Friedrich Nietzsche
Biography
German philosopher
Quotes from Friedrich Nietzsche
"Let us be careful in dealing with those who attach great importance to being credited with moral tact and subtlety in moral discernment! They never forgive us if they have once made a mistake BEFORE us- they inevitably become our instinctive calumniators and detractors, even when they still remain our 'friends.'"
"Blessed are the forgetful: for they 'get the better' even of their blunders."
"The practice of judging and condemning morally, is the favorite revenge of the intellectually shallow on those who are less so, it is also a kind of indemnity for their being badly endowed by nature, and finally, it is an opportunity for acquiring spirit and BECOMING subtle-- malice spiritualizes."
"The man of 'modern ideas', the conceited ape, is excessively dissatisfied with himself- this is perfectly certain. He suffers, and his vanity wants him only 'to suffer with his fellows.'"
"Learning alters us, it does what all nourishment does that does not merely 'conserve'--as the physiologist knows. But at the bottom of our souls, quite 'down below,' there is certainly something unteachable, a granite of spiritual fate, of predetermined decision and answer to predetermined, chosen questions."
"Idleness is the parent of psychology."
"Morality is the herd-instinct in the individual."
"He who has a why to live for can bear almost any how."
"The true man wants two things: danger and play."
"The secret for harvesting from existence the greatest fruitfulness and the greatest enjoyment is: to live dangerously!"
"I have often laughed at the weaklings who thought themselves good because they had no claws."
"It is not a lack of love, but a lack of friendship that makes unhappy marriages."
"Become who you are."
"Ultimately, it is the desire, not the desired, that we love."
"We often contradict an opinion for no other reason than that we do not like the tone in which it is expressed."
"There is more wisdom in your body than in your deepest philosophy."
"A living thing seeks above all to discharge its strength — life itself is will to power."
"The free man is a warrior."
"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."
"Life is continually shedding something that wants to die."
"Happiness is the feeling that power increases — that resistance is being overcome."
"That which does not kill us makes us stronger."
"Without music, life would be a mistake."
"He who has a why to live can bear almost any how."
"The individual has always had to struggle to keep from being overwhelmed by the tribe. If you try it, you will be lonely often, and sometimes frightened. But no price is too high to pay for the privilege of owning yourself."
"I'm not upset that you lied to me, I'm upset that from now on I can't believe you."
"In every real man, a child is hidden that wants to play."
"In heaven, all the interesting people are missing."
"All truly great thoughts are conceived while walking."
"One must still have chaos in oneself to be able to give birth to a dancing star."
"I cannot believe in a God who wants to be praised all the time."
"To live is to suffer, to survive is to find some meaning in the suffering."
"In individuals, insanity is rare; but in groups, parties, nations and epochs, it is the rule."
"The higher we soar, the smaller we appear to those who cannot fly."
"There are two different types of people in the world, those who want to know, and those who want to believe."
"A thinker sees his own actions as experiments and questions--as attempts to find out something. Success and failure are for him answers above all."
"To forget one's purpose is the commonest form of stupidity."
"The demand to be loved is the greatest of all arrogant presumptions."
"To predict the behavior of ordinary people in advance, you only have to assume that they will always try to escape a disagreeable situation with the smallest possible expenditure of intelligence."
"What is happiness? The feeling that power increases - that a resistance is overcome."
"Joy is only a symptom of the feeling of obtained power. One does not strive for joy… joy accompanies."
"Man, the bravest of animals, and the one most accustomed to suffering, does not repudiate suffering as such; he desires it, he even seeks it out, provided he is shown a meaning for it, a purpose of suffering."
"The meaninglessness of suffering, not the suffering itself, was the curse that lay over mankind so far."
"Human beings do not seek pleasure and avoid displeasure. What human beings want… is an increase of power; driven by that will they seek resistance, they need something that opposes it - displeasure, as an obstacle to their will to power, is therefore a normal fact; human being do not avoid it; they are rather in continual need of it."
"And life itself confided the secret to me: behold, it said, I am that which must always overcome itself."
"I measure the strength of a spirit by how much truth it can take."