Friedrich Nietzsche

The ability to say of all that is past: 'Thus would I have it.'

Thus Spake Zarathustra, Chapter 10, Section LII·philosophy, Wisdom, self-improvement

"Ah, that (man’s) baddest is so very small! Ah, that his best is so very small."

Thus Spake Zarathustra, Chapter 10, Section LII·philosophy, Wisdom

"Ah that ye understood my word: ‘Do ever what ye will—but first be such as CAN WILL.’"

Thus Spake Zarathustra, Part 2, Section 2·philosophy, Wisdom

"All good things laugh," he says, and his final command to the higher men is, "LEARN, I pray you—to laugh."

Thus Spake Zarathustra, Part 4, Section 1·philosophy, Wisdom, self-improvement

All morality is a mere means to power.

Thus Spake Zarathustra, Chapter 15, Section 1·philosophy, Wisdom

"All that increases power is good, all that springs from weakness is bad. The weak and ill-constituted shall perish: first principle of our charity. And one shall also help them thereto."

Thus Spake Zarathustra, Chapter XXII, Section 20·philosophy, self-improvement

All those philosophers hitherto, who have run in the harness of established values and have not risked their reputation with the people in pursuit of truth.

Thus Spake Zarathustra, Chapter XXX, Section 1·philosophy, self-improvement

"Almost the whole of this is quite comprehensible. It is a discourse against all those who confound virtue with tameness and smug ease, and who regard as virtuous only that which promotes security and tends to deepen sleep."

Thus Spake Zarathustra, Chapter 2·philosophy, Wisdom

"The aristocracy of character has been undermined most craftily by the lie of the equality of souls;"

Thus Spake Zarathustra, Chapter 10, Section LIX·philosophy, Wisdom

"As a matter of fact, the European feels this tension as a state of distress..."

Beyond Good and Evil, Chapter 9·philosophy, Wisdom

To be able to smile while speaking of lofty things and NOT TO BE OPPRESSED by them, is the secret of real greatness.

Thus Spake Zarathustra, Chapter XXXV, Section 1·philosophy, Wisdom

"Become what thou art."

Thus Spake Zarathustra, Part 4, Section 61·philosophy, Wisdom, self-improvement

Before they are uttered they are full of the modesty of a virgin.

Thus Spake Zarathustra, Chapter 10, Section LIV·philosophy, Wisdom

"To be sure, he who is himself only a slender, tame house-animal, and knows only the wants of a house-animal... need neither be amazed nor even sad amid those ruins."

Beyond Good and Evil, Chapter 3, Section 52·philosophy, Wisdom

"Bite! Bite! Its head off! Bite!"

Thus Spake Zarathustra, Chapter 10, Section LVI·philosophy, Ethics

"To both, of course, to the scholar and to the old maid, one concedes respectability, as if by way of indemnification--in these cases one emphasizes the respectability--and yet, in the compulsion of this concession, one has the same admixture of vexation."

Beyond Good and Evil, Chapter 6, Section 206·philosophy, Wisdom

It is the business of the very few to be independent; it is a privilege of the strong.

Beyond Good and Evil, Chapter 2, Section 29·philosophy, Wisdom

"The Christian faith from the beginning, is sacrifice the sacrifice of all freedom, all pride, all self-confidence of spirit, it is at the same time subjection, self-derision, and self-mutilation."

Beyond Good and Evil, Chapter 3, Section 46·philosophy, Ethics

"It is Christianity, let us not doubt it, it is CHRISTIAN valuations, which translate every revolution merely into blood and crime!"

Thus Spake Zarathustra, Chapter 10, Section LIX·philosophy, leadership

"Cowardice and Mediocrity, are the names with which he labels modern notions of virtue and moderation."

Thus Spake Zarathustra, Chapter 10, Section LIX·philosophy, self-improvement

A creator of new values meets with his surest and strongest obstacles in the very spirit of the language which is at his disposal.

Thus Spake Zarathustra, Chapter XXIII, Section 1·philosophy, Wisdom

The danger of allowing their thoughts to be moulded by the words at their disposal.

Thus Spake Zarathustra, Chapter XXIII, Section 2·philosophy, self-improvement

"The declaration of independence of the scientific man, his emancipation from philosophy, is one of the subtler after-effects of democratic organization and disorganization."

Beyond Good and Evil, Chapter 6, Section 204·philosophy, Wisdom

"The democratising of Europe is at the same time an involuntary arrangement for the rearing of TYRANTS--taking the word in all its meanings, even in its most spiritual sense."

Beyond Good and Evil, Chapter 8, Section 242·philosophy, Wisdom

"By depriving a man of his wickedness... one may unwittingly be doing violence to the greatest in him."

