Find here Nietzsche texts in English language and information about the life of the influential German philosopher

"Become who you are" - Frederick Nietzsche

Recommended books, free and in pdf format:

http://fredericknietzsche.com/philosophy/

Europe

"Thus Spake Zarathustra" by Friedrich Nietzsche, Germany.

"The Prince" by Niccolo Machiavelli, Italy.

Asia

"The Art of War" by Sun Tzu, China.

"The Book of Five Rings" by Miyamoto Musashi, Japan.

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Nietzsche biography:

Friedrich Nietzsche was born on October 15, 1844, in Röcken, Prussia. Both his grandfathers had been ordained into the Lutheran Church. His father Ludwig, also a minister, died in 1849, at the age of thirty-six, having sustained head injuries through a fall about a year previously. Nietzsche was five years old at the time of his father's death and was raised by his mother in a home that included his grandmother, two maiden aunts, and a sister.

During his childhood he seems to have developed an aversion to such things as piety, nationalism, bourgeois provincialism and domineering women. From 1858 he attended the academically distinguished Pforta boarding school where he began to suffer from the migraine attacks that were to be a burden to him for the rest of his life. He was also affected by having poor eyesight. Pforta had turned out many famous men in the past and was run along "Prussian" lines of discipline, piety, and hard work.

After (gladly) leaving Pforta in 1864 he studied theology and classical philology at the university of Bonn he was, however, turning away from the religious atmosphere in which he had been raised. He transferred his studies to Leipzig the following year and this time was commited to the study of classical philology only. Arthur Schopenhauer's The World as Will and Idea greatly influenced him during his time at Leipzig!

Nietzsche was considered to be a most particularly brilliant student and was appointed professor of classical philology at the University of Basel at the young age of 24 - at which time he had not yet been awarded a doctoral degree! When his doctoral degree was awarded it was actually awarded without examination!!!

Ill-health forced his retirement from the University post at Basel in 1879 - his life was despaired of at this time but he did make a recovery. That being said he himself believed that his close brush with mortality had, in fact, enhanced his abilities and deliberately set out to present a culminating view of his philosophy and perceptions in two works later published as The Gay Science and Thus Spake Zarathustra (1883-5).

In 1889 he suffered a mental breakdown from which he never recovered to anything like full sanity. The critical breakdown occured in Turin where he collapsed with his arms about the neck of a horse that had just been cruelly whipped by a coachman.

It happened however that, with Nietzsche being affected by his health problems, his "opinions" were often sought from his sister Elisabeth who, in response, tended to introduce a fair amount of her own ideas. It would seem that The Will to Power (1901) is in fact assembled from various sources amongst the her brother's writings - the selection being made by Elisabeth! She also witheld his autobiographical work Ecce Homo (1889) from publication and published some of his letters after editing them in ways that altered their meaning.

Friedrich Nietzsche died in Weimar on August 25, 1900.

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Essay on Nietzsche philosophy:

 

Timeline

Born: 1844. Rocken, Germany
Died: 1900. Weimar, Germany
Major Works: The Gay Science (1882),
Thus Spoke Zarathustra (1883-1885),
Beyond Good & Evil (1886),
On the Genealogy of Morals (1887),

Major ideas

Self deception is a particularly destructive characteristic of West Culture.

Life is The Will To Power; our natural desire is to dominate and reshape the world to fit our own preferences and assert our personal strength to the fullest degree possible.

Struggle, through which individuals achieve a degree of power commensurate with their abilities, is the basic fact of human existence. Ideals of human equality perpetuate mediocrity -- a truth that has been distorted and concealed by modern value systems.

Christian morality, which identifies goodness with meekness and servility is the prime culprit in creating a cultural climate that thwarts the drive for excellence and self realization God is dead; a new era of human creativity and achievement is at hand. -- Great Thinkers In The Western World. By: Ian P. McGreal, 1992

Preface

Much information is available on Mr. Friedrich Nietzsche, including many books that he wrote himself, during his philosophical career. I took this as a good sign I would find a fountain of enlightened material produced by the man. I've had to go through a bit of my own philosophical meditations to put my own value judgements aside, and truly look for the contributions Nietzsche gave to philosophy. Much of my understanding came only after I had a grasp of Neitzsche's history; therefore, I encourage you to read-up on his history before diving into his philosophy (see Appendix I). The modern Westerner might disagree with every aspect of his philosophy, but there are many things one must unfortunately admit are true (only if you put your morality aside). So, from here, I will present his contributions to philosophy, and do my best to delete my own opinions, other than to say that he was not the chosen topic of this paper out of any admiration.

