Friedrich Nietzsche, a significant 19th-century German philosopher, centered his influential writings around morality, religion and science.
Born on October 15, 1844, Nietzsche’s upbringing and education were instrumental in molding his existential philosophy.
Despite his Christian background, he maintained atheistic views, claiming that the advent of science and a secular world marked the “death of God”.
His professional life at the University of Basel saw him publishing popular works such as “The Birth of Tragedy” and “Human, All Too Human”.
Nietzsche’s close relationship with the musician Richard Wagner had a profound impact on his life and works.
The period between 1880-1889 saw Nietzsche navigating through various personal and health challenges while continuing his philosophical work.
Related: Arthur Schopenhauer Quotes from the German Philosopher and Karl Marx Quotes from German Philosopher
His relationship with philosophy student Lou von Salomé didn’t evolve romantically and his health gradually worsened, leading to a mental breakdown in 1889, which many speculate resulted from a hereditary condition.
Post breakdown, Nietzsche lived with his mother and later, his sister Elisabeth, who preserved and promoted his writings after his death.
Nietzsche passed away at 56 on August 25, 1900, due to pneumonia and a stroke, leaving a lasting impact on existential philosophy.
I have made a list of the best Friedrich Nietzsche quotes.
Best Friedrich Nietzsche Quotes
1. “That which does not kill us makes us stronger.” ~ (Friedrich Nietzsche).
2. “Every deep thinker is more afraid of being understood than of being misunderstood.” ~ (Friedrich Nietzsche).
3. “He who has a why to live for can bear almost any how.” ~ (Friedrich Nietzsche).
4. “Become who you are.” ~ (Friedrich Nietzsche).
5. “And those who were seen dancing were thought to be insane by those who could not hear the music.” ~ (Friedrich Nietzsche).
6. “Without music, life would be a mistake.” ~ (Friedrich Nietzsche).
7. “All truly great thoughts are conceived while walking.” ~ (Friedrich Nietzsche).
8. “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).
9. “You must have chaos within you to give birth to a dancing star.” ~ (Friedrich Nietzsche).
10. “You have your way. I have my way. As for the right way, the correct way, and the only way, it does not exist.” ~ (Friedrich Nietzsche).
11. “The higher we soar the smaller we appear to those who cannot fly.” ~ (Friedrich Nietzsche).
12. “There are two different types of people in the world, those who want to know, and those who want to believe.” ~ (Friedrich Nietzsche).
13. “The individual has always had to struggle to keep from being overwhelmed by the tribe. If you try it, you will be lonely often, and sometimes frightened. But no price is too high to pay for the privilege of owning yourself.” ~ (Friedrich Nietzsche).
Wise Friedrich Nietzsche Quotes
14. “I know of no better life purpose than to perish in attempting the great and the impossible.” ~ (Friedrich Nietzsche).
15. “I’m not upset that you lied to me, I’m upset that from now on I can’t believe you.” ~ (Friedrich Nietzsche).
16. “The snake which cannot cast its skin has to die. As well the minds which are prevented from changing their opinions; they cease to be mind.” ~ (Friedrich Nietzsche).
17. “The true man wants two things: danger and play. For that reason he wants woman, as the most dangerous plaything.” ~ (Friedrich Nietzsche).
18. “He who climbs upon the highest mountains laughs at all tragedies, real or imaginary.” ~ (Friedrich Nietzsche).
19. “All I need is a sheet of paper and something to write with, and then I can turn the world upside down.” ~ (Friedrich Nietzsche).
20. “In heaven, all the interesting people are missing.” ~ (Friedrich Nietzsche).
21. “I am a forest, and a night of dark trees: but he who is not afraid of my darkness, will find banks full of roses under my cypresses.” ~ (Friedrich Nietzsche).
22. “When we are tired, we are attacked by ideas we conquered long ago.” ~ (Friedrich Nietzsche).
