Friedrich Nietzsche Doe Quotations

Whoever does not have a good father should procure one.

There are horrible people who, instead of solving a problem, tangle it up and make it harder to solve for anyone who wants to deal with it. Whoever does not know how to hit the nail on the head should be asked not to hit it at all.

The aphorism in which I am the first master among Germans, are the forms of 'eternity'; my ambition is to say in ten sentences what everyone else says in a book - what everyone else does not say in a book.

Every church is a stone on the grave of a god-man: it does not want him to rise up again under any circumstances.

When one does away with oneself one does the most estimable thing possible: one thereby almost deserves to live.

If a woman possesses manly virtues one should run away from her; and if she does not possess them she runs away from herself.

Experience, as a desire for experience, does not come off. We must not study ourselves while having an experience.

Before the effect one believes in different causes than one does after the effect.

The abdomen is the reason why man does not readily take himself to be a god.

He who does not lie does not know what truth is.

But the thought is one thing, the deed is another, and another yet is the image of the deed. The wheel of causality does not roll between them.

Weariness that wants to reach the ultimate with one leap, with one fatal leap, a poor ignorant weariness that does not want to want any more: this created all gods and afterworlds.

Man does not strive for happiness; only the Englishman does that.

The noble type of man feels himself to be the determiner of values, he does not need to be approved of, he judges 'what harms me is harmful in itself', he knows himself to be that which in general accords honour to things, he creates values.

One hears - one does not seek; one takes - one does not ask who gives.

I enquire now as to the genesis of a philologist and assert the following: 1. A young man cannot possibly know what Greeks and Romans are. 2. He does not know whether he is suited for finding out about them.

I absolutely cannot see how one can later make up for having failed to go to a good school at the proper time. For this is what distinguishes the hard school as a good school from all others: that much is demanded; and sternly demanded; that the good, even the exceptional, is demanded as the norm; that praise is rare, that indulgence is nonexistent; that blame is apportioned sharply, objectively, without regard for talent or antecedents. What does one learn in a hard school? Obeying and commanding.

The beating of drums, which delights young writers who serve a party, sounds to him who does not belong to the party line like a rattling of chains, and excites sympathy rather than admiration.

The hour when you say, "What does my happiness matter? It is poverty and filth, and a wretched complacency. Yet my happiness should justify existence itself!

When horror is associated with what is harmful, evil results, when disgust does, badness.

But eternal liveliness is what counts: what does "eternal life" matter, or life at all?

That the world is not the embodiment of an eternal rationality can be conclusively proved by the fact that the piece of the worldthat we know--I mean our human reason--is not so very rational. And if it is not eternally and completely wise and rational, then the rest of the world will not be either; here the conclusion a minori ad majus, a parte ad totum applies, and does so with decisive force.

Just as soon as we notice that someone has to force himself to pay attention when dealing and talking with us, we have a valid demonstration that he does not love us or that he does not love us anymore.

What good is a book that does not even transport us beyond all books?

One does not kill by anger but by laughter.

The person lives most beautifully who does not reflect upon existence

Now we will no longer concede so easily that anyone has the truth ; the rigorous methods of inquiry have spread sufficient distrust and caution, so that we experience every man who represents opinions violently in word and deed as any enemy of our present culture, or at least as a backward person. And in fact, the fervor about having the truth counts very little today in relation to that other fervor, more gentle and silent, to be sure, for seeking the truth, a search that does not tire of learning afresh and testing anew.

O, what nowadays does science not conceal! How much, at least, it is meant to conceal!

Completely true to nature!' - what a lie: / How could nature ever be constrained into a picture? / The smallest bit of nature is infinite! / And so he paints what he likes about it. / And what does he like? He likes what he can paint!

As regards the celebrated struggle for life, it seems to me for the present to have been rather asserted than proved. It does occur, but as the exception; the general aspect of life is not hunger and distress, but rather wealth, luxury, even absurd prodigality -- where there is a struggle it is a struggle for power.

We forget our guilt when we have confessed it to another, but the other does not usually forget it.

If we have our own why of life, we shall get along with almost any how. Man does not strive for pleasure; only the Englishman does.

Where does one not find that bland degeneration which beer produces in the spirit!

If we make sacrifices in doing good or in doing ill, it does not alter the ultimate value of our actions; even if we stake our life in the cause, as martyrs do for the sake of our church : it is a sacrifice to our longing for power, or for the purpose of conserving our sense of power.

Deep is the well of truth and long does it take to know what has fallen into its depths.

Evolution does not make happiness its goal; it aims simply at evolution and nothing else.

Woman understands children better than man does, but man is more childlike than woman.

Science is about finding ever better approximations rather than pretending you have already found ultimate truth. A casual stroll through the lunatic asylum shows that faith does not prove anything.

One does not want to be deceived, under the supposition that it is injurious, dangerous, or fatal to be deceived.

And if a friend does you wrong, then say: "I forgive you what you have done to me; that you have done it to YOURSELF, however--how could I forgive that!

How much truth does a spirit endure, how much truth does it dare?

Who can attain to anything great if he does not feel in himself the force and will to inflict great pain?

That which does not destroy, strengthens.

He divines remedies against injuries; he knows how to turn serious accidents to his own advantage; whatever does not kill him makes him stronger

I call a lie: wanting not to see something one does see, wanting not to see something as one sees it... The most common lie is the lie one tells to oneself; lying to others is relatively the exception.

What does your conscience say? — 'You should become the person you are'.

One does not know - cannot know - the best that is in one.

When self control is lacking in small things, the ability to apply it to matters of importance withers away. Every day in which one does not at least deny himself some trifle is badly spent and a threat to the day following.

Nihilism: any aim is lacking, any answer to the question "why" is lacking. What does nihilism mean?--that the supreme values devaluate themselves.

The most unambiguous sign that a person holds men in low esteem is this, that he either acknowledges them merely as means to his ends or does not acknowledge them at all.

To see others suffer does one good, to make others suffer even more: this is a hard saying but an ancient, mighty, human, all-too-human principle [....] Without cruelty there is no festival.

He who obeys, does not listen to himself!

The poison by which the weaker nature is destroyed is strengthening to the strong individual and he does not call it poison.

Whoever possesses the will to suffering within himself has a different attitude towards cruelty: he does not regard it as inherently harmful and bad.

In what does the objective measure of value lie? In the quantum of enhanced and organized power alone, in accordance with what occurs in all occurrence, a will to increase.

One hears but one does not seek; one takes -- one does not ask who gives; a thought flashes up like lightning, it comes of necessity and unfalteringly formed.

Socrates and Plato are right: whatever man does he always does well, that is, he does that which seems to him good (useful) according to the degree of his intellect, the particular standard of his reasonableness.

Whoever does not know how to find the way to his ideal lives more frivolously and impudently than the man without an ideal.

I should not believe in a God who does not dance.

He turns all of his injuries into strengths, that which does not kill him makes him stronger, he is superman.

Either one does not dream, or one does so interestingly. One should learn to spend one's waking life in the same way: not at all, or interestingly.