Quotes from Friedrich Nietzsche

When law is no longer a tradition, as in our case, it can only be commanded, or forced; none of us has a traditional sense of justice any longer; therefore we must content ourselves with arbitrary laws, which express the necessity of having to have a law.

Of two quite lofty things, measure and moderation, it is best never to speak. A few know their force and significance, from the mysterious paths of inner experiences and conversions: they honor in them something quite godlike, and are afraid to speak aloud. All the rest hardly listen when they are spoken about, and think the subjects under discussion are tedium and mediocrity.

Omul e doar o funie, întins? între bestie ÅŸi Supraom — o funie peste un abis

If I must have pity, then I do not want to be called such; and if I do have pity, then rather from a distance.

As the act of birth deserves no consideration in the whole process and procedure of heredity, so "being conscious" is not in any decisive sense the opposite of what is instinctive: most of the conscious thinking of a philosopher is secretly guided and forced into certain channels by his instincts.

The whole morality of the Sermon on the Mount belongs here; man takes a truly voluptuous pleasure in violating himself by exaggerated demands and then deifying this something in his soul that is so tyrannically taxing. In each ascetic morality, man prays to one part of himself as god and also finds its necessary to diabolify the rest.

The time is coming when we shall have to pay for having been Christians for two thousand years; we have lost the essential thing on which our lives depend; for a long while we will not know what to do with ourselves.

Além todo o discurso é vão! A melhor sabedoria é esquecer e passar: foi isto que aprendeste agora.

Judgements, value judgements concerning life, for or against, can in the last resort never be true: they possess value only as symptoms, they come into consideration only as symptoms – in themselves such judgements are stupidities.

The properties of a thing are effects on other 'things': if one removes other 'things', then a thing has no properties, i.e., there is no thing without other things, i.e., there is no 'thing-in-itself.

Numai smintitul se împiedic? de pietre ÅŸi de oameni!

What is love? What is creation? What is longing? What is a star?" the last man asks, and he blinks. Formerly all the world was insane, say the subtlest of them, and they blink. "We have invented happiness," say the last men, and they blink.

One has watched life badly if one has not also seen the hand that considerately--kills.

It is all in vain; the torture of the unfulfilled law cannot be overcome.

A martyr's disciples suffer more than the martyr.

For a philosopher to see a problem in the value of life thus even constitutes an objection to him, a question-mark as to his wisdom, a piece of unwisdom.

Courageous, untroubled, mocking, violent—thus does Wisdom want us: she is a woman and always loves only a warrior.

Judgements, judgements of value, concerning life, for it or against it, can, in the end, never be true: they have value only as symptoms, they are worthy of consideration only as symptoms; in themselves such judgements are stupidities. One must by all means stretch out one's fingers and make the attempt to grasp this amazing finesse, that the value of life cannot be estimated.

What is not intelligible to me is not necessarily unintelligent.

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.

What is the ape to man? A laughing-stock, a thing of shame. And just the same shall man be to the Superman: a laughing-stock, a thing of shame.

The Germans invented gunpowder—all credit to them! but they again made things square—they invented printing.)

Viewed from a distant star, our planet would appear to be an unhappy planet, full of unhappy repulsive people, dissatisfied with themselves, with the Earth, with Life itself and knowing no greater pleasure than causing pain, to themselves and to others.

The mother of excess is not joy but joylessness