Who is Friedrich Nietzsche
Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche was a German philosopher of the late 19th century who challenged the foundations of Christianity and traditional morality. He was interested in the enhancement of individual and cultural health, and believed in life, creativity, power, and the realities of the world we live in, rather than those situated in a world beyond. Central to his philosophy is the idea of “life-affirmation,” which involves an honest questioning of all doctrines that drain life’s expansive energies, however socially prevalent those views might be. Often referred to as one of the first existentialist philosophers along with Søren Kierkegaard (1813–1855), Nietzsche’s revitalizing philosophy has inspired leading figures in all walks of cultural life, including dancers, poets, novelists, painters, psychologists, philosophers, sociologists and social revolutionaries.
Friedrich Nietzsche Quotes
1. Without music, life would be a mistake.
2. It is not a lack of love, but a lack of friendship that makes unhappy marriages.
3. That which does not kill us makes us stronger.
4. I’m not upset that you lied to me, I’m upset that from now on I can’t believe you.
5. And those who were seen dancing were thought to be insane by those who could not hear the music.
6. It is hard enough to remember my opinions, without also remembering my reasons for them!
7. Whoever fights monsters should see to it that in the process he does not become a monster. And if you gaze long enough into an abyss, the abyss will gaze back into you.
8. There is always some madness in love. But there is also always some reason in madness.
9. You have your way. I have my way. As for the right way, the correct way, and the only way, it does not exist.
10. You must have chaos within you to give birth to a dancing star.
11. Sometimes people don’t want to hear the truth because they don’t want their illusions destroyed.
12. In heaven, all the interesting people are missing.
13. There are no facts, only interpretations.
14. He who has a why to live for can bear almost any how.
15. The man of knowledge must be able not only to love his enemies but also to hate his friends.
16. 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.
17. We should consider every day lost on which we have not danced at least once.
18. When we are tired, we are attacked by ideas we conquered long ago.
19. I cannot believe in a God who wants to be praised all the time.
20. 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.
21. No one can construct for you the bridge upon which precisely you must cross the stream of life, no one but you yourself alone.
22. In individuals, insanity is rare; but in groups, parties, nations and epochs, it is the rule.
23. The advantage of a bad memory is that one enjoys several times the same good things for the first time.
24. 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.
25. Man is the cruelest animal.
26. Is man merely a mistake of God’s? Or God merely a mistake of man?
27. 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.
28. Every deep thinker is more afraid of being understood than of being misunderstood.
29. Thoughts are the shadows of our feelings — always darker, emptier and simpler.
30. The thought of suicide is a great consolation: by means of it one gets through many a dark night.
31. The higher we soar the smaller we appear to those who cannot fly.
32. Faith: not wanting to know what the truth is.
33. I would believe only in a God that knows how to dance.
34. 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.
35. 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’ … 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.
36. A casual stroll through the lunatic asylum shows that faith does not prove anything.
37. The true man wants two things: danger and play. For that reason he wants woman, as the most dangerous plaything.
38. Beware that, when fighting monsters, you yourself do not become a monster… for when you gaze long into the abyss. The abyss gazes also into you.
39. There are no beautiful surfaces without a terrible depth.
40. We have art in order not to die of the truth.
41. All truly great thoughts are conceived while walking.
42. Be careful, lest in casting out your demon you exorcise the best thing in you.
43. You must be ready to burn yourself in your own flame;
how could you rise anew if you have not first become ashes?
44. There are two different types of people in the world, those who want to know, and those who want to believe.
45. A good writer possesses not only his own spirit but also the spirit of his friends.
46. One ought to hold on to one’s heart; for if one lets it go, one soon loses control of the head too.
47. All things are subject to interpretation. Whichever interpretation prevails at a given time is a function of power and not truth.
48. In truth,there was only one christian and he died on the cross.
49. That which is done out of love is always beyond good and evil.
50. Silence is worse; all truths that are kept silent become poisonous.
51. All I need is a sheet of paper
and something to write with, and then
I can turn the world upside down.
52. Doubt as sin. — Christianity has done its utmost to close the circle and declared even doubt to be sin. One is supposed to be cast into belief without reason, by a miracle, and from then on to swim in it as in the brightest and least ambiguous of elements: even a glance towards land, even the thought that one perhaps exists for something else as well as swimming, even the slightest impulse of our amphibious nature — is sin! And notice that all this means that the foundation of belief and all reflection on its origin is likewise excluded as sinful. What is wanted are blindness and intoxication and an eternal song over the waves in which reason has drowned.
53. Ah, women. They make the highs higher and the lows more frequent.
54. Meaning and morality of One’s life come from within oneself. Healthy, strong individuals seek self expansion by experimenting and by living dangerously. Life consists of an infinite number of possibilities and the healthy person explores as many of them as posible. Religions that teach pity, self-contempt, humility, self-restraint and guilt are incorrect. The good life is ever changing, challenging, devoid of regret, intense, creative and risky.
55. Art is the proper task of life.
56. One must still have chaos in oneself to be able to give birth to a dancing star.
57. Invisible threads are the strongest ties.
58. Amor Fati – “Love Your Fate”, which is in fact your life.
59. There is not enough love and goodness in the world to permit giving any of it away to imaginary beings.
60. What does your conscience say? — ‘You should become the person you are’.
