Our treasure lies in the beehive of our knowledge. We are perpetually on the way thither, being by nature winged insects and honey gatherers of the mind.
Die einen werden durch großes Lob schamhaft, die anderen frech.
I still live, I still think: I still have to live, for I still have to think.
Wenn man viel hineinzustecken hat, so hat ein Tag hundert Taschen.
Nothing is beautiful, only man: on this piece of naivete rests all aesthetics, it is the first truth of aesthetics. Let us immediately add its second: nothing is ugly but degenerate man - the domain of aesthetic judgment is therewith defined.
Das Leben ist wert, gelebt zu werden, sagt die Kunst, die schönste Verführerin; das Leben ist wert, erkannt zu werden, sagt die Wissenschaft.
Is man one of God's blunders? Or is God one of man's blunders?
Den Stil verbessern, das heißt den Gedanken verbessern.
It is the most sensual men who need to flee women and torment their bodies.
Man verdirbt einen Jüngling am sichersten, wenn man ihn verleitet, den Gleichdenkenden höher zu achten als den Andersdenkenden.
Admiration for a quality or an art can be so strong that it deters us from striving to possess it.
Kein Sieger glaubt an den Zufall.
This is what is hardest: to close the open hand because one loves.
Die Hoffnung ist der Regenbogen über den herabstürzenden jähen Bach des Lebens.
A great value of antiquity lies in the fact that its writings are the only ones that modern men still read with exactness.
Das ist mein Weg, welches ist Dein Weg? DEN Weg gibt es nicht.
Glance into the world just as though time were gone: and everything crooked will become straight to you.
Tatsachen gibt es nicht, nur Interpretationen.
The demand to be loved is the greatest of all arrogant presumptions.
Mit einer sehr lauten Stimme im Hals ist man fast außerstande, feine Sachen zu denken.
One should die proudly when it is no longer possible to live proudly.
Wir leben in einem System, in dem man entweder Rad sein muß oder unter die Räder gerät.
Undeserved praise causes more pangs of conscience later than undeserved blame, but probably only for this reason, that our power of judgment are more completely exposed by being over praised than by being unjustly underestimated.
Man widerspricht oft einer Meinung, während uns eigentlich nur der Ton, mit dem sie vorgetragen wurde, unsympatisch ist.
We often refuse to accept an idea merely because the tone of voice in which it has been expressed is unsympathetic to us.
Mitfreude, nicht Mitleiden macht den Freund.
That which does not kill us makes us stronger.
Etwas Kurz-Gesagtes kann die Frucht und Ernte von vielem Lang-Gedachten sein.
There is not enough love and goodness in the world to permit giving any of it away to imaginary beings.
Im Gebirge der Wahrheit kletterst du nie umsonst: entweder du kommst schon heute weiter hinauf, oder du übst deine Kräfte, um morgen höher steigen zu können.
The aphorism in which I am the first master among Germans, are the forms of 'eternity'; my ambition is to say in ten sentences what everyone else says in a book - what everyone else does not say in a book.
Die Kraft steckt in der Qualität.
I love those who do not know how to live for today.
Sind doch alle Ordnungen des Menschen darauf eingerichtet, daß das Leben in einer fortgesetzten Zerstreuung der Gedanken nicht gespürt werde.
All truly great thoughts are conceived by walking.
Gelobt sei, was hart macht.
After coming into contact with a religious man I always feel I must wash my hands.
Die Wahrheiten der Menschen sind die unwiderlegbaren Irrtümer.
Is life not a thousand times too short for us to bore ourselves?
Die Deutschen haben das Pulver erfunden - alle Achtung! Aber sie haben es wieder gutgemacht: sie erfanden die Presse.
Sleeping is no mean art: for its sake one must stay awake all day.
Viele sind hartnäckig in Bezug auf den einmal eingeschlagenen Weg, wenige in Bezug auf das Ziel.
When one does away with oneself one does the most estimable thing possible: one thereby almost deserves to live.
Man erkennt einen Philosophen daran, daß er drei glänzenden und lauten Dingen aus dem Wege geht: dem Ruhme, den Fürsten und den Frauen - womit nicht gesagt ist, daß sie nicht zu ihm kämen.
There are people who want to make men's lives more difficult for no other reason than the chance it provides them afterwards to offer their prescription for alleviating life; their Christianity, for instance.
Worte = Taschen, in die bald dies, bald jenes, bald mehreres auf einmal hingesteckt worden ist.
Morality is the herd-instinct in the individual.
Unsere Pflichten, das sind die Rechte anderer auf uns.
Women are considered deep - why? Because one can never discover any bottom to them. Women are not even shallow.
