It is not a lack of love, but a lack of friendship that makes unhappy marriages.

Love is blind; friendship closes its eyes.

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.

Rejoicing in our joy, not suffering over our suffering, makes someone a friend.

Success has always been a great liar.

We have art in order not to die of the truth.

The essence of all beautiful art, all great art, is gratitude.

Sleeping is no mean art: for its sake one must stay awake all day.

I do not know what the spirit of a philosopher could more wish to be than a good dancer. For the dance is his ideal, also his fine art, finally also the only kind of piety he knows, his 'divine service.'

Art is not merely an imitation of the reality of nature, but in truth a metaphysical supplement to the reality of nature, placed alongside thereof for its conquest.

If there is something to pardon in everything, there is also something to condemn.

Nothing has been purchased more dearly than the little bit of reason and sense of freedom which now constitutes our pride.

Fear is the mother of morality.

Experience, as a desire for experience, does not come off. We must not study ourselves while having an experience.

To use the same words is not a sufficient guarantee of understanding; one must use the same words for the same genus of inward experience; ultimately one must have one's experiences in common.

In large states public education will always be mediocre, for the same reason that in large kitchens the cooking is usually bad.

God is a thought who makes crooked all that is straight.

In Christianity neither morality nor religion come into contact with reality at any point.

There is not enough religion in the world even to destroy religion.

Go up close to your friend, but do not go over to him! We should also respect the enemy in our friend.

The bad gains respect through imitation, the good loses it especially in art.

There is always some madness in love. But there is also always some reason in madness.

We love life, not because we are used to living but because we are used to loving.

A pair of powerful spectacles has sometimes sufficed to cure a person in love.

Whatever is done for love always occurs beyond good and evil.

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?

The 'kingdom of Heaven' is a condition of the heart - not something that comes 'upon the earth' or 'after death.'

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 future influences the present just as much as the past.

All sciences are now under the obligation to prepare the ground for the future task of the philosopher, which is to solve the problem of value, to determine the true hierarchy of values.

Woman was God's second mistake.

I cannot believe in a God who wants to be praised all the time.

Is man one of God's blunders? Or is God one of man's blunders?

Once spirit was God, then it became man, and now it is even becoming mob.

A subject for a great poet would be God's boredom after the seventh day of creation.

The abdomen is the reason why man does not readily take himself to be a god.

All truly great thoughts are conceived by walking.

The demand to be loved is the greatest of all arrogant presumptions.

What is great in man is that he is a bridge and not a goal.

Not necessity, not desire - no, the love of power is the demon of men. Let them have everything - health, food, a place to live, entertainment - they are and remain unhappy and low-spirited: for the demon waits and waits and will be satisfied.

That which does not kill us makes us stronger.

In the course of history, men come to see that iron necessity is neither iron nor necessary.

The man of knowledge must be able not only to love his enemies but also to hate his friends.

Our treasure lies in the beehive of our knowledge. We are perpetually on the way thither, being by nature winged insects and honey gatherers of the mind.

It is not when truth is dirty, but when it is shallow, that the lover of knowledge is reluctant to step into its waters.

All things are subject to interpretation whichever interpretation prevails at a given time is a function of power and not truth.

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.

There is more wisdom in your body than in your deepest philosophy.

Does wisdom perhaps appear on the earth as a raven which is inspired by the smell of carrion?

Ah, women. They make the highs higher and the lows more frequent.