1844–1900

Friedrich Nietzsche

The uncomfortable one among the wise. Nietzsche does not ask how to please everyone, but how to become who you are.

“What does not kill me makes me stronger.”
Friedrich Nietzsche · Twilight of the Idols
“He who has a why to live can bear almost any how.”
Friedrich Nietzsche · Twilight of the Idols
“You must still have chaos within you to give birth to a dancing star.”
Friedrich Nietzsche · Thus Spoke Zarathustra
“Man is something that shall be overcome.”
Friedrich Nietzsche · Thus Spoke Zarathustra
“Without music, life would be a mistake.”
Friedrich Nietzsche · Twilight of the Idols
“There is always some madness in love. But there is also always some reason in madness.”
Friedrich Nietzsche · Thus Spoke Zarathustra
“Whoever does not have two thirds of his day for himself is a slave.”
Friedrich Nietzsche · Human, All Too Human
“The snake that cannot shed its skin perishes. So do the minds that are prevented from changing their opinions: they cease to be mind.”
Friedrich Nietzsche · Daybreak
“He who fights monsters should see to it that he does not become a monster. And if you gaze long into an abyss, the abyss also gazes into you.”
Friedrich Nietzsche · Beyond Good and Evil
“What does your conscience say? You shall become the one you are.”
Friedrich Nietzsche · The Gay Science
“The surest way to corrupt a young man is to teach him to esteem those who think alike above those who think differently.”
Friedrich Nietzsche · Daybreak
“One who has a why to live can bear almost any how.”
Friedrich Nietzsche · Twilight of the Idols
“You must still have chaos within you to give birth to a dancing star.”
Friedrich Nietzsche · Thus Spoke Zarathustra
“Whoever fights monsters should see to it that he does not become a monster.”
Friedrich Nietzsche · Beyond Good and Evil
“It is not doubt that drives people mad, but certainty.”
Friedrich Nietzsche · Human, All Too Human
“In the end one loves one's desire and not the thing desired.”
Friedrich Nietzsche · Beyond Good and Evil
“The snake that cannot shed its skin perishes.”
Friedrich Nietzsche · Daybreak
“The thought of suicide is a great consolation: with it one gets through many a bad night.”
Friedrich Nietzsche · Beyond Good and Evil
“What is done out of love always takes place beyond good and evil.”
Friedrich Nietzsche · Beyond Good and Evil
“Man is a rope tied between beast and overman. A rope over an abyss.”
Friedrich Nietzsche · Thus Spoke Zarathustra
“I love him who wants to create beyond himself, and so perishes.”
Friedrich Nietzsche · Thus Spoke Zarathustra

Original texts are public domain; the English wording was made for this site. Each quotation carries its reference.