He who has a why to live can bear almost any how.
Friedrich Nietzsche
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.
To live is to suffer, to survive is to find some meaning in the suffering.
That which does not kill us makes us stronger.
One must still have chaos in oneself to be able to give birth to a dancing star.
Hope in reality is the worst of all evils because it prolongs the torments of man.
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.
The essence of all beautiful art, all great art, is gratitude.
The future influences the present just as much as the past.
We love life, not because we are used to living but because we are used to loving.
Without music, life would be a mistake.
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.
There are no facts, only interpretations.
The true man wants two things: danger and play. For that reason he wants woman, as the most dangerous plaything.
It is not a lack of love, but a lack of friendship that makes unhappy marriages.
When you look into an abyss, the abyss also looks into you.
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?
All things are subject to interpretation whichever interpretation prevails at a given time is a function of power and not truth.
Convictions are more dangerous foes of truth than lies.
All credibility, all good conscience, all evidence of truth come only from the senses.
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.
There is always some madness in love. But there is also always some reason in madness.
In individuals, insanity is rare; but in groups, parties, nations and epochs, it is the rule.
In every real man a child is hidden that wants to play.
We have art in order not to die of the truth.
Madness is rare in individuals - but in groups, parties, nations, and ages it is the rule.
All truly great thoughts are conceived by walking.
Ah, women. They make the highs higher and the lows more frequent.
There is more wisdom in your body than in your deepest philosophy.
A casual stroll through the lunatic asylum shows that faith does not prove anything.
Thoughts are the shadows of our feelings - always darker, emptier and simpler.
You have your way. I have my way. As for the right way, the correct way, and the only way, it does not exist.
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.
To forget one's purpose is the commonest form of stupidity.
Blessed are the forgetful: for they get the better even of their blunders.
Many are stubborn in pursuit of the path they have chosen, few in pursuit of the goal.
The doer alone learneth.
Love is blind; friendship closes its eyes.
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.
The best weapon against an enemy is another enemy.
The irrationality of a thing is no argument against its existence, rather a condition of it.
The man of knowledge must be able not only to love his enemies but also to hate his friends.
Perhaps I know best why it is man alone who laughs; he alone suffers so deeply that he had to invent laughter.
Whatever is done for love always occurs beyond good and evil.
Art raises its head where creeds relax.
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.
The surest way to corrupt a youth is to instruct him to hold in higher esteem those who think alike than those who think differently.
In heaven, all the interesting people are missing.
There cannot be a God because if there were one, I could not believe that I was not He.
Whenever I climb I am followed by a dog called 'Ego'.