Quote collection
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"Posthumous men-myself, for example-are not as well understood as timely ones, but we are listened to better. More precisely: we are never understood-hence our authority."
"Nihilism: any aim is lacking, any answer to the question "why" is lacking. What does nihilism mean?--that the supreme values devaluate themselves."
"Wisdom sets bounds even to knowledge."
"When one has not had a good father, one must create one."
"The architect represents neither a Dionysian nor an Apollinian condition: here it is the mighty act of will, the will which moves mountains, the intoxication of the strong will, which demands artistic expression. The most powerful men have always inspired the architects; the architect has always been influenced by power."
"There are more idols than realities in the world: that is my "evil eye" for this world, which is also my "evil ear"."
"The anarchist and the Christian have a common origin."
"To have and to want more that is life."
"Untroubled, scornful, outrageous - that is how wisdom wants us to be: she is a woman and never loves anyone but a warrior."
"The value of life itself cannot be estimated."
"Faith is the path of least resistance."
"It is difficult to live among people because silence is so difficult."
"People who have given us their complete confidence believe that they have a right to ours. The inference is false, a gift confers no rights."
"The task is not to overcome opponents in general but only those opponents against whom one has to summon all one's strength, one's skill and one's swordsmanship-in fact to master opponents who are one's equals."
"From passions grow opinions; intellectual laziness lets these harden into convictions."
"The thousand mysteries around us would not trouble but interest us, if only we had cheerful, healthy hearts."
"What someone is, begins to be revealed when his talent abates, when he stops showing us what he can do."
"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."
"Life is an instinct for growth, for survival, for the accumulation of forces, for power."
"Discontent is the seed of ethics."