Thus Spake Zarathustra, Chapter 10, Section LII·philosophy, self-improvement

"By destroying these particular instincts, that is to say by attempting to masculinise woman, and to feminise men, we jeopardise the future of our people."

Thus Spake Zarathustra, Chapter XVIII·philosophy, Wisdom

"The doctrine of the Eternal Recurrence appears for the last time here, in an art-form. Nietzsche lays stress upon the fact that all happiness, all delight, longs for repetitions."

Thus Spake Zarathustra, Part 1, Section 79·philosophy, self-improvement

"Do I counsel you to slay your instincts? I counsel to innocence in your instincts."

Thus Spake Zarathustra, Chapter XXXVI·philosophy, Wisdom, self-improvement

"Do I then strive after HAPPINESS? I strive after my work!"

Thus Spake Zarathustra, Part 1, Section 80·philosophy, self-improvement

"In the end, it is not the great deeds that matter, but the small acts of kindness that echo through eternity."

Thus Spake Zarathustra, Chapter XXXIII, Section 28·philosophy, self-improvement

The essential thing, however, in a good and healthy aristocracy is that it should not regard itself as a function either of the kingship or the commonwealth, but as the SIGNIFICANCE and highest justification thereof.

Beyond Good and Evil, Chapter 9, Section 258·philosophy, Ethics

Every elevation of the type "man," has hitherto been the work of an aristocratic society and so it will always be--a society believing in a long scale of gradations of rank and differences of worth among human beings, and requiring slavery in some form or other.

Beyond Good and Evil, Chapter 9, Section 257·philosophy, Wisdom

Every select man strives instinctively for a citadel and a privacy, where he is FREE from the crowd, the many, the majority.

Beyond Good and Evil, Chapter 2, Section 26·philosophy, self-improvement

The evil man inflicts injury on himself; he would not do so, however, if he knew that evil is evil.

Beyond Good and Evil, Chapter 5, Section 190·philosophy, Wisdom

"The fact thereby becomes obvious that the greater part of what interests and charms higher natures... seems absolutely 'uninteresting' to the average man."

Beyond Good and Evil, Chapter 7, Section 220·philosophy, Wisdom

"Freedom from fever is still far from being knowledge."

Thus Spake Zarathustra, Part 4, Section 1·philosophy, Wisdom, self-improvement

"‘Freedom’ ye all roar most eagerly, but I have unlearned the belief in ‘Great Events’ when there is much roaring and smoke about them."

Thus Spake Zarathustra, Chapter 10, Section 1·philosophy, Wisdom

"Free from what? What doth that matter to Zarathustra? Clearly, however, shall thine eye answer me: free FOR WHAT?"

Thus Spake Zarathustra, Part 2, Section 2·philosophy, Ethics

"Friendship is the highest form of love, for it is born from the spirit and nurtured by the heart."

Thus Spake Zarathustra, Chapter XXXIII, Section 29·Wisdom, philosophy

"The German soul is above all manifold, varied in its source, aggregated and super-imposed, rather than actually built: this is owing to its origin."

Beyond Good and Evil, Chapter 8, Section 244·philosophy, Wisdom

The Giant Chance has hitherto played with the puppet 'man,'—this is the fact he cannot contemplate with equanimity.

Thus Spake Zarathustra, Chapter 10, Section LVIII·philosophy, self-improvement

“The good and just, throughout the book, is the expression used in referring to the self-righteous of modern times.”

Thus Spake Zarathustra, Part 1, Prologue·philosophy, Ethics

The good—they have always been the beginning of the end.—

Thus Spake Zarathustra, Part 1, Section 26·philosophy, Wisdom, Ethics

Granted that we want the truth: WHY NOT RATHER untruth? And uncertainty? Even ignorance?

Beyond Good and Evil, Chapter 1, Section 1·philosophy, Wisdom

"The grave is a great teacher; it teaches us to be wise and to be silent."

Thus Spake Zarathustra, Chapter XXXIII, Section 27·philosophy, Wisdom

The great epochs of our life are at the points when we gain courage to rebaptize our badness as the best in us.

Beyond Good and Evil, Chapter 4, Section 116·philosophy, Wisdom

"The greatest events—they are not our loudest but our stillest hours."

Thus Spake Zarathustra, Chapter 9, Section 4·philosophy, Wisdom

"He accuses such idealists of hypocrisy and guile; he says they lack innocence in their desires and therefore slander all desiring."

Thus Spake Zarathustra, Chapter XXXVII, Section 3·philosophy, Wisdom

"He came to save higher men;—to give them that freedom by which, alone, they can develop and reach their zenith."

