Nietzsche Quotes
A Collection of quotes by German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche. Included are quotes from his published works, as well as his notes and memoirs. We have tried to give as accurate a bibliography as possible, however if you find a mistake, feel free to contact us and we will correct it as soon as possible.
Nietzsche Quotes on Power
“He who fights with monsters should look to it that he himself does not become a monster. And if you gaze long into an abyss, the abyss also gazes into you.”
– Friedrich Nietzsche, Beyond Good and Evil
“That which does not kill us, makes us stronger”
– Friedrich Nietzsche, Maxims and Arrows 8, Twilight of the Idols
“A strong and well-constituted man digests his experiences (deeds and misdeeds all included) just as he digests his meats, even when he has some tough morsels to swallow. ”
– Friedrich Nietzsche
“We ought to face our destiny with courage.”
– Friedrich Nietzsche
“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.”
– Friedrich Nietzsche, Disputed. Widely quoted as Nietzsche, but potentially belongs to Rudyard Kipling.
“Convictions are more dangerous enemies of truth than lies.”
– Friedrich Nietzsche, Aphorism 483
“Most men are too concerned with themselves to be malicious”
– Friedrich Nietzsche: Human, All Too Human
“In truth, man is a polluted river. One must be a sea, to receive a polluted river and not be defiled.”
– Friedrich Nietzsche, Thus Spoke Zarathustra
Zarathustra’s Prologue 3
Nietzsche Quotes on Life
“It is not a lack of love, but a lack of friendship that makes unhappy marriages.”
– Friedrich Nietzsche
“Nothing on earth consumes a man more quickly than the passion of resentment””
– Friedrich Nietzsche
“Against boredom, even Gods struggle in vain.”
– Friedrich Nietzsche
“He who feeds the hungry refreshes his own soul.”
– Friedrich Nietzsche, Thus Spoke Zarathustra
Zarathustra’s Prologue 8
“People who live in an age of corruption are witty and slanderous; they know that there are other kinds of murder than by dagger or assault; they also know that whatever is well said is believed”
– Friedrich Nietzsche.
“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.“
– Friedrich Nietzsche.
“He who has a why in life can tolerate almost any how.”
– Friedrich Nietzsche
“Anyone who has declared someone else to be an idiot, a bad apple, is annoyed when it turns out in the end that he isn’t.”
– Friedrich Nietzsche
Nietzsche Quotes on Music
“We should consider every day lost on which we have not danced at least once.”
– Friedrich Nietzsche
“We talk so abstractly about poetry because all of us are usually bad poets.”
– Friedrich Nietzsche
“And those who were seen dancing, were thought insane by those who could not hear the music.”
– Friedrich Nietzsche.
“Without music, life would be a mistake.”
– Friedrich Nietzsche
Nietzsche Quotes on Truth
“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 Nietzsche
“In every man, a child is hidden that wants to play.”
– Friedrich Nietzsche
“To forget one’s purpose is the commonest form of stupidity.”
– Friedrich Nietzsche
“How much truth can a spirit bear, how much truth can a spirit dare? … that became for me more and more the real measure of value.”
– Friedrich Nietzsche
“In heaven, all the interesting people are missing.”
– Friedrich Nietzsche.
“Is man merely a mistake of God’s? Or God merely a mistake of man?”
– Friedrich Nietzsche
“I am a forest, and a night of dark trees: but he who is not afraid of my darkness, will find banks full of roses under my cypresses.”
– Friedrich Nietzsche, Thus Spoke Zarathustra
“One should die proudly when it is no longer possible to live proudly.”
– Friedrich Nietzsche
Miscellaneous Nietzsche Quotes
“Great Star! What would your happiness be, if you had not those for whom you shine.”
– Friedrich Nietzsche, Thus Spoke Zarathustra,
Zarathustra’s Prologue 1
“I found it more dangerous among men than among animals.”
– Friedrich Nietzsche, Thus Spoke Zarathustra,
Zarathustra’s Prologue 10
“Thoughts are the shadows of our feelings — always darker, emptier and simpler.”
– Friedrich Nietzsche
“He who cannot obey himself will be commanded. That is the nature of living creatures.”
– Friedrich Nietzsche
“He who climbs upon the highest mountains laughs at all tragedies, real or imaginary.”
– Friedrich Nietzsche, Thus Spoke Zarathustra
“All great things must first wear terrifying and monstrous masks in order to inscribe themselves on the hearts of humanity.”
– Friedrich Nietzsche
“Two great European narcotics, alcohol and Christianity.”
– Friedrich Nietzsche
“The tree that would grow to heaven must send its roots to hell.”
– Friedrich Nietzsche
“Cynicism is the only form in which base souls approach honesty.”
– Friedrich Nietzsche
“In the mountains of truth, you never climb in vain.”
– Friedrich Nietzsche
”Who has organized the chaos of his passions, given style to his character, and become creative. Aware of life’s terrors, he affirms life without resentment. ”
– Friedrich Nietzsche
“We would not let ourselves be burned to death for our opinions: we are not sure enough of them for that.”
– Friedrich Nietzsche
“This is the hardest of all: to close the open hand out of love, and keep modest as a giver.”
– Friedrich Nietzsche
“Morality is the herd-instinct in the individual.”
– Friedrich Nietzsche
“Everything the State says is a lie, and everything it has it has stolen.”
