The misunderstanding of passion and reason, as if the latter were an independent entity and not rather a system of relations between various passions and desires; and as if every passion did not possess its quantum of reason.
Everything that is ponderous, vicious and pompously clumsy, all long-winded and wearying kinds of style, are developed in great variety among Germans.
It is the powerful who know how to honour, it is their art, their domain for invention.
The noble man honours in himself the powerful one, him also who has power over himself, who knows how to speak and how to keep silence, who takes pleasure in subjecting himself to severity and hardness, and has reverence for all that is severe and hard.
The consequence is that every man comes to know himself solely in terms of his power for defence and attack.
The coward does not know what it means to be alone: an enemy is always standing behind his chair.
In the world of high finance the shilling of the idle rich man can buy more than that of the poor, industrious man.
The poison by which the weaker nature is destroyed is strengthening to the strong individual and he does not call it poison.
A change of values – that means, a change of the creators of values. He who has to be a creator always has to destroy.
Danger alone acquaints us with our own resources, our virtues, our armor and weapons, our spirit, and forces us to be strong.
The criminal type is the type of the strong human being under unfavorable circumstances: a strong human being made sick.
The Christian church is an encyclopedia of prehistoric cults.
There is no more dangerous error than that of mistaking the consequence for the cause.
Nobody is more inferior than those who insist on being equal.
It is impossible to suffer without making someone pay for it; every complaint already contains revenge.
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.
Go up close to your friend, but do not go over to him! We should also respect the enemy in our friend.
The most common lie is that which one lies to himself; lying to others is relatively an exception.
Does wisdom perhaps appear on the earth as a raven which is inspired by the smell of carrion?
Women are considered deep – why? Because one can never discover any bottom to them. Women are not even shallow.