23. “In individuals, insanity is rare; but in groups, parties, nations and epochs, it is the rule.” ~ (Friedrich Nietzsche).
24. “It is my ambition to say in ten sentences what others say in a whole book.” ~ (Friedrich Nietzsche).
25. “All things are subject to interpretation. Whichever interpretation prevails at a given time is a function of power and not truth.” ~ (Friedrich Nietzsche).
26. “That which is done out of love is always beyond good and evil.” ~ (Friedrich Nietzsche).
Popular Friedrich Nietzsche Quotes
27. “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.” ~ (Friedrich Nietzsche).
28. “To live is to suffer, to survive is to find some meaning in the suffering.” ~ (Friedrich Nietzsche).
29. “Man is the cruelest animal.” ~ (Friedrich Nietzsche).
30. “There is always some madness in love. But there is also always some reason in madness.” ~ (Friedrich Nietzsche).
31. “It is not a lack of love, but a lack of friendship that makes unhappy marriages.” ~ (Friedrich Nietzsche).
32. “The advantage of a bad memory is that one enjoys several times the same good things for the first time.” ~ (Friedrich Nietzsche).
33. “Live dangerously.” ~ (Friedrich Nietzsche).
34. “The author must keep his mouth shut when his work starts to speak.” ~ (Friedrich Nietzsche).
35. “What does your conscience say? — ‘You should become the person you are’.” ~ (Friedrich Nietzsche).
36. “Amor Fati – “Love Your Fate”, which is in fact your life.” ~ (Friedrich Nietzsche).
37. “That which does not kill me, makes me stronger.” ~ (Friedrich Nietzsche).
38. “Perhaps I know best why it is man alone who laughs; he alone suffers so deeply that he had to invent laughter.” ~ (Friedrich Nietzsche).
39. “We have art in order not to die of the truth.” ~ (Friedrich Nietzsche).
40. “There are no facts, only interpretations.” ~ (Friedrich Nietzsche).
41. “The visionary lies to himself, the liar only to others.” ~ (Friedrich Nietzsche).
42. “One repays a teacher badly if one always remains nothing but a pupil.” ~ (Friedrich Nietzsche).
43. “God is dead, God remains dead, and we have killed him.” ~ (Friedrich Nietzsche).
44. “One ought to hold on to one’s heart; for if one lets it go, one soon loses control of the head too.” ~ (Friedrich Nietzsche).
45. “Art is the proper task of life.” ~ (Friedrich Nietzsche).
46. “We should consider every day lost on which we have not danced at least once.” ~ (Friedrich Nietzsche).
Top Friedrich Nietzsche Quotes
47. “Ah, women. They make the highs higher and the lows more frequent.” ~ (Friedrich Nietzsche).
48. “Thoughts are the shadows of our feelings – always darker, emptier and simpler.” ~ (Friedrich Nietzsche).
49. “Distrust all in whom the impulse to punish is powerful.” ~ (Friedrich Nietzsche).
50. “What is the truth, but a lie agreed upon.” ~ (Friedrich Nietzsche).
51. “If you know the why, you can live any how.” ~ (Friedrich Nietzsche).
52. “And once you are awake, you shall remain awake eternally.” ~ (Friedrich Nietzsche).
53. “A good writer possesses not only his own spirit but also the spirit of his friends.” ~ (Friedrich Nietzsche).
54. “Faith: not wanting to know what the truth is.” ~ (Friedrich Nietzsche).
55. “Is man merely a mistake of God’s? Or God merely a mistake of man?” ~ (Friedrich Nietzsche).
56. “Invisible threads are the strongest ties.” ~ (Friedrich Nietzsche).
57. “Is it better to out-monster the monster or to be quietly devoured?” ~ (Friedrich Nietzsche).
58. “I assess the power of a will by how much resistance, pain, torture it endures and knows how to turn to its advantage.” ~ (Friedrich Nietzsche).
59. “Hope in reality is the worst of all evils because it prolongs the torments of man.” ~ (Friedrich Nietzsche).