Thus Spake Zarathustra, Part 1·philosophy, self-improvement

"He knew too well what these things meant to the millions who profess them, to approach the task of uprooting them with levity or even with haste."

Thus Spake Zarathustra, Chapter XVIII, Section 28·philosophy, Wisdom

He overcame Pessimism by discovering an object in existence; he saw the possibility of raising society to a higher level and preached the profoundest Optimism in consequence.

Thus Spake Zarathustra, Chapter 10, Section LI·philosophy, Wisdom

He points to creating as the surest salvation from the suffering which is a concomitant of all higher life.

Thus Spake Zarathustra, Chapter XXIV, Section 2·philosophy, self-improvement

"Heroism foiled, thwarted, and wrecked, hoping and fighting until the last, is at length overtaken by despair, and renounces all struggle for sleep."

Thus Spake Zarathustra, Chapter XXII, Section 18·philosophy, Wisdom

"He saw what modern anarchists and revolutionists do NOT see—namely, that man is in danger of actual destruction when his customs and values are broken."

Thus Spake Zarathustra, Chapter XVIII, Section 28·philosophy, Wisdom

“He says he would he were as wise as his serpent.”

Thus Spake Zarathustra, Part 1, Prologue·philosophy, self-improvement

He is shamefast and bashful with those who surround him and wishes not to be discovered by them.

Thus Spake Zarathustra, Chapter 10, Section LIII·philosophy, Wisdom

He was among the first thinkers of Europe to overcome the pessimism which godlessness generally brings in its wake.

Thus Spake Zarathustra, Chapter XXIV, Section 3·philosophy, Wisdom

"He was well aware of the dangers threatening greatness in our age."

Thus Spake Zarathustra, Part 1·philosophy, Wisdom

He who can be proud of his enemies, who can be grateful to them for the obstacles they have put in his way; he who can regard his worst calamity as but the extra strain on the bow of his life, which is to send the arrow of his longing even further than he could have hoped;—this man knows no revenge, neither does he know despair, he truly has found redemption and can turn on the worst in his life and even in himself, and call it his best.

Thus Spake Zarathustra, Chapter 10, Section LII·philosophy, Wisdom, self-improvement

But he who discovered the country of 'man,' discovered also the country of 'man’s future.'

Thus Spake Zarathustra, Part 1, Section 28·philosophy, Wisdom, self-improvement

He who fights with monsters should be careful lest he thereby become a monster. And if thou gaze long into an abyss, the abyss will also gaze into thee.

Beyond Good and Evil, Chapter 4, Section 146·philosophy, Wisdom

“He who had to create, had always his presaging dreams and astral premonitions—and believed in believing!”

Thus Spake Zarathustra, Chapter XXXVI·philosophy, Wisdom

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

Thus Spake Zarathustra, Chapter 9, Section 2·philosophy, self-improvement

...he who hath to be a creator in good and evil—verily he hath first to be a destroyer, and break values in pieces.

Thus Spake Zarathustra, Chapter XXXIV, Section 1·philosophy, Wisdom

He whose hand trembles when it lays hold of a beautiful thing, has the quality of reverence, without the artist’s unembarrassed friendship with the beautiful.

Thus Spake Zarathustra, Chapter XXXV, Section 1·philosophy, self-improvement

And he who would not languish amongst men, must learn to drink out of all glasses: and he who would keep clean amongst men, must know how to wash himself even with dirty water.

Thus Spake Zarathustra, Chapter 10, Section LIII·philosophy, Wisdom, self-improvement

"He would probably have argued that we only see the successful cases."

Thus Spake Zarathustra, Part 1·philosophy, Wisdom

"The higher the type of man, the more he is alone."

Thus Spake Zarathustra, Chapter XXIX, Section 4·philosophy, Wisdom

"The higher we soar, the smaller we appear to those who cannot fly."

Thus Spake Zarathustra, Chapter XXXVIII, Section 3·Wisdom, philosophy

"The historical sense... has come to us in the train of the enchanting and mad semi-barbarity into which Europe has been plunged by the democratic mingling of classes and races."

Beyond Good and Evil, Chapter 7, Section 224·philosophy, Wisdom

"How is the negation of will POSSIBLE? how is the saint possible?"

Beyond Good and Evil, Chapter 3, Section 47·philosophy, Wisdom

"I am a law only for mine own, I am not a law for all. This—is now MY way,—where is yours?"

Thus Spake Zarathustra, Part 2, Section 1·philosophy, Wisdom

"I am a railing alongside the torrent; whoever is able to grasp me, may grasp me! Your crutch, however, I am not."

Thus Spake Zarathustra, Part 4, Section 1·philosophy, Wisdom, self-improvement

“I could only love my children’s land, the undiscovered land in a remote sea; because I would fain retrieve the errors of my fathers in my children.”

