Quotes from Friedrich Nietzsche

And what magnificent instruments of observation we possess in our senses! This nose, for example, of which no philosopher has yet spoken with reverence and gratitude, is actually the most delicate instrument so far at our disposal: it is able to detect tiny chemical concentrations that even elude a spectroscope.

The fleetest beast to bear you to perfection is suffering.

Independence is for the very few; it is a privilege of the strong. And whoever attempts it even with the best right but without inner constraint proves that he is probably not only strong, but also daring to the point of recklessness.

People are always angry at anyone who chooses very individual standards for his life; because of the extraordinary treatment which that man grants to himself, they feel degraded, like ordinary beings.

I learned to walk; since then I have let myself run. I learned to fly; since then I do not need pushing in order to move from a spot.

Men after death are understood worse than men of the moment, but heard better.

But a spirit who is sure of himself speaks softly; he seeks secrecy, he lets himself be awaited.

Ah, give me madness, you heavenly powers! Madness, that I may at last believe in myself!

We are so fond of being out in Nature because it has no opinions of us.

The good life is that which succeeds in existing for the moment, without reference to past or future, without condemnation or selection, in a state of absolute lightness, and in the finished conviction that there is no difference therefore between the instant and eternity.

But strangers and the poor may pluck for themselves the fruit from my tree: that causes less shame. But beggars should be entirely done away with! Truly, it annoys one to give to them and it annoys one not to give to them.

I wish men would begin by respecting themselves: everything else follows from that. To be sure, as soon as one does this one is finished for others: for this is what they forgive last: 'What? A man who respects himself?

One does not hate as long as one has a low esteem of someone, but only when one esteems him as an equal or a superior.

We are always only in our own company.

By saying 'God sees into the heart' it denies the deepest and the highest desires of life and takes God for the enemy of life. The saint in whom God takes pleasure is the ideal castrate. Life is at an end where the kingdom of God begins.

All instincts that do not discharge themselves outwardly turn inward — this is what I call the internalization of man: thus it was that man first developed what was later called his 'soul.

The men of the period of corruption are witty and calumnious; they know that there are yet other ways of murdering than by the dagger and ambush--they know also that all that is well said is believed in.

You have been a poor observer of life if you have not also seen the hand that, ever so gently – kills.

Neither can such a doctrine argue: it simply does not understand that other doctrines exist, can exist, it simply does not know how to imagine an opinion contrary to its own

In fact, however, Nietzsche's very first book, The Birth, constitutes a declaration of independence from Schopenhauer: while Nietzsche admires him for honestly facing up to the terrors of existence, Nietzsche himself celebrates Greek tragedy as a superior alternative to Schopenhauer's "Buddhistic negation of the will." From tragedy Nietzsche learns that one can affirm life as sublime, beautiful, and joyous in spite of all suffering and cruelty.

He who writes in blood and aphorisms does not want to be read, he wants to be learned by heart.

CALM is the bottom of my sea: who would guess that it hides droll monsters! Unmoved is my depth: but it sparkles with swimming enigmas and laughters.

It is an eternal phenomenon: the insatiable will always finds a way to detain its creatures in life and compel them to live on, by means of an illusion spread over things.

Corruption is just a rude word for the autumn of a people.