60. “A thought, even a possibility, can shatter and transform us.” ~ (Friedrich Nietzsche).
61. “There is more wisdom in your body than in your deepest philosophy.” ~ (Friedrich Nietzsche).
62. “Silence is worse; all truths that are kept silent become poisonous.” ~ (Friedrich Nietzsche).
63. “Many are stubborn in pursuit of the path they have chosen. Few in pursuit of the goal.” ~ (Friedrich Nietzsche).
64. “Blessed are the forgetful, for they get the better even of their blunders.” ~ (Friedrich Nietzsche).
65. “He who would learn to fly one day must first learn to walk and run and climb and dance; one cannot fly into flying.” ~ (Friedrich Nietzsche).
66. “The man of knowledge must be able not only to love his enemies but also to hate his friends.” ~ (Friedrich Nietzsche).
67. “The lonely one offers his hand too quickly to whomever he encounters.” ~ (Friedrich Nietzsche).
68. “One must give value to their existence by behaving as if one’s very existence were a work of art.” ~ (Friedrich Nietzsche).
69. “A thinker sees his own actions as experiments and questions – as attempts to find out something. Success and failure are for him answers above all.” ~ (Friedrich Nietzsche).
70. “What is the seal of liberation? Not to be ashamed in front of oneself.” ~ (Friedrich Nietzsche).
Famous Friedrich Nietzsche Quotes
71. “Nothing on earth consumes a man more quickly than the passion of resentment.” ~ (Friedrich Nietzsche).
72. “As long as you still experience the stars as something “above you”, you lack the eye of knowledge.” ~ (Friedrich Nietzsche).
73. “One must pay dearly for immortality; one has to die several times while still alive.” ~ (Friedrich Nietzsche).
74. “Talking much about oneself can also be a means to conceal oneself.” ~ (Friedrich Nietzsche).
75. “A thought comes when it will, not when I will.” ~ (Friedrich Nietzsche).
76. “After coming into contact with a religious man I always feel I must wash my hands.” ~ (Friedrich Nietzsche).
77. “If we train our conscience, it kisses us while it hurts.” ~ (Friedrich Nietzsche).
78. “All great things must first wear terrifying and monstrous masks, in order to inscribe themselves on the hearts of humanity.” ~ (Friedrich Nietzsche).
79. “Stupidity in a woman is unfeminine.” ~ (Friedrich Nietzsche).
80. “Love is a state in which a man sees things most decidedly as they are not.” ~ (Friedrich Nietzsche).
81. “There is an innocence in admiration: it occurs in one who has not yet realized that they might one day be admired.” ~ (Friedrich Nietzsche).
82. “It is hard enough to remember my opinions, without also remembering my reasons for them.” ~ (Friedrich Nietzsche).
83. “Without forgetting it is quite impossible to live at all.” ~ (Friedrich Nietzsche).
84. “If you stare into the Abyss long enough the Abyss stares back at you.” ~ (Friedrich Nietzsche).
Short Friedrich Nietzsche Quotes
85. “The earth has a skin and that skin has diseases; one of its diseases is called man.” ~ (Friedrich Nietzsche).
86. “Only sick music makes money today.” ~ (Friedrich Nietzsche).
87. “A casual stroll through the lunatic asylum shows that faith does not prove anything.” ~ (Friedrich Nietzsche).
88. “The most perfidious way of harming a cause consists of defending it deliberately with faulty arguments.” ~ (Friedrich Nietzsche).
89. “Of all that is written I love only what a man has written in his own blood.” ~ (Friedrich Nietzsche).
90. “We do not place special value on the possession of a virtue until we notice its total absence in our opponent.” ~ (Friedrich Nietzsche).
91. “For art to exist, for any sort of aesthetic activity or perception to exist, a certain physiological precondition is indispensable: intoxication.” ~ (Friedrich Nietzsche).