Thus Spake Zarathustra, Chapter XXXVI·philosophy, Ethics

I do not believe that an 'impulse to knowledge' is the father of philosophy; but that another impulse, here as elsewhere, has only made use of knowledge as an instrument.

Beyond Good and Evil, Chapter 1, Section 6·philosophy, Wisdom

"I DO NOT TREAT MY WARRIORS INDULGENTLY," he says: "how then could ye be fit for MY warfare?"

Thus Spake Zarathustra, Part 4, Section 1·philosophy, Wisdom, self-improvement

"I have come that I may seduce thee to thy last sin!"

Thus Spake Zarathustra, Part 4, Section 62·philosophy, Wisdom, Ethics

"I hope that the men on this earth will do like the sun. And we foremost, we good Europeans!"

Beyond Good and Evil, Chapter 8, Section 243·philosophy, self-improvement

"I love the great despisers because they are the great adorers, and arrows of longing for the other shore."

Thus Spake Zarathustra, Part 4, Section 68·philosophy, Wisdom, self-improvement

"I love him who liveth in order to know, and seeketh to know in order that the Superman may hereafter live."

Thus Spake Zarathustra, Part 4, Section 64·philosophy, Wisdom, self-improvement

“An instrument of thy body is also thy little sagacity, my brother, which thou callest ‘spirit.’”

Thus Spake Zarathustra, Chapter 4, Section 1·philosophy, Wisdom

Involuntary bliss is the highest bliss; it is the bliss of the child, the bliss of the artist, the bliss of the sage.

Thus Spake Zarathustra, Chapter 10, Section LVII·philosophy, Wisdom

Jesus said to his Jews: "The law was for servants;--love God as I love him, as his Son! What have we Sons of God to do with morals!"

Beyond Good and Evil, Chapter 4, Section 164·philosophy, Wisdom

"Knowledge for its own sake"--that is the last snare laid by morality: we are thereby completely entangled in morals once more.

Beyond Good and Evil, Chapter 4, Section 64·philosophy, Wisdom

"To laugh at oneself is to be free from the chains of self-importance."

Thus Spake Zarathustra, Chapter XXXIX·philosophy, self-improvement

"Life is ESSENTIALLY appropriation, injury, conquest of the strange and weak, suppression, severity, obtrusion of its own forms, incorporation and at least, putting it mildest, exploitation."

Thus Spake Zarathustra, Chapter XXII, Section 10·philosophy, Ethics

Life itself is ESSENTIALLY appropriation, injury, conquest of the strange and weak, suppression, severity, obtrusion of peculiar forms, incorporation, and at the least, putting it mildest, exploitation.

Beyond Good and Evil, Chapter 9, Section 259·philosophy, Wisdom

"A little older, a little colder," says Nietzsche. They soon clamber back to the conventions of the age they intended reforming.

Thus Spake Zarathustra, Part 3, Section 3·philosophy, self-improvement

"A little valiant nonsense, some divine service and ass-festival, some old joyful Zarathustra fool, some blusterer to blow their souls bright."

Thus Spake Zarathustra, Part 1, Section 78·philosophy, Wisdom

To live--is not that just endeavouring to be otherwise than this Nature? Is not living valuing, preferring, being unjust, being limited, endeavouring to be different?

Beyond Good and Evil, Chapter 1, Section 9·philosophy, Wisdom

"To live is to suffer; to survive is to find some meaning in the suffering."

Thus Spake Zarathustra, Chapter XXXIII, Section 30·philosophy, Ethics

Man shall now exploit chance, he says again and again, and make it fall on its knees before him!

Thus Spake Zarathustra, Chapter 10, Section LVIII·philosophy, Wisdom

The man with overflowing strength, both of mind and body, who must discharge this strength or perish, is the Nietzschean ideal.

Thus Spake Zarathustra, Chapter XXII, Section 1·philosophy, self-improvement

"The mightiest men have hitherto always bowed reverently before the saint, as the enigma of self-subjugation and utter voluntary privation."

Beyond Good and Evil, Chapter 3, Section 51·philosophy, Wisdom

Modern man has no goal, no aim, no ideals.

Thus Spake Zarathustra, Chapter 15, Section 2·philosophy, self-improvement

The moral sentiment in Europe at present is perhaps as subtle, belated, diverse, sensitive, and refined, as the 'Science of Morals' belonging thereto is recent, initial, awkward, and coarse-fingered.

Beyond Good and Evil, Chapter 5, Section 186·philosophy, Wisdom

"The most perfidious way of harming a cause consists of defending it deliberately with faulty arguments."

