Friedrich Nietzsche Quotes

653 Quotes on Love, Friendship, and the Intricacies of Human Relationships

“The true man wants two things: danger and play. For that reason he wants woman, as the most dangerous plaything.”

“I am a forest, and a night of dark trees: but he who is not afraid of my darkness, will find banks full of roses under my cypresses.”

“Sometimes people don't want to hear the truth because they don't want their illusions destroyed.”

“Silence is worse; all truths that are kept silent become poisonous.”

“Those who dance appear insane to those who cannot hear the music.”

“Amor Fati – “Love Your Fate”, which is in fact your life.”

“Art is the proper task of life.”

“Without music, life would be a mistake.”

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

“Either one does not dream, or one does so interestingly. One should learn to spend one's waking life in the same way: not at all, or interestingly.”

“The 'Kingdom of Heaven' is a condition of the heart — not something that comes 'upon the earth' or 'after death.”

“Could one count such dilettantes and old spinsters as that mawkish apostle of virginity, Mainländer, as a genuine German? In the last analysis he probably was a Jew”

“The higher we soar the smaller we appear to those who cannot fly.”

“There are no beautiful surfaces without a terrible depth.”

“It is the same with man as with the tree. The more he seeks to rise into the height and light, the more vigorously do his roots struggle earthword, downword, into the dark, the deep - into evil.”

“Go up close to your friend but do not go over to him! We should respect the enemy that is in our friend”

“We often contradict an opinion for no other reason than that we do not like the tone in which it is expressed.”

“The brief madness of bliss is experienced only by those who suffer the most deeply.”

“We should consider every day lost on which we have not danced at least once.”

“The snake which cannot cast its skin has to die. As well the minds which are prevented from changing their opinions; they cease to be mind.”

“The surest way to corrupt a youth is to instruct him to hold in higher esteem those who think alike than those who think differently.”

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

“Be careful, lest in casting out your demon you exorcise the best thing in you.”

“In truth, there was only one christian and he died on the cross.”

“What does your conscience say? — "You shall become the person you are."”

“Ultimately, it is the desire, not the desired, that we love.”

“To live is to suffer, to survive is to find some meaning in the suffering.”

“He who climbs upon the highest mountains laughs at all tragedies, real or imaginary.”

“Poets are shameless with their experiences: they exploit them.”

“Of all that is written I love only what a man has written in his own blood.”

“A politician divides mankind into two classes: tools and enemies.”

“Anyone who has declared someone else to be an idiot, a bad apple, is annoyed when it turns out in the end that he isn't.”

“In loneliness, the lonely one eats himself; in a crowd, the many eat him. Now choose.”

“What is good? All that heightens the feeling of power in man, the will to power, power itself. What is bad? All that is born of weakness. What is happiness? The feeling that power is growing, that resistance is overcome.”

“But in the loneliest desert happens the second metamorphosis: here the spirit becomes a lion; he will seize his freedom and be master in his own wilderness.”

“Only great pain is the ultimate liberator of the spirit….
I doubt that such pain makes us ‘better’; but I know that it makes us more profound.”

“What does not kill him, makes him stronger.”

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

“In heaven, all the interesting people are missing.”

“There are no facts, only interpretations.”

“The knight of knowledge must be able not only to love his enemies, but also to hate his friends.”

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

“The advantage of a bad memory is that one can enjoy the same good things for the first time several times.”

“Man is the cruelest animal.”

“Is man merely a mistake of God's? Or God merely a mistake of man?”

“Thoughts are the shadows of our feelings — always darker, emptier, simpler.”

“I would believe only in a God that knows how to dance.”

“What does man actually know about himself?”

“We do not believe in any right that is not supported by the power of enforcement”

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

“Whenever I climb I am followed by a dog called 'Ego'.”

“In the mountains of truth you will never climb in vain: either you will get up higher today or you will exercise your strength so as to be able to get up higher tomorrow.”

“Blessed are the forgetful; for they get over their stupidities, too.”

“A strong and well-constituted man digests his experiences (deeds and misdeeds all included) just as he digests his meats, even when he has some tough morsels to swallow.”

“A bad conscience is easier to cope with than a bad reputation.”

“What is happening to me happens to all fruits that grow ripe.
It is the honey in my veins that makes my blood thicker, and my soul quieter.”

“There is not enough religion in the world to destroy the world’s religions.”

“He who cannot obey himself will be commanded. That is the nature of living creatures.”

“Do you want to go along with others? or go on ahead? or go off on your own?… you must knowyou want andyou want. Fourth question for the conscience.”

“Moralities and religions are the principal means by which one can make whatever one wishes out of man, provided one possesses a superfluity of creative forces and can assert one's will over long periods of time — in the form of legislation and customs.”

“I would not know what the spirit of a philosopher might wish more to be than a good dancer.”