Gott ist eine faustgrobe Antwort, eine Undelicatesse gegen uns Denker –, im Grunde sogar bloss ein faustgrobes Verbot an uns: Ihr sollt nicht denken!
Of all that is written, I love only what a person has written with his own blood.
Was ist Originalität? Etwas sehen, das noch keinen Namen trägt, noch nicht genannt werden kann, ob es gleich vor aller Augen liegt. Wie die Menschen gewöhnlich sind, macht ihnen erst der Name ein Ding überhaupt sichtbar.
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.
Es ist doch nicht genug, eine Sache zu beweisen, man muß die Menschen zu ihr auch noch verführen.
One often contradicts an opinion when what is uncongenial is really the tone in which it was conveyed.
Ohne Musik wäre das Leben ein Irrtum.
We love life, not because we are used to living but because we are used to loving.
Jedes Wort ist ein Vorurteil.
It is not a lack of love, but a lack of friendship that makes unhappy marriages.
Der Mensch ist unendlich größer als der Mensch.
There are various eyes. Even the Sphinx has eyes: and as a result there are various truths, and as a result there is no truth.
Heute ist die Utopie vom Vormittag die Wirklichkeit vom Nachmittag.
You say it is the good cause that hallows even war? I say unto you: it is the good war that hallows any cause.
Im Lobe ist mehr Zudringlichkeit als im Tadel.
I cannot believe in a God who wants to be praised all the time.
Die Frau war Gottes zweiter Fehler.
Arrogance on the part of the meritorious is even more offensive to us than the arrogance of those without merit: for merit itself is offensive.
Die stillen Gedanken sind es, welche den Sturm bringen. Gedanken, die mit Taubenfüßen kommen, lenken die Welt.
If a woman possesses manly virtues one should run away from her; and if she does not possess them she runs away from herself.
Man hört nur Fragen, auf welche man im Stande ist, eine Antwort zu geben.
Let us beware of saying that death is the opposite of life. The living being is only a species of the dead, and a very rare species.
Das absolute Wissen führt zum Pessimismus: die Kunst ist das Heilmittel dagegen.
It is my ambition to say in ten sentences what others say in a whole book.
Nicht fort sollt ihr euch entwickeln, sondern hinauf.
Today I love myself as I love my god: who could charge me with a sin today? I know only sins against my god; but who knows my god?
Die Hoffnung ist ein viel größeres Stimulans des Lebens als irgendein Glück.
The irrationality of a thing is no argument against its existence, rather a condition of it.
Man ist ein Mann seines Faches um den Preis, auch das Opfer seines Faches zu sein.
In the last analysis, even the best man is evil: in the last analysis, even the best woman is bad.
Bei der ungeheuren Beschleunigung des Lebens werden Geist und Auge an ein halbes und falsches Sehen und Urteilen gewöhnt.
When art dresses in worn-out material it is most easily recognized as art.
Nicht der Mangel der Liebe, sondern der Mangel an Freundschaft macht unglückliche Ehen.
To use the same words is not a sufficient guarantee of understanding; one must use the same words for the same genus of inward experience; ultimately one must have one's experiences in common.
Mancher findet sein Herz nicht eher, als bis er seinen Kopf verliert.
Faith: not wanting to know what is true.
Man soll sich beim Eingehen einer Ehe die Frage vorlegen: Glaubst du, dich mit dieser Frau bis ins Alter hinein gut zu unterhalten? Alles andere in der Ehe ist transitorisch, aber die meiste Zeit des Verkehrs gehört dem Gespräche an.
Blessed are the forgetful: for they get the better even of their blunders.
Die Insekten stechen nicht aus Bosheit, sondern weil sie auch leben wollen; ebenso unsere Kritiker: sie wollen unser Blut, nicht unsern Schmerz.
All truth is simple... is that not doubly a lie?
Die demokratischen Einrichtungen sind Quarantäneanstalten gegen tyrannenhafte Gelüste.
What do I care about the purring of one who cannot love, like the cat?
Allgemein ist die Hast, weil jeder auf der Flucht vor sich selbst ist.
Fanatics are picturesque, mankind would rather see gestures than listen to reasons.
Der Besitz wird durch das Besitzen meistens geringer.
Every church is a stone on the grave of a god-man: it does not want him to rise up again under any circumstances.
Man belohnt seinen Lehrer schlecht, wenn man immer sein Schüler bleibt.
In Christianity neither morality nor religion come into contact with reality at any point.
Der Beruf ist eine Schutzwehr, hinter welche man sich, wenn Bedenken und Sorgen allgemeiner Art einen anfallen, erlaubterweise zurückziehen kann.
