The errors of great men are venerable because they are more fruitful than the truths of little men.
A letter is an unannounced visit, the postman the agent of rude surprises. One ought to reserve an hour a week for receiving letters and afterwards take a bath.
God is Dead; but given the way of men, there may still be caves for thousands of years in which his shadow will be shown. And we – we still have to vanquish his shadow, too.
Do not allow yourselves to be deceived: Great Minds are Skeptical.
With the strength of his spiritual sight and insight the distance, and as it were the space, around man continually expands: his world grows deeper, ever new stars, ever new images and enigmas come into view.
It was Christianity which first painted the devil on the worlds walls; It was Christianity which first brought sin into the world. Belief in the cure which it offered has now been shaken to it’s deepest roots; but belief in the sickness which it taught and propagated continues to exists.
The better the state is established, the fainter is humanity. To make the individual uncomfortable, that is my task.
Why does man not see things? He is himself standing in the way: he conceals things.
I am Zarathustra the Godless: where shall I find my equal? All those who give themselves their own will and renounce all submission, they are my equals.
Our greatest experiences are our quietest moments.
Compassion for the friend should conceal itself under a hard shell.
One has been a poor spectator of life if one has not witnessed the hand – that kills from mercy.
The usual false conclusions of mankind are these: a thing exists, therefore it has a right to exist.
We must beware of one who is in a passion against us as of one who has once sought our life; for the fact that we still live is due to the absence of power to kill, – if looks could kill, we should have been dead long ago.
Among human beings there is no greater banality than death. Second in order, because it is possible to die without being born, comes birth, and next comes marriage.
Or shall I go out as a light does, not first blown out by the wind, but grown tired and weary of itself – a burnt out light? Or finally, shall I blow myself out, so as not to burn out?
A little poison now and then: that makes for pleasant dreams. And a lot of poison at the end, for a pleasant death.
In a certain state it is indecent to live longer.
To go on vegetating in cowardly dependence on physicians and machinations, after the meaning of life, the right to life, has been lost, that ought to prompt a profound contempt in society.
One never perishes through anybody but oneself.