The philosophy of Friedrich Nietzsche

Sometimes philosophy is called "timeless," implying that it's lessons are of value to any generation. This may be hard to see in Nietzsche's work; but, we are assured that it was appropriate thought for his time. However, even Nietzsche's critics admit that his words hold an undeniable truth, as hard as it is to accept. Perhaps this is why his work is timeless, and has survived 150 years in print.

Christianity "God is Dead!" announced Zarathustra (better known as Zoroaster), in Neitzsche's proudest book, Thus Spoke Zarathustra (1883-1885). Unlike many philosophers, Nietzsche never tried to prove or disprove the existence of God, just that belief in God can create sickness; and to convince that highest achievements in human life depend on elimination of God. Whether God existed had no relevance in his goal. Proclamation of the death of God was a fundamental ingredient in the revaluation of values Nietzsche advocated.

"Nothing has done more than Christianity to entrench the morality of mediocrity in human consciousness."

"Christian love extols qualities of weakness; it causes guilt. Charity is just teaching hatred and revenge directed toward nobility."

"Belief in God is a tool to bring submission to the individual of noble character."

-- F. Nietzsche, Thus Spoke Zarathustra.

Hero Morality Nietzsche had an ideal world in mind, with an ideal government and an ideal God: the "Overman" or "Superman." These Gods were a product of natural selection, or social Darwinism. He felt, very strongly, that any kind of moral limitations upon man would only stand in the way of The Overman. "The Will To Power," his strongest teaching, meant that The Overman should and would do anything possible to gain power, control and strength. If one showed the smallest bit of weakness or morality, he would be killed by the stronger Overman, and taken over. Thus, the advancement of The Master Race (Nietzsche's "Master Race" will be discussed later).

"Not mankind, but superman is the goal. The very last thing a sensible man would undertake would be to improve mankind: mankind does not improve, it doesn't even exist - - it is an abstraction."

"... his superman as the individual rising precariously out of the mire of mass mediocrity, and owing his existence more to deliberate breeding and careful nurture than to the hazards of natural selection."

Master Race Nietzsche is often referred to as a pre-Nazi thinker, by his idealism of The Master Race. He was, in fact, a prime influence on the writing of Hitler's highest men, and quoted in Hitler's speeches. But, his writings were mostly taken out of context, because he was very open about his distaste for "those anti-semites." If one is able to come from a more intelligent place, regarding the breeding of best-fit humans, Nietzsche was far beyond Hitler. Nietzsche understood the necessity for variation in a population, and especially was able to appreciate the contributions of other races and cultures. His ideal society would be a race that included select bits from many races/cultures. The only culture that he seemed to have a special appreciation for were the Polish. He wrote, "The Poles, I consider the most gifted and gallant among Slavic people..." Still, he wrote about his value for the Jews, as response to the growing anti-semite culture in Germany during his time:

"The whole problem of the Jews exists only in nation states, for here their energy and higher intelligence, their accumulated capital of spirit and will, gathered from generation to generation though a long schooling in suffering, must become so preponderant as to arouse mass envy and hatred. In almost all contemporary nations, therefore -- in direct proportion to the degree which they act up nationalistically -- the literary obscenity of leading the Jews to slaughter as scapegoats of every conceivable public and internal misfortune is spreading. As soon as it is no longer a matter of preserving nations, but of producing the strongest possible Euro-Mixed race, the Jew is just as useful and desirable as ingredient as any other national remnant."

War Mentality Nietzsche had an incredible infatuation with evil and violence. He did so much to find evil and cruelty in the world, that he seemed to have a sadistic pleasure in celebrating it; "man is the cruelest animal," he states in Thus Spoke Zarathustra. In his book, Beyond Good and Evil, he really aims at changing the reader's opinion as to what is good and what is evil, but professes, except at moments, to be raising what is "evil" and decrying what is "good." It is necessary for higher men to make war upon the masses, and resist the democratic tendencies of the age, for in all directions mediocre people are joining hands to make themselves masters. "Everything that pampers, that softens, and that brings the 'people' or 'woman' to the front, operates in favor of universal suffrage -- that is to say, the dominion of 'inferior' men."