Talking much about oneself can also be a means to conceal oneself.
Formel meines Glücks: ein Ja, ein Nein, eine gerade Linie, ein Ziel.
All sciences are now under the obligation to prepare the ground for the future task of the philosopher, which is to solve the problem of value, to determine the true hierarchy of values.
Alles gackert, aber wer will noch still auf dem Nest sitzen und Eier brüten?
In large states public education will always be mediocre, for the same reason that in large kitchens the cooking is usually bad.
Wer seine Gedanken nicht aufs Eis zu legen versteht, soll sich nicht in die Hitze des Streits begeben.
In individuals, insanity is rare; but in groups, parties, nations and epochs, it is the rule.
Wenn ihr mehr an das Leben glaubtet, würdet ihr weniger nach dem Augenblick hinwerfen.
Whoever fights monsters should see to it that in the process he does not become a monster. And if you gaze long enough into an abyss, the abyss will gaze back into you.
Geschichte handelt fast nur von schlechten Menschen, die später gutgesprochen worden sind.
The doer alone learneth.
Wie wenig Anhänger zu bedeuten haben, begreift man erst, wenn man aufgehört hat, der Anhänger seiner Anhänger zu sein.
The best author will be the one who is ashamed to become a writer.
Kunst kommt von Können. Käme es von Wollen, so hieße sie Wulst.
He who fights with monsters might take care lest he thereby become a monster. Is not life a hundred times too short for us to bore ourselves?
Alles Fertige wird angestaunt, alles Werdende wird unterschätzt.
The bad gains respect through imitation, the good loses it especially in art.
Bei den größten Männern muß man immer noch sagen: Möchten sie etwas mehr Genie und etwas weniger Schauspieler sein.
Once spirit was God, then it became man, and now it is even becoming mob.
Von dem, was du erkennen und messen willst, mußt du Abschied nehmen, wenigstens auf eine Zeit. Erst wenn du die Stadt verlassen hast, siehst du, wie hoch sich ihre Türme über die Häuser erheben.
A woman may very well form a friendship with a man, but for this to endure, it must be assisted by a little physical antipathy.
Die Menschen drängen sich zum Lichte, nicht um besser zu sehen, sondern um besser zu glänzen.
It is not when truth is dirty, but when it is shallow, that the lover of knowledge is reluctant to step into its waters.
Du gehst zu Frauen? Vergiß die Peitsche nicht!
He who has a why to live can bear almost any how.
In music the passions enjoy themselves.
Existence really is an imperfect tense that never becomes a present.
In everything one thing is impossible: rationality.
There is a rollicking kindness that looks like malice.
Although the most acute judges of the witches and even the witches themselves, were convinced of the guilt of witchery, the guilt nevertheless was non-existent. It is thus with all guilt.
There are no eternal facts, as there are no absolute truths.
For the woman, the man is a means: the end is always the child.
A good writer possesses not only his own spirit but also the spirit of his friends.
Do whatever you will, but first be such as are able to will.
Art is the proper task of life.
Does wisdom perhaps appear on the earth as a raven which is inspired by the smell of carrion?
Rejoicing in our joy, not suffering over our suffering, makes someone a friend.
The lie is a condition of life.
To be ashamed of one's immorality: that is a step on the staircase at whose end one is also ashamed of one's morality.
Necessity is not an established fact, but an interpretation.
Whoever has witnessed another's ideal becomes his inexorable judge and as it were his evil conscience.
Whoever has provoked men to rage against him has always gained a party in his favor, too.
There is not enough religion in the world even to destroy religion.
War has always been the grand sagacity of every spirit which has grown too inward and too profound; its curative power lies even in the wounds one receives.
There are slavish souls who carry their appreciation for favors done them so far that they strangle themselves with the rope of gratitude.
One has to pay dearly for immortality; one has to die several times while one is still alive.
Whoever despises himself nonetheless respects himself as one who despises.
Love is not consolation. It is light.
Great indebtedness does not make men grateful, but vengeful; and if a little charity is not forgotten, it turns into a gnawing worm.
The true man wants two things: danger and play. For that reason he wants woman, as the most dangerous plaything.
The word 'Christianity' is already a misunderstanding - in reality there has been only one Christian, and he died on the Cross.
And we should consider every day lost on which we have not danced at least once. And we should call every truth false which was not accompanied by at least one laugh.
He who cannot give anything away cannot feel anything either.
The individual has always had to struggle to keep from being overwhelmed by the tribe. If you try it, you will be lonely often, and sometimes frightened. But no price is too high to pay for the privilege of owning yourself.
