Quote collection
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"There is only a perspective seeing, only a perspective 'knowing'; and the more affects we allow to speak about one thing, the more eyes, different eyes, we can use to observe one thing, the more complete will our 'concept' of this thing, our 'objectivity,' be."
"Underneath the reality in which we live and have our being, another altogether different reality lies concealed."
"We are doubly willing to jump into the water after some one who has fallen in, if there are people present who have not the courage to do so."
"The rights which a man arrogates to himself are relative to the duties which he sets himself, and to the tasks which he feels capable of performing."
"Let us guard against saying that there are laws in nature. There are merely necessities: there is no one who commands, no one whoobeys, no one who transgresses. Once you understand that there are no purposes, then you also understand that nothing is accidental: for it is only in a world of purposes that the word "accident" makes sense."
"Learning from one's enemies is the best way to love them, for it puts one into a grateful mood toward them."
"Vanity is the fear of appearing original: it is thus a lack of pride, but not necessarily a lack of originality."
"One loves ultimately one's desires, not the thing desired."
"In constructing concepts, we overlook the fact that no two things are the same. There is no such thing as the concept of a leaf, only billions and billions of leaves."
"In every philosophical school, three thinkers succeed one another in the following way: the first produces out of himself the sapand seed, the second draws it out into threads and spins a synthetic web, and the third waits in this web for the sacrificial victims that are caught in it--and tries to live off philosophy."
"In pain there is as much wisdom as in pleasure: like the latter it is one of the best self preservatives of a species."
"Just look at the faces of the great Christians! They are the faces of great haters."
"Good writers have two things in common: they prefer to be understood rather than admired; and they do not write for knowing and over-acute readers."
"If you have an enemy, do not requite him evil with good, for that would put him to shame. Rather prove that he did you some good."
"A person unlearns arrogance when he knows he is always among worthy human beings; being alone fosters presumption. Young people are arrogant because they always associate with their own peers, those who are all really nothing but who would like to be very important."
"What is originality? To see something that is as yet without a name, that is as yet impossible to designate, even though it staresus in the face. The way it usually is with people, it is a thing's name that makes it perceptible to them in the first place.--For the most part, the original ones have also been the name-givers."
"He who does not lie does not know what truth is."
"He who seeks intelligence lacks intelligence."
"Modern marriage has lost its meaning--consequently it is being abolished."
"A book should long for pen, ink, and writing-table: but usually it is pen, ink, and writing-table that long for a book. That is why books are so negligible nowadays."