Quotes from book
Twilight of the Idols

Name: Twilight of the Idols
Author: Friedrich Nietzsche

Friedrich NietzscheOriginal title Götzen-Dämmerung oder wie man mit dem Hammer philosophirt (German, 1888)

Twilight of the Idols, or, How to Philosophize with a Hammer is a book by Friedrich Nietzsche, written in 1888, and published in 1889.

“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.”

Friedrich Nietzsche book Twilight of the Idols

Source: Twilight of the Idols

“When one gives up Christian belief one thereby deprives oneself of the right to Christian morality. For the latter is absolutely not self-evident: one must make this point clear again and again, in spite of English shallowpates.”

Friedrich Nietzsche book Twilight of the Idols

Expeditions of an Untimely Man §5
Twilight of the Idols (1888)

“Christianity is a metaphysics of the hangman…”

Friedrich Nietzsche book Twilight of the Idols

Das Christenthum ist eine Metaphysik des Henkers...
The Four Great Errors, Section 7
Twilight of the Idols (1888)

“Freedom means that the manly instincts which delight in war and victory dominate over other instincts, for example, over those of "pleasure." The human being who has become free — and how much more the spirit who has become free — spits on the contemptible type of well-being dreamed of by shopkeepers, Christians, cows, females, Englishmen, and other democrats. The free man is a warrior. —”

Friedrich Nietzsche book Twilight of the Idols

Twilight of the Idols (1888)

“Liberalism: in other words, herd-animalization.”

Friedrich Nietzsche book Twilight of the Idols

Liberalismus: auf deutsch Heerden-Verthierung ...
Skirmishes of an Untimely Man Sect. 38
Twilight of the Idols (1888)

“The doctrine of equality! … But there is no more venomous poison in existence: for it appears to be preached by justice itself, when it is actually the end of justice … "Equality to the equal; inequality to the unequal" — that would be true justice speaking: and its corollary, "never make the unequal equal".”

Friedrich Nietzsche book Twilight of the Idols

Expeditions of an Untimely Man, §48 Progress in my sense (Streifzüge eines Unzeitgemässen §48 Fortschritt in meinem Sinne). Chapter title also translated as: Skirmishes of an Untimely Man, Kaufmann/Hollingdale translation, and Raids of an Untimely Man, Richard Polt translation
Twilight of the Idols (1888)
Original: (de) Die Lehre von der Gleichheit! ... Aber es giebt gar kein giftigeres Gift: denn sie scheint von der Gerechtigkeit selbst gepredigt, während sie das Ende der Gerechtigkeit ist... "Den Gleichen Gleiches, den Ungleichen Ungleiches - das wäre die wahre Rede der Gerechtigkeit: und, was daraus folgt, Ungleiches niemals gleich machen."

“These same institutions produce quite different effects while they are still being fought for; then they really promote freedom in a powerful way. On closer inspection it is war that produces these effects, the war for liberal institutions, which, as a war, permits illiberal instincts to continue. And war educates for freedom. For what is freedom? That one has the will to self-responsibility. That one maintains the distance which separates us. That one becomes more indifferent to difficulties, hardships, privation, even to life itself. That one is prepared to sacrifice human beings for one's cause, not excluding oneself.”

Friedrich Nietzsche book Twilight of the Idols

Twilight of the Idols (1888)

“We have already gone beyond whatever we have words for. In all talk there is a grain of contempt.”

Friedrich Nietzsche book Twilight of the Idols

Expeditions of an Untimely Man §26
Wofür wir Worte haben, darüber sind wir auch schon hinaus. In allem Reden liegt ein Gran Verachtung.
Variant translation: That for which we find words is something already dead in our hearts. There is always a kind of contempt in the act of speaking.'
Twilight of the Idols (1888)

“Man does not strive for happiness; only the Englishman does that”

Friedrich Nietzsche book Twilight of the Idols

Der Mensch strebt nicht nach Glück; nur der Engländer thut das
Maxims and Arrows, 12
Twilight of the Idols (1888)

“Man believes that the world itself is filled with beauty — he forgets that it is he who has created it. He alone has bestowed beauty upon the world — alas! only a very human, an all too human, beauty.”

Friedrich Nietzsche book Twilight of the Idols

Expeditions of an Untimely Man, 19
Twilight of the Idols (1888)

“Our institutions are no good any more: on that there is universal agreement. However, it is not their fault but ours. Once we have lost all the instincts out of which institutions grow, we lose institutions altogether because we are no longer good for them.”

Friedrich Nietzsche book Twilight of the Idols

Twilight of the Idols (1888)

“First principle: one must need to be strong — otherwise one will never become strong. — Those large hothouses [Treibhäuser] for the strong, for the strongest kind of human being that has ever been, the aristocratic commonwealths of the type of Rome or Venice, understood freedom exactly in the sense in which I understand the word freedom: as something one has and does not have, something one wants, something one conquers…”

Friedrich Nietzsche book Twilight of the Idols

Twilight of the Idols (1888)

“Here the ways of men part: if you wish to strive for peace of soul and pleasure, then believe; if you wish to be a devotee of truth, then inquire.”

Friedrich Nietzsche book Twilight of the Idols

Letter to Elisabeth Nietzsche, Bonn, 1865-06-11. Quoted in Walter Kaufmann, The Faith of a Heretic (opening epigram).
Variant: Here the ways of men divide. If you wish to strive for peace of soul and happiness, then believe; if you wish to be a disciple of truth, then inquire.
Source: Twilight of the Idols

“Are you one who looks on? or lends a hand? - or who looks away, sidles off?… Third question for the conscience.”

Friedrich Nietzsche book Twilight of the Idols

Source: Twilight of the Idols

“To live alone one must be an animal or a god - says Aristotle. There is yet a third case: one must be both - a philosopher.”

Friedrich Nietzsche book Twilight of the Idols

Maxims and Arrows, 3
Twilight of the Idols (1888)

“What is it: is man only a blunder of God, or God only a blunder of man?”

Friedrich Nietzsche book Twilight of the Idols

Wie? ist der Mensch nur ein Fehlgriff Gottes? Oder Gott nur ein Fehlgriff des Menschen?
Maxims and Arrows, 7
Variant: Which? Is man one of God's blunders or is God one of man's blunders?
Source: Twilight of the Idols (1888)

“For truth to tell, dancing in all its forms cannot be excluded from the curriculum of all noble education: dancing with the feet, with ideas, with words, and, need I add that one must also be able to dance with pen- that one must learn how to write”

Friedrich Nietzsche book Twilight of the Idols

Variant: Dancing in all its forms cannot be excluded from the curriculum of all noble education; dancing with the feet, with ideas, with words, and, need I add that one must also be able to dance with the pen?
Source: Twilight of the Idols

“Women are considered profound. Why? Because we never fathom their depths. But women aren't even shallow.”

Friedrich Nietzsche book Twilight of the Idols

Maxims and Arrows, 27
Twilight of the Idols (1888)

“if we possess a why of life we can put up with almost any how.”

Friedrich Nietzsche book Twilight of the Idols

Maxims and Arrows, 12
Variant translations:
He who has a why to live for can bear almost any how.
As translated in Man's Search For Meaning (1946) by Viktor Frankl
Variant: He who has a Why? in life can tolerate almost any How?
Source: Twilight of the Idols (1888)

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

Friedrich Nietzsche book Twilight of the Idols

Source: Twilight of the Idols