There is always some madness in love. But there is also always some reason in madness.
We hear only those questions for which we are in a position to find answers.
Art is not merely an imitation of the reality of nature, but in truth a metaphysical supplement to the reality of nature, placed alongside thereof for its conquest.
In praise there is more obtrusiveness than in blame.
The 'kingdom of Heaven' is a condition of the heart - not something that comes 'upon the earth' or 'after death.'
What then in the last resort are the truths of mankind? They are the irrefutable errors of mankind.
What is good? All that heightens the feeling of power, the will to power, power itself in man.
It says nothing against the ripeness of a spirit that it has a few worms.
Words are but symbols for the relations of things to one another and to us; nowhere do they touch upon absolute truth.
We have art in order not to die of the truth.
friend should be a master at guessing and keeping still: you must not want to see everything.
Woman was God's second mistake.
Extreme positions are not succeeded by moderate ones, but by contrary extreme positions.
I do not know what the spirit of a philosopher could more wish to be than a good dancer. For the dance is his ideal, also his fine art, finally also the only kind of piety he knows, his 'divine service.'
Mystical explanations are thought to be deep; the truth is that they are not even shallow.
Convictions are more dangerous foes of truth than lies.
No one lies so boldly as the man who is indignant.
The future influences the present just as much as the past.
Behind all their personal vanity, women themselves always have an impersonal contempt for woman.
He who laughs best today, will also laughs last.
There is nothing we like to communicate to others as much as the seal of secrecy together with what lies under it.
At times one remains faithful to a cause only because its opponents do not cease to be insipid.
Regarding life, the wisest men of all ages have judged alike: it is worthless.
Some are made modest by great praise, others insolent.
A pair of powerful spectacles has sometimes sufficed to cure a person in love.
We should consider every day lost on which we have not danced at least once. And we should call every truth false which was not accompanied by at least one laugh.
Hope in reality is the worst of all evils because it prolongs the torments of man.
What really raises one's indignation against suffering is not suffering intrinsically, but the senselessness of suffering.
It is good to express a thing twice right at the outset and so to give it a right foot and also a left one. Truth can surely stand on one leg, but with two it will be able to walk and get around.
Go up close to your friend, but do not go over to him! We should also respect the enemy in our friend.
It is always consoling to think of suicide: in that way one gets through many a bad night.
I assess the power of a will by how much resistance, pain, torture it endures and knows how to turn to its advantage.
Madness is rare in individuals - but in groups, parties, nations, and ages it is the rule.
One ought to hold on to one's heart; for if one lets it go, one soon loses control of the head too.
Shared joys make a friend, not shared sufferings.
Plato was a bore.
Nothing has been purchased more dearly than the little bit of reason and sense of freedom which now constitutes our pride.
When one has finished building one's house, one suddenly realizes that in the process one has learned something that one really needed to know in the worst way - before one began.
Judgments, value judgments concerning life, for or against, can in the last resort never be true: they possess value only as symptoms, they come into consideration only as symptoms - in themselves such judgments are stupidities.
Insanity in individuals is something rare - but in groups, parties, nations and epochs, it is the rule.
A subject for a great poet would be God's boredom after the seventh day of creation.
I would believe only in a God that knows how to Dance.
One may sometimes tell a lie, but the grimace that accompanies it tells the truth.
There cannot be a God because if there were one, I could not believe that I was not He.
'Evil men have no songs.' How is it that the Russians have songs?
What do you regard as most humane? To spare someone shame.
When a hundred men stand together, each of them loses his mind and gets another one.
God is a thought who makes crooked all that is straight.
Character is determined more by the lack of certain experiences than by those one has had.
Experience, as a desire for experience, does not come off. We must not study ourselves while having an experience.
This is the hardest of all: to close the open hand out of love, and keep modest as a giver.
Many a man fails as an original thinker simply because his memory it too good.
There are no facts, only interpretations.
There is more wisdom in your body than in your deepest philosophy.
There is an innocence in admiration; it is found in those to whom it has never yet occurred that they, too, might be admired some day.
We do not hate as long as we still attach a lesser value, but only when we attach an equal or a greater value.
What? You seek something? You wish to multiply yourself tenfold, a hundredfold? You seek followers? Seek zeros!
Every man is a creative cause of what happens, a primum mobile with an original movement.
Stupid as a man, say the women: cowardly as a woman, say the men. Stupidity in a woman is unwomanly.
All things are subject to interpretation whichever interpretation prevails at a given time is a function of power and not truth.
An artist has no home in Europe except in Paris.
