Friedrich Nietzsche

How much truth can a spirit bear, how much truth can a spirit dare? ... that became for me more and more the real measure of value

And those who were seen dancing were thought to be insane by those who could not hear the music

He who cannot obey himself will be commanded. That is the nature of living creatures

So long as men praise you, you can only be sure that you are not yet on your own true path but on someone else's

For what purpose humanity is there should not even concern us: why you are here, that you should ask yourself: and if you have no ready answer, then set for yourself goals, high and noble goals, and perish in pursuit of them!

All I need is a sheet of paper and something to write with, and then I can turn the world upside down

The 'kingdom of God' is not something one waits for; it has no yesterday or tomorrow, it does not come 'in a thousand years' it is an experience within a heart; it is everywhere, it is nowhere...

Existence begins in every instant.

The best author will be the one who is ashamed to become a writer

The State is the coldest of all cold monsters, and coldly it tells lies, and this lie drones on from its mouth: 'I, the State, am the people'

Alas, I can see that you do not know what it means to be alone. Wherever there have been powerful societies, governments, religions, or public opinions –in short, wherever there was any kind of tyranny, it has hated the lonely philosopher; for philosophy opens up a refuge for man where no tyranny can reach: the cave of inwardness, the labyrinth of the breast; and that annoys all tyrants

The individual has always had to struggle to keep from being overwhelmed by the tribe. If you try it, you will often be lonely, and sometimes frightened. But no price is too high to pay for the privilege of owning yourself

In individuals, insanity is rare, but in groups, parties, nations and epochs it is the rule

Why does man not see things as they are? –because he is himself standing in the way: he conceals things

One must still have chaos in oneself to be able to give birth to a dancing star.

We have art so that we shall not die of reality.

The tree that would grow to heaven must send its roots to hell

You must be ready to burn yourself in your own flame; how could you rise anew if you have not first become ashes?

Man and man's earth are unexhausted and undiscovered. Wake and listen! Verily, the earth shall yet be a source of recovery. Remain faithful to the earth, with the power of your virtue. Let your gift-giving love and your knowledge serve the meaning of the earth

Creating-that is the great salvation from suffering

Be careful when you fight the monsters, lest you become one

What is wrong with Christianity is that it refrains from doing all those things that Christ commanded should be done

The value of a thing sometimes lies not in what one attains with it, but in what one pays for it - what it costs us

It is nobler to declare oneself wrong than to insist on being right --especially when one is right

The essence of all beautiful art, all great art, is gratitude

I cannot believe in a God who wants to be praised all the time

Perhaps I know best why it is man alone who laughs; he alone suffers so deeply that he had to invent laughter

Real dancers are the ones who can hear the music in their soul

You lack the courage to be consumed in flames and to become ashes: so you will never become new, and never young again!

All mankind is divided, as it was at all times and is still, into slaves and freemen

The free man is a warrior

Every profound spirit needs a mask: even more, around every profound spirit a mask is continually growing

Without music, life would be a mistake... I would only believe in a God who knew how to dance

Whatever is done for love always occurs beyond good and evil

You must climb above yourself-up and beyond, until you have even your stars under you

Art is the highest task and the proper metaphysical activity of this life

The great end of art is to strike the imagination with the power of a soul that refuses to admit defeat even in the midst of a collapsing world

It is the stillest words that bring the storm

Art is essentially the affirmation, the blessing, and the deification of existence

All signs of superhuman nature appear in man as illness or insanity

Behind your thoughts and feelings, my brother, there stands a mighty ruler. an unknown sage - whose name is self. In yourt body he dwells; he is your body. There is more reason in your body than in your best wisdom

I love those who do not know how to live, except by going under, for they are those who cross over

My abyss speaks, I have turned my ultimate depth into light!

A change of values - that means, a change of the creators of values. He who has to be a creator always has to destroy

Life is that which must overcome itself again and again

Ah, only he who knows where he sails, knows what wind is good, and a fair wind for him

Philosophical systems are wholly true for their founders only

No artist will tolerate the world for one second as it is

He who would learn to fly one day must first learn to stand and walk and run and climb and dance; one cannot fly into flying

At a certain place in Beethoven's Ninth Symphony, for example, he might feel that he is floating above the earth in a starry dome, with the dream of immortality in his heart; all the stars seem to glimmer around him, and the earth seems to sink ever deeper downwards

Glance into the world just as though time were gone: and everything crooked will become straight to you

One must give value to their existence by behaving as if ones very existence were a work of art

Our salvation lies not in knowing, but in creating!

The creation of freedom for oneself and a sacred "No" even to duty -- for that, my brothers, the lion is needed

What we do is never understood, but always merely praised or blamed

The most fundamental form of human stupidity is forgetting what we were trying to do in the first place

What is great in man is that he is a bridge and not a goal: what there is to love in man is that he is a going-over and a going-under

Give me today, for once, the worst throw of your dice, destiny. Today I transmute everything into gold

Only great pain is, as the teacher of great suspicion, the ultimate liberator of the spirit...I doubt whether such pain improves us-but I do know it deepens us

The universe without music would be madness

I love him who seeks to create over and beyond himself and thus perishes

Remain faithful to the earth, my brothers, with the power of your virtue. Let your gift-giving love and your knowledge serve the meaning of the earth. Thus I beg and beseech you. Do not let them fly away from earthly things and beat with their wings against eternal walls. Alas, there has always been so much virtue that has flown away. Lead back to the earth the virtue that flew away, as I do—back to the body, back to life, that it may give the earth a meaning, a human meaning

I want to learn more and more to see as beautiful what is necessary in things; then I shall be one of those who make things beautiful. Amor fati: let that be my love henceforth! I do not want to wage war against what is ugly. I do not want to accuse; I do not even want to accuse those who accuse. Looking away shall be my only negation. And all in all and on the whole: some day I wish to be only a Yes-sayer

The voice of beauty speaks softly; it creeps only into the most fully awakened souls

And once you are awake, you shall remain awake eternally