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Quotations by Friedrich Nietzsche

Influence the present - The future influences the present just as much as the past.

A God who wants to be praised - I cannot believe in a God who wants to be praised all the time.

Whoever fights monsters - Whoever fights monsters should see to it that in the process he doesn't become a monster. He who fights with monsters should look to it that he himself does not become a monster. And when you gaze long into an abyss the abyss also gazes into you.

Once upon a time, clever beasts invented knowing - Once upon a time, in some out of the way corner of that universe which is dispersed into numberless twinkling solar systems, there was a star upon which clever beasts invented knowing. That was the most arrogant and mendacious minute of "world history," but nevertheless, it was only a minute. After nature had drawn a few breaths, the star cooled and congealed, and the clever beasts had to die. One might invent such a fable, and yet he still would not have adequately illustrated how miserable, how shadowy and transient, how aimless and arbitrary the human intellect looks within nature. There were eternities during which it did not exist. And when it is all over with the human intellect, nothing will have happened.

The surest way to corrupt youth - 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.

Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche

Only two groups: slaves and free men - Today as always, men fall into two groups: slaves and free men. Whoever does not have two-thirds of his day for himself, is a slave, whatever he may be: a statesman, a businessman, an official, or a scholar.

The thinker is not a party man - He who thinks a great deal is not suited to be a party man: he thinks his way through the party and out the other side too soon.

No one talks more passionately about rights. . . - No one talks more passionately about his rights than he who in the depths of his soul doubts whether he has any. By enlisting passion on his side he wants to stifle his reason and its doubts: thus he will acquire a good conscience and with it success among his fellow men.

A few hours of mountain climbing - A few hours of mountain climbing turn a rascal and a saint into two pretty similar creatures. Fatigue is the shortest way to Equality and Fraternity--and, in the end, Liberty will surrender to Sleep.

Anger at those who choose individual life standards - 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.

Young people love what is interesting and odd - Young people love what is interesting and odd, no matter how true or false it is. More mature minds love what is interesting and odd about truth. Fully mature intellects, finally, love truth, even when it appears plain and simple, boring to the ordinary person; for they have noticed that truth tends to reveal its highest wisdom in the guise of simplicity.

Deception, flattering, lying, deluding. . . - Deception, flattering, lying, deluding, talking behind the back, putting up a false front, living in borrowed splendor, wearing a mask, hiding behind convention, playing a role for others and for oneself -- in short, a continuous fluttering around the solitary flame of vanity -- is so much the rule and the law among men that there is almost nothing which is less comprehensible than how an honest and pure drive for truth could have arisen among them.

You have your way. I have my way - You have your way. I have my way. As for the right way, the correct way, and the only way, it does not exist.

People don't want to hear the truth - Sometimes people don't want to hear the truth because they don't want their illusions destroyed.

Being overwhelmed by the tribe - 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.

The snake which cannot cast its skin - The snake which cannot cast its skin has to die. As well the minds which are prevented from changing their opinions; they cease to be mind.

Stroll through the lunatic asylum - A casual stroll through the lunatic asylum shows that faith does not prove anything.

Find happiness where others find disaster - The most intelligent men, like the strongest, find their happiness where others would find only disaster: in the labyrinth, in being hard with themselves and with others, in effort; their delight is in self-mastery; in them asceticism becomes second nature, a necessity, an instinct. They regard a difficult task as a privilege; it is to them recreation to play with burdens that would crush all others.

The heaviest burden - What, if some day or night, a demon were to steal after you into your loneliest loneliness and say to you:

'This life, as you now live it and have lived it, you will have to live once more and innumerable times more; and there will be nothing new in it, but every pain and every joy and every thought and sigh ... must return to you -- all in the same succession and sequence -- even this spider and this moonlight between the trees and even this moment and I myself. The eternal hourglass of existence is turned over again and again -- and you with it, speck of dust!'

Would you not throw yourself down and gnash your teeth and curse the demon who spoke thus? Or have you once experienced a tremendous moment when you would have answered him: 'You are a god, and never have I heard anything more divine!' If this thought were to gain possession of you, it would change you as you are, or perhaps crush you. The question in each and every thing, "do you want this once more and innumerable times more?" would lie upon your actions as the greatest weight. Or how well disposed would you have to become to yourself and to life to crave nothing more fervently than this ultimate eternal confirmation and seal?

The bridge you must build over the river of life - No one can build you the bridge on which you, and only you, must cross the river of life. There may be countless trails and bridges and demigods who would gladly carry you across; but only at the price of pawning and forgoing yourself. There is one path in the world that none can walk but you. Where does it lead? Don't ask, walk!

Freedom under liberal institutions - Liberal institutions straightway cease to be liberal, as soon as they are attained: later on, there are no worse and no more thorough injurers of freedom than liberal institutions.

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