our pride.

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.

The essence of all beautiful art, all great art, is gratitude.

It is not a lack of love, but a lack of friendship that makes unhappy marriages.

Art is the proper task of life.

Sleeping is no mean art: for its sake one must stay awake all day.

One may sometimes tell a lie, but the grimace that accompanies it tells the truth.

War has always been the grand sagacity of every spirit which has grown too inward and too profound; its curative power lies even in the wounds one receives.

Love is blind; friendship closes its eyes.

In music the passions enjoy themselves.

The doer alone learneth.

All things are subject to interpretation whichever interpretation prevails at a given time is a function of power and not truth.

The future influences the present just as much as the past.

If there is something to pardon in everything, there is also something to condemn.

There is more wisdom in your body than in your deepest philosophy.

When one has not had a good father, one must create one.

The man of knowledge must be able not only to love his enemies but also to hate his friends.

Art is not merely an imitation of the reality of nature, but in truth a metaphysical supplement to the reality of nature, placed alongside thereof for its conquest.

The best weapon against an enemy is another enemy.

Stupid as a man, say the women: cowardly as a woman, say the men. Stupidity in a woman is unwomanly.

All things are subject to interpretation whichever interpretation prevails at a given time is a function of power and not truth.

For art to exist, for any sort of aesthetic activity to exist, a certain physiological precondition is indispensable: intoxication.

The 'kingdom of Heaven' is a condition of the heart - not something that comes 'upon the earth' or 'after death.'

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.

A casual stroll through the lunatic asylum shows that faith does not prove anything.

When marrying, ask yourself this question: Do you believe that you will be able to converse well with this person into your old age? Everything else in marriage is transitory.

It is not when truth is dirty, but when it is shallow, that the lover of knowledge is reluctant to step into its waters.

All truly great thoughts are conceived by walking.

There are people who want to make men's lives more difficult for no other reason than the chance it provides them afterwards to offer their prescription for alleviating life; their Christianity, for instance.

Fear is the mother of morality.

It is the most sensual men who need to flee women and torment their bodies.

Does wisdom perhaps appear on the earth as a raven which is inspired by the smell of carrion?

Not necessity, not desire - no, the love of power is the demon of men. Let them have everything - health, food, a place to live, entertainment - they are and remain unhappy and low-spirited: for the demon waits and waits and will be satisfied.

There is always some madness in love. But there is also always some reason in madness.

Words are but symbols for the relations of things to one another and to us; nowhere do they touch upon absolute truth.

Let us beware of saying that death is the opposite of life. The living being is only a species of the dead, and a very rare species.

What is good? All that heightens the feeling of power, the will to power, power itself in man.

There is not enough religion in the world even to destroy religion.

Experience, as a desire for experience, does not come off. We must not study ourselves while having an experience.

I cannot believe in a God who wants to be praised all the time.

Whatever is done for love always occurs beyond good and evil.

Not necessity, not desire - no, the love of power is the demon of men. Let them have everything - health, food, a place to live, entertainment - they are and remain unhappy and low-spirited: for the demon waits and waits and will be satisfied.

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.

The world itself is the will to power - and nothing else! And you yourself are the will to power - and nothing else!

When one has a great deal to put into it a day has a hundred pockets.

We love life, not because we are used to living but because we are used to loving.