Women and The Family This brings us to Nietzsche's view of women. At this point, I believe it's important to note Nietzsche's experience with women, because his writings about them seemed to begin closely after being rejected by the only woman he admitted to love. She rejected him as he asked her hand in marriage.

"Men shall be trained for war and woman for the recreation of the warrior. All else is folly."

"The patriotic member of a militant society will look upon bravery and strength as the highest virtues of a man; upon obedience as the highest virtue of the citizen; and upon silent submission to multiple motherhood as the highest virtue of woman."

"Thou goest to woman? Do not forget thy whip."

From Nietzsche's experience with women, as author Betrand Russell said, "Nine out of ten women would get the whip away from him, and he knew it, so he kept away from women, and soothed his wounded vanity with unkind remarks." Many of his comments toward women reflected what a lonely and unloved person he was. In some poems he wrote after his prospective wife left him, he wrote this lonely line: "I could sing a song, and I will sing it, although I am alone in an empty house and must sing it to mine own ears." So, he added appropriately to his beliefs the following:

"How absurd it is, after all, to let higher individuals marry for love -- heroes with servant girls and geniuses with seamstresses! When a man is in love he should not be permitted to make decisions affecting his entire life. We should declare invalid the vows of lovers and should make love a legal impediment to marriage."

The Aristocracy Nietzsche loved his aristocratic anarchism, and had such a hate for democracy, that it consumes nearly every bit of his philosophy. His ideal society was divided into three classes: producers (farmers, merchants, business men), officials (soldiers and government), and rulers. The latter would rule, but they would not officiate in government; the actual government is a menial task. The rulers would be philosopher-statesmen rather than office- holders. Their power will rest on the control of credit and the army; but they would live more like the proud-soldier than like the financier.

Nietzsche believed that some people were inherently more important than others; their happiness or unhappiness counted for more than the happiness of average people. He dismissed John Stuart Mill as a "blockhead" for the presupposition that everyone was equal. He wrote about Mill:

"I abhor the man's vulgarity when he says "what is right for one man is right for another. Such principals wild fain establish the whole of human traffic upon mutual services, so every action would appear to be a cash payment for something done to us. The hypothesis here is ignoble to the last degree; it is taken for granted that there is some sort of equivalence in value between my actions and thine."

Nietzsche, as I said before, hated democracy, but he recognized Christianity as a greater risk. Perhaps this was because people are always more loyal to their god, than their government. He felt that democracy began with Christianity: "...holy epileptics like saint Paul, who had no honesty. The new testament is the gospel of a completely ignoble species of man. Christianity is the most fatal and seductive lie that ever existed." So, before stripping people of their choice and equality, their God had to be taken first, then the government.

"Consequently, the road to the superman must lie through aristocracy. Democracy - - this manner for counting noses -- must be eradicated before it is too late. The first step here is the destruction of Christianity so far as all higher men are concerned."

Conclusion As Will Durant stated Nietzsche's faults so eloquently, "we can see him suffering at every line, and we must love him even where we question him," I couldn't agree more. I always ask the supremacist the question, "why do you support a supremacist government that would probably reject you into it's lower class?" I have no doubt, that if Nietzsche lived in his ideal society, he would have no honor, as he misses every requirement, being a sickly man who was rejected from the army, and lacking the strength to compete with his own.

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List of Nietzsche writings available via Project Gutenberg:

http://www.gutenberg.org/browse/authors/n

Nietzsche, Friedrich Wilhelm, 1844-1900
- Ainsi Parlait Zarathoustra (French)
- Also sprach Zarathustra (German)
- The Antichrist (English)
- Beyond Good and Evil (English)
- The Case Of Wagner, Nietzsche Contra Wagner, and Selected Aphorisms. (English)
- Dityrambeja (Finnish)
- Ecce homo, Wie man wird, was man ist (German)
- Die Geburt der Tragödie (German)
- Götzen-Dämmerung (German)
- Homer and Classical Philology (English)
- Jenseits von Gut und Böse (German)
- Menschliches, Allzumenschliches (German)
- Thoughts out of Season Part I (English)
- Thus Spake Zarathustra, A book for all and none (English)
- We Philologists, Complete Works of Friedrich Nietzsche, Volume 8 (English)

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Nietzsche quotes:

"A casual stroll through the lunatic asylum shows that faith does not prove anything."