– Friedrich Nietzsche
“And if you are not a bird, then beware of coming to rest above an abyss.”
– Friedrich Nietzsche
“He who delights in solitude is either a wild beast or a god.”
– Friedrich Nietzsche
“Could it be? This old saint has not yet heard in his forest that God is dead!”
– Friedrich Nietzsche, Thus Spoke Zarathustra
Zarathustra’s Prologue 3
“A bad conscience is easier to cope with than a bad reputation.”
– Friedrich Nietzsche, The Gay Science
“A man far oftener appears to have a decided character from persistently following his temperament than from persistently following his principles.”
– Friedrich Nietzsche, Human, All too Human
“To find everything profound – that is an inconvenient trait. It makes one strain one’s eyes all the time, and in the end one finds more than one might have wished.”
– Friedrich Nietzsche
“All things are subject to interpretation. Whichever interpretation prevails at a given time is a subject of power and not truth”
– Mistakenly widely attributed to Nietzsche. While it is an apt summary of his views, it seems to be 21st Century “twist.”
“But in the loneliest desert the second metamorphosis occurs; the spirit here becomes a lion;
it wants to capture freedom and be lord in its own desert.”
– Friedrich Nietzsche, Thus Spoke Zarathustra
Zarathustra’s Discourses
“Art is essentially the affirmation, the blessing, and the deification of existence.”
– Friedrich Nietzsche
“There they laugh: they do not understand me; I am not the mouth for these ears.”
– Friedrich Nietzsche, Thus Spoke Zarathustra
“Here the ways of men divide. If you wish to strive for peace of soul and happiness, then believe; if you wish to be a disciple of truth, then inquire.”
– Friedrich Nietzsche
“So long as men praise you, you can only be sure that you are not yet on your own true path but on someone else’s.”
– Friedrich Nietzsche
“The wreckage of stars – I built a world from this wreckage.”
– Friedrich Nietzsche
“Pity is the most agreeable feeling among those who have little pride and no prospects of great conquests.”
– Friedrich Nietzsche, The Gay Science
“God is dead, God remains dead, and we have killed him.”
– Friedrich Nietzsche, The Gay Science
“State is the name of the coldest of all cold monsters. Coldly it lies, and this lie slips from its mouth: I, the state, am the people.”
– Friedrich Nietzsche
“In conversation we are sometimes confused by the tone of our own voice, and mislead to make assertions that do not at all correspond to our opinions.”
– Friedrich Nietzsche, Human, All Too Human
“Not every end is the goal. The end of a melody is not its goal, and yet if a melody has not reached its end, it has not reached its goal.”
– Friedrich Nietzsche
“Uncanny is human existance and still without meaning: a buffoon can be fatal to it.”
– Friedrich Nietzsche, Thus Spoke Zarathustra
Zarathustra’s Prologue 7
“We should call every truth false which was not accompanied by at least one laugh”
– Friedrich Nietzsche
“Without myth, however, every culture loses its healthy creative natural power: it is only a horizon encompassed with myth that rounds off to unity a social movement.”
– Friedrich Nietzsche, The Birth of Tragedy
“Those moralists, on the other hand, who, following in the footsteps of Socrates, offer the individual a morality of self-control and temperance as a means to his own advantage, as his personal key to happiness, are the exceptions.”
– Friedrich Nietzsche
“Supposing truth is a woman – what then?”
– Friedrich Nietzsche
“Fanatics are picturesque, mankind would rather see gestures than listen to reasons.”
– Friedrich Nietzsche
“Human history would be nothing but a record of stupidity save for the cunning contributions of the weak.”
– Friedrich Nietzsche, On the Genealogy of Morals
“Almost everything we call “higher culture” is based on the spiritualization of cruelty.”
– Friedrich Nietzsche, Beyond Good and Evil
“Our crime against criminals lies in the fact that we treat them like rascals.”
– Friedrich Nietzsche, Human, All Too Human
“Existence really is an imperfect tense that never becomes a present.”
– Friedrich Nietzsche
“We set no special value on the possession of a virtue until we percieve that it is entirely lacking in our adversary.”
– Friedrich Nietzsche, Human, All Too Human
“Oh great star! What would your happiness be if you did not have us to shine for?”
– Friedrich Nietzsche, Thus Spoke Zarathustra
“The word “Christianity” is already a misunderstanding; in reality there has been only one Christian, and he died on the cross.”
– Friedrich Nietzsche
“The true man wants two things: danger and play. For that reason he wants woman, as the most dangerous plaything.”
– Friedrich Nietzsche, Thus Spoke Zarathustra
“Man is something that should be overcome.”
– Friedrich Nietzsche, Thus Spoke Zarathustra, Of War and Warriors
“They are always ill. They vomit their bile and call it a newspaper.”
– Friedrich Nietzsche, Thus Spoke Zarathustra, Of the New Idol
“Because you are gentle and just minded you say: They are not to be blamed for their little existance.
But their little souls think: All great existence is blameworthy.”
– Friedrich Nietzsche
“But you yourself will always be the worst enemy you can encounter. You yourself lie in wait for yourself in caves and forests.”
– Friedrich Nietzsche
“They steal the works of the inventors and the treasures of the wise. Culture, they call their theft, and everything becometh sickness and trouble unto them!”
– Friedrich Nietzsche, Thus Spoke Zarathustra, Of the New Idol
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