Thus Spake Zarathustra, Part 3, Section 71·philosophy, Wisdom

"Much is reckoned higher than life itself by the living one."

Thus Spake Zarathustra, Chapter 10, Section LII·philosophy, Wisdom

For, my brethren, the best shall rule, the best also WILLETH to rule! And where the teaching is different, there—the best is LACKING.

Thus Spake Zarathustra, Part 1, Section 22·philosophy, Wisdom, self-improvement

"Nay! Nay! Three times nay! Always more, always better ones of your type shall succumb—for ye shall always have it worse and harder."

Thus Spake Zarathustra, Part 4, Section 1·philosophy, Wisdom, self-improvement

Neither a good nor a bad taste, but MY taste, of which I have no longer either shame or secrecy.

Thus Spake Zarathustra, Part 1, Section 9·philosophy, Wisdom

"Never on earth laughed a man as he laughed!"

Thus Spake Zarathustra, Chapter 10, Section LVI·philosophy, self-improvement

Nietzsche had a particular aversion to the word 'suicide'—self-murder. He disliked the evil it suggested.

Thus Spake Zarathustra, Chapter XXI·philosophy, Ethics

"Nietzsche’s philosophy might be called an attempt at giving back to healthy and normal men innocence and a clean conscience in their desires."

Thus Spake Zarathustra, Chapter XXXVI·philosophy, Wisdom, self-improvement

Nietzsche was not an iconoclast from choice. Those who hastily class him with the anarchists fail to understand the high esteem in which he always held both law and discipline.

Thus Spake Zarathustra, Chapter XXXIV, Section 1·philosophy, self-improvement

The noble man honours in himself the powerful one, him also who has power over himself, who knows how to speak and how to keep silence, who takes pleasure in subjecting himself to severity and hardness, and has reverence for all that is severe and hard.

Beyond Good and Evil, Chapter 9, Section 260·philosophy, Wisdom

The noble type of man separates from himself the beings in whom the opposite of this exalted, proud disposition displays itself he despises them.

Beyond Good and Evil, Chapter 9, Section 260·philosophy, Ethics

"Not around the inventors of new noise, but around the inventors of new values, doth the world revolve; INAUDIBLY it revolveth."

Thus Spake Zarathustra, Chapter 10, Section 1·philosophy, self-improvement

Not only our reason, but also our conscience, truckles to our strongest impulse--the tyrant in us.

Beyond Good and Evil, Chapter 4, Section 158·philosophy, Wisdom

It is not the strength, but the duration of great sentiments that makes great men.

Beyond Good and Evil, Chapter 4, Section 72·philosophy, Wisdom

"But now when it has been surmounted, when Europe, rid of this nightmare, can again draw breath freely and at least enjoy a healthier--sleep..."

Beyond Good and Evil, Chapter 9·philosophy, Ethics

"The objective man is in truth a mirror accustomed to prostration before everything that wants to be known, with such desires only as knowing or 'reflecting' implies."

Beyond Good and Evil, Chapter 6, Section 207·philosophy, Wisdom

Often the oldest sage will blush like a girl when this virginity is violated by an indiscretion.

Thus Spake Zarathustra, Chapter 10, Section LIV·philosophy, Wisdom

"Oh, my brethren, is not everything AT PRESENT IN FLUX? Have not all railings and foot-bridges fallen into the water? Who would still HOLD ON to ‘good’ and ‘evil’?"

Thus Spake Zarathustra, Chapter XXII, Section 8·philosophy, Wisdom

O my brethren! With whom lieth the greatest danger to the whole human future? Is it not with the good and just?—As those who say and feel in their hearts: 'We already know what is good and just, we possess it also; woe to those who still seek thereafter!'

Thus Spake Zarathustra, Part 1, Section 26·philosophy, Wisdom, self-improvement

“One must still have chaos in oneself to be able to give birth to a dancing star.”

Thus Spake Zarathustra, Part 3, Section 3·philosophy, Wisdom

“Only by bearing the burdens of the existing law and submitting to it patiently, as the camel submits to being laden, does the free spirit acquire that ascendancy over tradition.”

Thus Spake Zarathustra, Chapter 1, Section 1·philosophy, self-improvement

"The only possible way in which the great man can achieve greatness is by means of exceptional freedom—the freedom which assists him in experiencing HIMSELF."

Thus Spake Zarathustra, Chapter XXXVI·philosophy, Ethics, self-improvement

“It is only through existing law and order that one attains to that height from which new law and new order may be promulgated.”

Thus Spake Zarathustra, Chapter 1, Section 1·philosophy, Ethics

"Only thus, and he is undoubtedly right, can their combined instincts lead to the excellence of humanity."

