Quote collection
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"When, however, you have an enemy, then do not requite him good for evil: for that would shame him. Instead, prove that he did some good for you. And rather be angry than put to shame! And when you are cursed, I do not like it that you want to bless. Rather curse a little also! And if you are done a great injustice, then quickly add five small ones. Hideous to behold is he who is obsessed with an injustice."
"The great works are produced in such an ecstasy of love that they must always be unworthy of it, however great their worth otherwise."
"You who hate the Jews so, why did you adopt their religion?"
"The refinement of morality increases together with the refinement of fear. Today the fear of disagreeable feelings in other people is almost the strongest of our own disagreeable feelings."
"The really historical performance would talk to ghosts."
"The beating of drums, which delights young writers who serve a party, sounds to him who does not belong to the party line like a rattling of chains, and excites sympathy rather than admiration."
"People who, out of an inborn moderation, leave every glass standing only half-emptied refuse to admit that everything in the world has its sediments and dregs."
"Great things demand that we either remain silent about them or speak in a great manner: in a great manner, that is-cynically and with innocence."
"For a significant man woman, the one thought he values greatly, to the laughter and scorn of insignificant men, is a key to hidden treasure chambers; for those others, it is nothing but a piece of old iron."
"Like tourists huffing and puffing to reach the peak we forget the view on the way up."
"Spiritual strength and passion, when accompanied by bad manners, only provoke loathing."
"For the purpose of knowledge we must know how to make use of the inward current which draws us towards a thing, and also of the current which after a time draws us away from it."
"To think historically is almost the same thing now as if in all ages history had been made according to theory."
"The destiny of mankind is arranged for happy moments every life has such but not for happy times."
"Compulsion precedes morality, indeed morality itself is compulsion for a time, to which one submits for the avoidance of pain."
"A man unconsciously imagines that where he is strong, where he feels most thoroughly alive, the element of his freedom must lie."
"Most people are far too much occupied with themselves to be malicious."
"Our crime against criminals lies in the fact that we treat them like rascals."
"Ye shall only have foes to be hated; but not foes to be despised: ye must be proud of your foes."
"A little wisdom is indeed possible; but this blessed security have I found in all things, that they prefer--to DANCE on the feet of chance."