Quote collection
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"To regard states of distress in general as an objection, as something which must be abolished is the greatest nonsense on earth; having the most disastrous consequences, fatally stupid- almost as stupid as a wish to abolish bad weather - out of pity for the poor."
"It is thus only this personal feeling of misery that we get rid of by acts of pity."
"One who is publicly honest about himself ends up by priding himself somewhat on this honesty: for he knows only too well why he is honest-for the same reasons another person prefers illusion and dissimulation."
"Whether a man hides his bad qualities and vices or confesses them openly, his vanity wants to gain an advantage by it in both cases: just note how subtly he distinguishes between those he will hide his bad qualities from and those he will face honestly and candidly."
"Another Christian concept, no less crazy, has passed even more deeply into the tissue of modernity: the concept of the 'equality of souls before God.' This concept furnishes the prototype of all theories of equal rights."
"Let man fear woman when she loves: then she makes any sacrifice, and everything else seems without value to her"
"The Christian church has left nothing untouched by its depravity; it has turned every value into worthlessness, and every truth into a lie"
"It is not in our hands to prevent our birth; but we can correct this mistake - for in some cases it is a mistake."
"One has been a poor spectator of life if one has not witnessed the hand - that kills from mercy."
"Even the most honest writer lets slip a word too many when he wants to round off a period."
"However closely people are attached to one another, their mutual horizon nonetheless includes all four compass directions, and nowand again they notice it."
"Spirit is the life that itself cuts into life: with its own torment it increases its own knowledge. Did you already know that?"
"When an idea is just rising on the horizon, the soul's temperature with respect to it is usually very cold. Only gradually does the idea develop its warmth, and it is hottest (which is to say, exerting its greatest influence) when belief in the idea is already once again in decline."
"This is the fundamental idea of culture, insofar as it sets but one task for each of us: to further the production of the philosopher, of the artist, and of the saint within us and outside us, and thereby to work at the consummation of nature."
"The drive toward knowledge has a moral origin."
"The philosopher caught in the nets of language."
"Is not wounded vanity the mother of all tragedies?"
"Our sense of the tragic waxes and wanes with our sensuality."
"With sturdy shoulders, space stands opposing all its weight to nothingness. Where space is, there is being."
"A friend whose hopes we cannot satisfy is a friend we would rather have as an enemy."