Thus Spake Zarathustra, Chapter XVIII·philosophy, self-improvement

“In order to create one must be as a little child.”

Thus Spake Zarathustra, Chapter 1, Section 1·Wisdom, philosophy

O sancta simplicitas! In what strange simplification and falsification man lives! One can never cease wondering when once one has got eyes for beholding this marvel!

Beyond Good and Evil, Chapter 2, Section 24·philosophy, Wisdom

Our deepest feelings crave silence.

Thus Spake Zarathustra, Chapter 10, Section LIV·philosophy, Wisdom

Our deepest insights must--and should--appear as follies, and under certain circumstances as crimes, when they come unauthorizedly to the ears of those who are not disposed and predestined for them.

Beyond Good and Evil, Chapter 2, Section 30·philosophy, Wisdom

"Our politics are MORBID from this want of courage!"

Thus Spake Zarathustra, Chapter 10, Section LIX·philosophy, Ethics

O Will, thou change of every need, MY needfulness! Spare me for one great victory!

Thus Spake Zarathustra, Part 1, Section 30·philosophy, Wisdom, self-improvement

"It is part of my intention; a cumbersome drapery, something arbitrarily barbaric and ceremonious, a flirring of learned and venerable conceits and witticisms; something German in the best and worst sense of the word, something in the German style, manifold, formless, and inexhaustible; a certain German potency and super-plenitude of soul, which is not afraid to hide itself under the RAFFINEMENTS of decadence."

Beyond Good and Evil, Chapter 8, Section 240·philosophy, Wisdom

"And perhaps also the arrow, the duty, and, who knows? THE GOAL TO AIM AT...."

Beyond Good and Evil, Chapter 9·philosophy, self-improvement

"A philanthropy that sacrifices the minority of the present-day for the majority constituting posterity, completely evades his mental grasp."

Thus Spake Zarathustra, Part 3, Section 4·philosophy, Wisdom

"The philosopher has long been mistaken and confused by the multitude, either with the scientific man and ideal scholar, or with the religiously elevated, desensualized, desecularized visionary and God-intoxicated man."

Beyond Good and Evil, Chapter 6, Section 205·philosophy, Wisdom

The philosopher, however, as Nietzsche understood him, is a man who creates new values, and thus leads mankind in a new direction.

Thus Spake Zarathustra, Chapter XXX, Section 1·philosophy, Wisdom

"The philosophy of the dogmatists, it is to be hoped, was only a promise for thousands of years afterwards, as was astrology in still earlier times..."

Beyond Good and Evil, Chapter 9·philosophy, Wisdom

"Pity was his greatest danger."

Thus Spake Zarathustra, Part 3, Section 4·philosophy, Wisdom

"The poet is a creator of worlds, and in his worlds, he is the master of all things."

Thus Spake Zarathustra, Chapter XXXIX·literature, Wisdom

"The practice of judging and condemning morally, is the favourite revenge of the intellectually shallow on those who are less so."

Beyond Good and Evil, Chapter 7, Section 219·philosophy, Ethics

"The preachers of death are the most dangerous of all men; they are the ones who would have us believe that life is a burden, a curse, and that we should seek to escape it."

Thus Spake Zarathustra, Chapter 9, Section 1·philosophy, Wisdom

"At present nobody has any longer the courage for separate rights, for rights of domination, for a feeling of reverence for himself and his equals,—FOR PATHOS OF DISTANCE...."

Thus Spake Zarathustra, Chapter 10, Section LIX·philosophy, Wisdom

The profound man, who is by nature differentiated from his fellows, feels this difference too keenly to call attention to it by any outward show.

Thus Spake Zarathustra, Chapter 10, Section LIII·philosophy, Wisdom

Punishment meaning to him merely a euphemism for the word revenge, invented in order to still our consciences.

Thus Spake Zarathustra, Chapter 10, Section LII·philosophy, Ethics, Wisdom

The question whether, in respect to the valuation of things, instinct deserves more authority than rationality... it is always the old moral problem that first appeared in the person of Socrates.

Beyond Good and Evil, Chapter 5, Section 191·philosophy, Wisdom

TO RECOGNISE UNTRUTH AS A CONDITION OF LIFE; that is certainly to impugn the traditional ideas of value in a dangerous manner.

Beyond Good and Evil, Chapter 1, Section 4·philosophy, Wisdom

"To rise above it—to soar—is the most difficult of all things to-day."

Thus Spake Zarathustra, Chapter 10, Section LVI·philosophy, self-improvement

“A robber shall Zarathustra be called by the herdsmen.”

Thus Spake Zarathustra, Part 1, Prologue·philosophy, Wisdom

The root of modern Nihilism and indifference lies in the absence of goals.