Those who cannot understand how to put their thoughts on ice should not enter into the heat of debate.
There are no moral phenomena at all, but only a moral interpretation of phenomena.
Love matches, so called, have illusion for their father and need for their mother.
Whoever feels predestined to see and not to believe will find all believers too noisy and pushy: he guards against them.
Art raises its head where creeds relax.
Before the effect one believes in different causes than one does after the effect.
The desire to annoy no one, to harm no one, can equally well be the sign of a just as of an anxious disposition.
Genteel women suppose that those things do not really exist about which it is impossible to talk in polite company.
The abdomen is the reason why man does not readily take himself to be a god.
In the course of history, men come to see that iron necessity is neither iron nor necessary.
When one has a great deal to put into it a day has a hundred pockets.
Germany is a great nation only because its people have so much Polish blood in their veins.
I am a pure-blooded Polish nobleman without a single drop of bad blood - certainly not German blood.
Is Wagner a human being at all? Is he not rather a disease? He contaminates everything he touches - he has made music sick.
Sing me a new song; the world is transfigured; all the Heavens are rejoicing.
What is great in man is that he is a bridge and not a goal.
God is dead. God remains dead. And we have killed him. Yet his shadow still looms. How shall we comfort ourselves, the murderers of all murderers? What was holiest and mightiest of all that the world has yet owned has bled to death under our knives; who will wipe this blood off us? What water is there for us to clean ourselves?
In the consciousness of the truth he has perceived, man now sees everywhere only the awfulness or the absurdity of existence and loathing seizes him.
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.
Wit is the epitaph of an emotion.
All credibility, all good conscience, all evidence of truth come only from the senses.
The surest way to corrupt a youth is to instruct him to hold in higher esteem those who think alike than those who think
When you look into an abyss, the abyss also looks into you.
It is impossible to suffer without making someone pay for it; every complaint already contains revenge.
Idleness is the parent of psychology.
Many are stubborn in pursuit of the path they have chosen, few in pursuit of the goal.
On the mountains of truth you can never climb in vain: either you will reach a point higher up today, or you will be training your powers so that you will be able to climb higher tomorrow.
When marrying, ask yourself this question: Do you believe that you will be able to converse well with this person into your old age? Everything else in marriage is transitory.
Ah, women. They make the highs higher and the lows more frequent.
The man of knowledge must be able not only to love his enemies but also to hate his friends.
Without music, life would be a mistake.
Whenever I climb I am followed by a dog called 'Ego'.
A casual stroll through the lunatic asylum shows that faith does not prove anything.
For art to exist, for any sort of aesthetic activity to exist, a certain physiological precondition is indispensable: intoxication.
To live is to suffer, to survive is to find some meaning in the suffering.
When one has not had a good father, one must create one.
Love is blind; friendship closes its eyes.
Fear is the mother of morality.
Thoughts are the shadows of our feelings - always darker, emptier and simpler.
Whoever does not have a good father should procure one.
The best weapon against an enemy is another enemy.
Whatever is done for love always occurs beyond good and evil.
You have your way. I have my way. As for the right way, the correct way, and the only way, it does not exist.
Perhaps I know best why it is man alone who laughs; he alone suffers so deeply that he had to invent laughter.
The essence of all beautiful art, all great art, is gratitude.
To forget one's purpose is the commonest form of stupidity.
In heaven, all the interesting people are missing.
The Christian resolution to find the world ugly and bad has made the world ugly and bad.
Not necessity, not desire - no, the love of power is the demon of men. Let them have everything - health, food, a place to live, entertainment - they are and remain unhappy and low-spirited: for the demon waits and waits and will be satisfied.
Egoism is the very essence of a noble soul.
There are horrible people who, instead of solving a problem, tangle it up and make it harder to solve for anyone who wants to deal with it. Whoever does not know how to hit the nail on the head should be asked not to hit it at all.
In every real man a child is hidden that wants to play.
One must still have chaos in oneself to be able to give birth to a dancing star.
Anyone who has declared someone else to be an idiot, a bad apple, is annoyed when it turns out in the end that he isn't.
He that humbleth himself wishes to be exalted.
Our vanity is hardest to wound precisely when our pride has just been wounded.
The press, the machine, the railway, the telegraph are premises whose thousand-year conclusion no one has yet dared to draw.
Success has always been a great liar.
What can everyone do? Praise and blame. This is human virtue, this is human madness.
If there is something to pardon in everything, there is also something to condemn.
There is in general good reason to suppose that in several respects the gods could all benefit from instruction by us human beings. We humans are - more humane.
The most common lie is that which one lies to himself; lying to others is relatively an exception.
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