92. “No shepherd and one herd! Everybody wants the same, everybody is the same: whoever feels different goes voluntarily into a madhouse.” ~ (Friedrich Nietzsche).
93. “The Christian resolution to find the world ugly and bad has made the world ugly and bad.” ~ (Friedrich Nietzsche).
94. “The life of the enemy. Whoever lives for the sake of combating an enemy has an interest in the enemy’s staying alive.” ~ (Friedrich Nietzsche).
95. “The worst readers are those who behave like plundering troops: they take away a few things they can use, dirty and confound the remainder, and revile the whole.” ~ (Friedrich Nietzsche).
Great Friedrich Nietzsche Quotes
96. “I am one thing, my writings are another.” ~ (Friedrich Nietzsche).
97. “Poets are shameless with their experiences: they exploit them.” ~ (Friedrich Nietzsche).
98. “He who delights in solitude is either a wild beast or a god.” ~ (Friedrich Nietzsche).
99. “No artist tolerates reality.” ~ (Friedrich Nietzsche).
100. “My formula for greatness in a human being is amor fati: that one wants nothing to be other than it is, not in the future, not in the past, not in all eternity.” ~ (Friedrich Nietzsche).
101. “Sometimes people don’t want to hear the truth because they don’t want their illusions destroyed.” ~ (Friedrich Nietzsche).
102. “Everything matters. Nothing’s important.” ~ (Friedrich Nietzsche).
103. “Become who you are. Make what only you can make.” ~ (Friedrich Nietzsche).
104. “You look up when you wish to be exalted. And I look down because I am exalted.” ~ (Friedrich Nietzsche).
105. “He who possesseth little is so much the less possessed. Blessed be moderate poverty!” ~ (Friedrich Nietzsche).
106. “No price is too high to pay for the privilege of owning yourself.” ~ (Friedrich Nietzsche).
107. “A subject for a great poet would be God’s boredom after the seventh day of creation.” ~ (Friedrich Nietzsche).
108. “The desire to annoy no one, to harm no one, can equally well be the sign of a just as of an anxious disposition.” ~ (Friedrich Nietzsche).
109. “There will always be rocks in the road ahead of us. They will be stumbling blocks or stepping stones; it all depends on how you use them.” ~ (Friedrich Nietzsche).
110. “Enjoy life. This is not a dress rehearsal.” ~ (Friedrich Nietzsche).
111. “Today as always, men fall into two groups: slaves and free men. Whoever does not have two-thirds of his day for himself, is a slave, whatever he may be: a statesman, a businessman, an official, or a scholar.” ~ (Friedrich Nietzsche).
112. “My solitude doesn’t depend on the presence or absence of people; on the contrary, I hate who steals my solitude without, in exchange, offering me true company.” ~ (Friedrich Nietzsche).
113. “Nobody is more inferior than those who insist on being equal.” ~ (Friedrich Nietzsche).
114. “My formula for greatness in a human being is amor fati: that one wants nothing to be different, not forward, not backward, not in all eternity. Not merely bear what is necessary, still less conceal it – all idealism is mendaciousness in the face of what is necessary – but love it.” ~ (Friedrich Nietzsche).
115. “What is good? All that heightens the feeling of power, the will to power, power itself. What is bad? All that is born of weakness. What is happiness? The feeling that power is growing, that resistance is overcome.” ~ (Friedrich Nietzsche).
116. “I teach you the Overman. Man is something which shall be surpassed.” ~ (Friedrich Nietzsche).
117. “Plato was a bore.” ~ (Friedrich Nietzsche).
118. “Was that life? Well then, once more!” ~ (Friedrich Nietzsche).
119. “Life is the will to power; our natural desire to dominate and reshape the world to fit our own preferences and assert our personal strength to the fullest degree.” ~ (Friedrich Nietzsche).
120. “The tree that would grow to heaven must send its roots to hell.” ~ (Friedrich Nietzsche).
121. “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.” ~ (Friedrich Nietzsche).