Thus Spake Zarathustra, Chapter 15, Section 3·philosophy, Wisdom

"To save the clean healthy man from the values of those around him, who look at everything through the mud that is in their own bodies."

Thus Spake Zarathustra, Chapter XXXVI·philosophy, Ethics, Wisdom

"The scientific spirit of the investigator is both helped and supplemented by the latter’s emotions and personality."

Thus Spake Zarathustra, Chapter XXXVII, Section 1·philosophy, Wisdom

"The sexes are at bottom ANTAGONISTIC—that is to say, as different as blue is from yellow."

Thus Spake Zarathustra, Chapter XVIII·philosophy, Wisdom

In short, systems of morals are only a SIGN-LANGUAGE OF THE EMOTIONS.

Beyond Good and Evil, Chapter 5, Section 187·philosophy, Wisdom

"A single individual! alas, only a single individual! and this great forest, this virgin forest!"

Beyond Good and Evil, Chapter 3, Section 45·philosophy, Wisdom

"To speak of the activity of life as a 'struggle for existence,' is to state the case inadequately."

Thus Spake Zarathustra, Chapter 10, Section LII·philosophy, Ethics

"The spirit of gravity... is nothing more than the heavy millstone 'guilty conscience,' together with the concept of sin which at present hangs round the neck of men."

Thus Spake Zarathustra, Chapter 10, Section LVI·philosophy, Wisdom

"A statesman who rears up for them a new Tower of Babel, some monstrosity of empire and power, they call 'great'--what does it matter that we more prudent and conservative ones do not meanwhile give up the old belief that it is only the great thought that gives greatness to an action or affair?"

Beyond Good and Evil, Chapter 8, Section 241·philosophy, Ethics

"Stop this at once," Zarathustra cries, "long have thy speech and thy species disgusted me.... Out of love alone shall my contempt and my warning bird take wing; BUT NOT OUT OF THE SWAMP!"

Thus Spake Zarathustra, Part 3, Section 2·philosophy, Wisdom

To such a man, giving from his overflow becomes a necessity; bestowing develops into a means of existence.

Thus Spake Zarathustra, Chapter XXII, Section 2·Wisdom, self-improvement

"Supposing that Truth is a woman--what then? Is there not ground for suspecting that all philosophers, in so far as they have been dogmatists, have failed to understand women?"

Beyond Good and Evil, Chapter 9·philosophy, Wisdom

Take care, ye philosophers and friends of knowledge, and beware of martyrdom! Of suffering 'for the truth's sake'! even in your own defense!

Beyond Good and Evil, Chapter 2, Section 25·philosophy, Wisdom

"The tarantulas are the Socialists and Democrats."

Thus Spake Zarathustra, Chapter XXIX, Section 2·philosophy, Ethics

"Thank God that I am not like thee!"

Thus Spake Zarathustra, Part 4, Section 67·philosophy, Wisdom, self-improvement

"That great power and tenderness are kin, was already his belief in 1875—eight years before he wrote this speech, and when the birds and the lion come to him, it is because he is the embodiment of the two qualities."

Thus Spake Zarathustra, Part 1, Section 80·philosophy, Wisdom

“Their sterility is the result of their not believing in anything.”

Thus Spake Zarathustra, Chapter XXXVI·philosophy, Wisdom

"Is there anything finer than to SEARCH for one's own virtues? Is it not almost to BELIEVE in one's own virtues?"

Beyond Good and Evil, Chapter 7, Section 214·philosophy, Wisdom

"There are few pains so grievous as to have seen, divined, or experienced how an exceptional man has missed his way and deteriorated..."

Thus Spake Zarathustra, Part 1·philosophy, Wisdom

"There are those who preach my doctrine of life, and are at the same time preachers of equality and tarantulas."

Thus Spake Zarathustra, Chapter XXIX, Section 1·philosophy, Wisdom

There is a certain self-respect in the serious man which makes him hold his profoundest feelings sacred.

Thus Spake Zarathustra, Chapter 10, Section LIV·philosophy, self-improvement

"There is no sorer misfortune in all human destiny than when the mighty of the earth are not also the first men."

Thus Spake Zarathustra, Part 4, Section 63·philosophy, Wisdom, leadership

“There is no truth, only interpretation.”

Thus Spake Zarathustra, Part 3, Section 5·philosophy, Ethics

This teaching in regard to self-control is evidence enough of his reverence for law.

Thus Spake Zarathustra, Chapter XXXIV, Section 1·philosophy, Wisdom

"True, he has helped them, he has given them back what they most need, i.e., belief in believing—the confidence in having confidence in something, but how do they use it?"

