Inspirational Quotations

Inspirational Quotes by Friedrich Nietzsche (German Philosopher, Scholar)

Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche (1844–1900) was a German philosopher, scholar, and writer. His brilliant, unconventional works, often aphoristic or poetical in form, have secured him an immense, if cultish, influence in contemporary intellectual history.

Born in Röcken, Saxony, Prussia, to a clergyman, Nietzsche studied Greek and Latin at Bonn and Leipzig. In 1869, he was appointed to the chair of classical philology at Basel but resigned after nine years of deteriorating bouts of psychosomatic illnesses. He spent the next ten years at resorts in France, Italy, and Switzerland writing and trying to recuperate.

In 1879, Nietzsche abandoned philology for philosophy and, over the next decade, worked out his philosophy on the freedom of the individual. The core of Nietzsche’s work was to find meaning and morality in the absence of God. He contended that the Christian system of faith and worship was not only incorrect but also detrimental to society because it allowed the weak to rule the strong. In other words, Christian philosophy repressed the will to power, which was the driving force of human character.

In his most celebrated work, Thus Spake Zarathustra (German: Also Sprach Zarathustra: Ein Buch für Alle und Keinen; 1893–91,) Nietzsche presented his conception of the Übermensch (‘Superman,’) who transcends slavish Christianity and rises above the restrictions of ordinary morality through his creative “will to power.” The Nazi party misappropriated this concept of the idealized man who is strong, positive, and able to impose his wishes upon the weak and worthless.

Nietzsche’s other renowned works include Beyond Good and Evil (Jenseits von Gut und Böse; 1886) and On the Genealogy of Morality (Zur Genealogie der Moral; 1887.) His autobiography, Ecce Homo: How One Becomes What One Is (Ecce homo: Wie man wird, was man ist) was completed in 1888, but withheld by his sister and published only in 1908.

In 1889, Nietzsche had a complete mental and physical breakdown. He was nursed for the next 12 years by his mother and his sister but never recovered his sanity.

More: Wikipedia • READ: Works by Friedrich Nietzsche

We ought to face our destiny with courage.
—Friedrich Nietzsche
Topics: Courage to Begin

Does wisdom perhaps appear on the earth as a raven which is inspired by the smell of carrion?
—Friedrich Nietzsche
Topics: Wisdom

Courage is the best slayer – courage which attacketh, for in every attack there is the sound of triumph.
—Friedrich Nietzsche
Topics: Courage

The lie is a condition of life.
—Friedrich Nietzsche
Topics: Lies

He who cannot command himself should obey. And many can command themselves, but much is still lacking before they can obey themselves.
—Friedrich Nietzsche
Topics: Action

The lonely one offers his hand too quickly to whomever he encounters.
—Friedrich Nietzsche
Topics: Friendship

Never to talk about yourself is a refined form of hypocrisy.
—Friedrich Nietzsche
Topics: One liners, Hypocrisy

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.
—Friedrich Nietzsche
Topics: Fight, Rich, Will, Philosophy, Being True to Yourself, Fighting

A politician divides mankind into two classes; tools and enemies.
—Friedrich Nietzsche
Topics: Politicians, Politics

Against boredom the gods themselves fight in vain.
—Friedrich Nietzsche
Topics: Boredom, Bores

Be careful when you cast out your demons that you don’t throw away the best of yourself.
—Friedrich Nietzsche
Topics: Best

Many a man fails as an original thinker simply because his memory is too good.
—Friedrich Nietzsche
Topics: Thought, Originality, Thoughts

All of life is a dispute over taste and tasting.
—Friedrich Nietzsche
Topics: Style, Taste

Two great European narcotics, alcohol and Christianity.
—Friedrich Nietzsche
Topics: Religion, Christians, Christianity

We operate with nothing but things which do not exist, with lines, planes, bodies, atoms, divisible time, divisible space—how should explanation even be possible when we first make everything into an image, into our own image!
—Friedrich Nietzsche
Topics: Explanation

What does not destroy me makes me stronger.
—Friedrich Nietzsche
Topics: Perception, Attitude

That which does not kill me makes me stronger.
—Friedrich Nietzsche
Topics: Silver Linings, Blessings

Death. The certain prospect of death could sweeten every life with a precious and fragrant drop of levity- and now you strange apothecary souls have turned it into an ill-tasting drop of poison that makes the whole of life repulsive.
—Friedrich Nietzsche
Topics: Wisdom, Life, Death

Where does one not find that bland degeneration which beer produces in the spirit!
—Friedrich Nietzsche
Topics: Alcoholism, Alcohol

Once the decision has been made, close your ear even to the best counter argument: sign of a strong character. Thus an occasional will to stupidity.
—Friedrich Nietzsche
Topics: Focus, Action

Not by wrath does one kill, but by laughter.
—Friedrich Nietzsche
Topics: Laughter

Truth will have no gods before it.- The belief in truth begins with the doubt of all truths in which one has previously believed.
—Friedrich Nietzsche
Topics: Believe, Doubt, Truth, God, Attitude

It is my ambition to say in ten sentences what other men say in whole books – what other men do not say in whole books.
—Friedrich Nietzsche
Topics: Ambition, Brevity

Even today a crude sort of persecution is all that is required to create an honorable name for any sect, no matter how indifferent in itself.
—Friedrich Nietzsche
Topics: Oppression

Everyone needs a sense of shame, but no one needs to feel ashamed.
—Friedrich Nietzsche
Topics: Shame

That is mediocrity though it be called moderation.
—Friedrich Nietzsche
Topics: Moderation

It is very noble hypocrisy not to talk of one’s self.
—Friedrich Nietzsche
Topics: Deception

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.
—Friedrich Nietzsche
Topics: Worth, Merit

All in all, punishment hardens and renders people more insensible; it concentrates; it increases the feeling of estrangement; it strengthens the power of resistance.
—Friedrich Nietzsche
Topics: Punishment

Morality is the herd-instinct in the individual.
—Friedrich Nietzsche
Topics: Reading, Books, Morals, Morality

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