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Friedrich Nietzsche

Friedrich Nietzsche Quotes

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Famous Friedrich Nietzsche Quotes

“We find nothing easier than being wise, patient, superior. We drip with the oil of forbearance and sympathy, we are absurdly just, we forgive everything. For that very reason we ought to discipline ourselves a little; for that very reason we ought to cultivate a little emotion, a little emotional vice, from time to time. It may be hard for us; and among ourselves we may perhaps laugh at the appearance we thus present. But what of that! We no longer have any other mode of self-overcoming available to us: this is our asceticism, our penance.”

MayLittlesSelfHardReasonEmotionLaughingWiseEmotionalOughtDisciplineEasierOvercomingForgivingPatientVicesAppearanceAvailableOilSuperiorsSympathyBeing WiseAsceticismPenanceForbearance
Author:Friedrich Nietzsche
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“Since Copernicus, man seems to have got himself on an inclined plane-now he is slipping faster and faster away from the center into-what? into nothingness? into a 'penetrating sense of his nothingness?' ... all science, natural as well as unnatural-which is what I call the self-critique of knowledge-has at present the object of dissuading man from his former respect for himself, as if this had been but a piece of bizarre conceit.”

IfsMenWellsSelfSeemsScienceNaturalPiecesObjectsAccountsFormerFasterPlanesNothingnessBizarreConceitUnnaturalCritiqueSlippingCopernicus
Author:Friedrich Nietzsche
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“Actual philosophers... are commanders and law-givers: they say "thus it shall be!", it is they who determine the Wherefore and Whither of mankind, and they possess for this task the preliminary work of all the philosophical laborers, of all those who have subdued the past - they reach for the future with creative hand, and everything that is or has been becomes for them a means, an instrument, a hammer.”

MeanHas BeensHandsPastLawCreativeMankindTasksPhilosophicalInstrumentsDeterminePhilosopherHammersGiverCommandersLaborers
Book:Beyond good and evil: prelude to a philosophy of the future
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“All religions bear traces of the fact that they arose during the intellectual immaturity of the human race - before it had learned the obligations to speak the truth. Not one of them makes it the duty of its god to be truthful and understandable in his communications.”

HumansFactsReligionSpeakRaceAtheismDutyCommunicationBearsIntellectualObligationHuman RaceTruthfulSpeak The TruthImmaturityBeing Truthful
Book:The Selected Writings of Friedrich Nietzsche
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“"God", "immortality of the soul", "redemption", "beyond" - Without exception, concepts to which I have never devoted any attention, or time; not even as a child. Perhaps I have never been childlike enough for them? I do not by any means know atheism as a result; even less as an event: It is a matter of course with me, from instinct. I am too inquisitive, too questionable, too exuberant to stand for any gross answer. God is a gross answer, an indelicacy against us thinkers - at bottom merely a gross prohibition for us: you shall not think!”

ThinkingKnowsMeanChildrenSoulMatterEnoughCoursesAnswersResultsAttentionAtheismEventsConceptsInstinctBottomPositive AtheismRedemptionImmortalityExceptionThinkerDevotedGrossProhibitionChildlikeQuestionableInquisitive
Book:Basic Writings of Nietzsche
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“Historical refutation as the definitive refutation.- In former times, one sought to prove that there is no God - today one indicates how the belief that there is a God arose and how this belief acquired its weight and importance: a counter-proof that there is no God thereby becomes superfluous.- When in former times one had refuted the 'proofs of the existence of God' put forward, there always remained the doubt whether better proofs might not be adduced than those just refuted: in those days atheists did not know how to make a clean sweep.”

KnowsMightTodayBeliefExistenceChristianityKnow HowDoubtAtheismProveWeightImportanceCleanHistoricalAtheistProofFormerThere Is No GodSuperfluousExistence Of GodRefutation
Author:Friedrich Nietzsche
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“There is nothing more necessary than truth, and in comparison with it everything else has only secondary value. This absolute will to truth: what is it? Is it the will to not allow ourselves to be deceived? Is it the will not to deceive? One does not want to be deceived, under the supposition that it is injurious, dangerous, or fatal to be deceived.”

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Author:Friedrich Nietzsche
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“The transition from Religion to Scientific contemplation is a violent, dangerous leap, which is not to be recommended. In order to make this transition, art is far rather to be employed to relieve the mind overburdened with emotions. Out of the illogical comes much good. It is so firmly rooted in the passions, in language, in art, in religion, and generally in everything which gives value to life. It is only the naive people who can believe that the nature of man can be changed into a purely logical one. We have yet to learn that others can suffer, and this can never be completely learned.”

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Author:Friedrich Nietzsche
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“For such is man: a Theological Dogma might be refuted to him a thousand times - provided however, that he had need of it, he would again and again accept it as true. Belief is always most desired, most pressingly needed where there is a lack of will. Fanaticism is the sole "volitional strength" to which the weak and irresolute can be excited, as a sort of hypnotising of the entire sensory-intellectual system.”

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Author:Friedrich Nietzsche
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“It was Christianity which first painted the devil on the worlds walls; It was Christianity which first brought sin into the world. Belief in the cure which it offered has now been shaken to it's deepest roots; but belief in the sickness which it taught and propagated continues to exists.”

WorldFirstsBeliefFearSinChristianityAtheismTaughtWallDevilRootsRageCuresSickness
Book:Nietzsche: Human, All Too Human: A Book for Free Spirits
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“What is new, however, is always evil, being that which wants to conquer and overthrow the old boundary markers and the old pieties; and only what is old is good. The good men are in all ages those who dig the old thoughts, digging deep and getting them to bear fruit - the farmers of the spirit. But eventually all land is depleted, and the ploughshare of evil must come again and again.”

MenWantAgeSpiritEvilFearAtheismLandBearsFruitRageBoundariesConquerGood ManFarmersAgain And AgainPietyDiggingMarkersDigging Deep
Book:The Gay Science: With a Prelude in Rhymes and an Appendix of Songs
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“Everyone wants to be foremost in this future-and yet death and the stillness of death are the only things certain and common to all in this future! How strange that this sole thing that is certain and common to all, exercises almost no influence on men, and that they are the furthest from regarding themselves as the brotherhood of death! It makes me happy to see that men do not want to think at all of the idea of death!”

ThinkingMenWantIdeasCertainFearCommonAtheismInfluenceStrangeExerciseRageBrotherhoodStillnessSoleMake Me Happy
Book:Delphi Complete Works of Friedrich Nietzsche (Illustrated): Friedrich Nietzsche
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