Thus Spake Zarathustra, Part 1, Section 77·philosophy, Wisdom

"A true poet is not only a master of words but also a master of the human soul."

Thus Spake Zarathustra, Chapter XXXIX·Wisdom, literature

"And verily, it is no commandment for to-day and to-morrow to LEARN to love oneself. Rather is it of all arts the finest, subtlest, last, and patientest."

Thus Spake Zarathustra, Part 2, Section 1·philosophy, self-improvement

Voluntary Death, i.e., the death that comes from no other hand than one’s own, he was desirous of elevating it to the position it held in classical antiquity.

Thus Spake Zarathustra, Chapter XXI·philosophy, Wisdom

“It is a warning to those who would think too lightly of the instincts and unduly exalt the intellect and its derivatives: Reason and Understanding.”

Thus Spake Zarathustra, Chapter 4, Section 1·philosophy, self-improvement

"We modern men, owing to the complicated mechanism of our 'firmament,' are determined by DIFFERENT moralities; our actions shine alternately in different colours, and are seldom unequivocal."

Beyond Good and Evil, Chapter 7, Section 215·philosophy, Wisdom

"What does not kill me makes me stronger."

Thus Spake Zarathustra, Part 3, Section 71·philosophy, self-improvement

What is done out of love always takes place beyond good and evil.

Beyond Good and Evil, Chapter 4, Section 153·philosophy, Wisdom

What is essential and invaluable in every system of morals, is that it is a long constraint.

Beyond Good and Evil, Chapter 5, Section 188·philosophy, Wisdom

"What is good? To be brave is good! It is the good war which halloweth every cause!"

Thus Spake Zarathustra, Chapter 10, Section LII·philosophy, Ethics

"What hath hitherto been the greatest sin here on earth? Was it not the word of him who said: ‘Woe unto them that laugh now!’"

Thus Spake Zarathustra, Part 4, Section 1·philosophy, Wisdom, self-improvement

"What he wished to determine was: Who is to be master of the world?"

Thus Spake Zarathustra, Part 1·philosophy, Wisdom

"What Nietzsche strives to combat and to overthrow is the modern democratic tendency which is slowly labouring to level all things—even the sexes."

Thus Spake Zarathustra, Chapter XVIII·philosophy, Ethics

For what they dare to touch and break with the impudence and irreverence of the unappreciative, he seems likewise to touch and break,—but with other fingers—with the fingers of the loving and unembarrassed artist.

Thus Spake Zarathustra, Chapter XXXV, Section 1·philosophy, Ethics

What would there be to create, if there were—Gods?

Thus Spake Zarathustra, Chapter XXIV, Section 1·philosophy, Wisdom

"Wherever sympathy (fellow-suffering) is preached nowadays... he will hear a hoarse, groaning, genuine note of SELF-CONTEMPT."

Beyond Good and Evil, Chapter 7, Section 222·philosophy, Wisdom

"Who still wanteth to rule? Who still wanteth to obey? Both are too burdensome."

Thus Spake Zarathustra, Chapter XVIII, Section 24·philosophy, Wisdom

Why so soft, so submissive and yielding? Why is there so much negation and abnegation in your hearts? Why is there so little fate in your looks?

Thus Spake Zarathustra, Part 1, Section 29·philosophy, Wisdom, self-improvement

"With respect to what is past, I have, like all discerning ones, great toleration, that is to say, GENEROUS self-control.... But my feeling changes suddenly, and breaks out as soon as I enter the modern period, OUR period. Our age KNOWS..."

Thus Spake Zarathustra, Part 3, Section 1·philosophy, Wisdom

Words, like all other manifestations of an evolving race, are stamped with the values that have long been paramount in that race.

Thus Spake Zarathustra, Chapter XXIII, Section 3·philosophy, Wisdom

"Ye higher men, think ye that I am here to put right what ye have put wrong? Or that I wished henceforth to make snugger couches for you sufferers?"

Thus Spake Zarathustra, Part 4, Section 1·philosophy, Wisdom, self-improvement

"The young shepherd... represents the man of to-day; the snake that chokes him represents the stultifying and paralysing social values that threaten to shatter humanity."

Thus Spake Zarathustra, Chapter 10, Section LVI·philosophy, Wisdom

"Zarathustra abjures all those who would fain turn an IMPERSONAL eye upon nature and contemplate her phenomena with that pure objectivity."

Thus Spake Zarathustra, Chapter XXXVII, Section 2·philosophy, Ethics

Zarathustra’s healthy exhortation to his disciples to become independent thinkers and to find themselves before they learn any more from him.

Thus Spake Zarathustra, Chapter XXII, Section 3·philosophy, leadership