"A friend should be a master at guessing and keeping still: you must not want to see everything."

"A good writer possesses not only his own spirit but also the spirit of his friends."

"A great value of antiquity lies in the fact that its writings are the only ones that modern men still read with exactness."

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

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

"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."

"Admiration for a quality or an art can be so strong that it deters us from striving to possess it."

"After coming into contact with a religious man I always feel I must wash my hands."

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

"All credibility, all good conscience, all evidence of truth come only from the senses."

"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."

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

"All truly great thoughts are conceived by walking."

"All truth is simple... is that not doubly a lie?"

"Although the most acute judges of the witches and even the witches themselves, were convinced of the guilt of witchery, the guilt nevertheless was non-existent. It is thus with all guilt."

"An artist has no home in Europe except in Paris."

"And if you gaze for long into an abyss, the abyss gazes also into you."

"And we should consider every day lost on which we have not danced at least once. And we should call every truth false which was not accompanied by at least one laugh."

"Anyone who has declared someone else to be an idiot, a bad apple, is annoyed when it turns out in the end that he isn't."

"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."

"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."

"Art is the proper task of life."

"Art raises its head where creeds relax."

"At times one remains faithful to a cause only because its opponents do not cease to be insipid."

"Before the effect one believes in different causes than one does after the effect."

"Behind all their personal vanity, women themselves always have an impersonal contempt for woman."

"Blessed are the forgetful: for they get the better even of their blunders."

"Character is determined more by the lack of certain experiences than by those one has had."

"Convictions are more dangerous foes of truth than lies."

"Do whatever you will, but first be such as are able to will."

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

"Egoism is the very essence of a noble soul."

"Every church is a stone on the grave of a god-man: it does not want him to rise up again under any circumstances."

"Every man is a creative cause of what happens, a primum mobile with an original movement."

"'Evil men have no songs.' How is it that the Russians have songs?"

"Existence really is an imperfect tense that never becomes a present."

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

"Extreme positions are not succeeded by moderate ones, but by contrary extreme positions."

"Faith: not wanting to know what is true."

"Fanatics are picturesque, mankind would rather see gestures than listen to reasons."

"Fear is the mother of morality."

"For art to exist, for any sort of aesthetic activity to exist, a certain physiological precondition is indispensable: intoxication."

"For the woman, the man is a means: the end is always the child."

"Genteel women suppose that those things do not really exist about which it is impossible to talk in polite company."

"Glance into the world just as though time were gone: and everything crooked will become straight to you."
"Go up close to your friend, but do not go over to him! We should also respect the enemy in our friend."
"God is a thought who makes crooked all that is straight."
"Great indebtedness does not make men grateful, but vengeful; and if a little charity is not forgotten, it turns into a gnawing worm."
"He that humbleth himself wishes to be exalted."
"He who cannot give anything away cannot feel anything either."
"He who fights with monsters might take care lest he thereby become a monster. Is not life a hundred times too short for us to bore ourselves?"
"He who has a strong enough why can bear almost any how."

"He who has a why to live can bear almost any how."

"He who laughs best today, will also laughs last."

"He who would learn to fly one day must first learn to stand and walk and run and climb and dance; one cannot fly into flying."

"Hope in reality is the worst of all evils because it prolongs the torments of man."

"I assess the power of a will by how much resistance, pain, torture it endures and knows how to turn to its advantage."

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

"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."

"I love those who do not know how to live for today."

"I still live, I still think: I still have to live, for I still have to think."

"I would believe only in a God that knows how to Dance."

"Idleness is the parent of psychology."

"If a woman possesses manly virtues one should run away from her; and if she does not possess them she runs away from herself."

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

"If you gaze long into an abyss, the abyss will gaze back into you."

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

"In every real man a child is hidden that wants to play."

"In everything one thing is impossible: rationality."

"In heaven, all the interesting people are missing."

"In individuals, insanity is rare; but in groups, parties, nations and epochs, it is the rule."

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

"In music the passions enjoy themselves."

"In praise there is more obtrusiveness than in blame."

"In the consciousness of the truth he has perceived, man now sees everywhere only the awfulness or the absurdity of existence and loathing seizes him."

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

"In the last analysis, even the best man is evil: in the last analysis, even the best woman is bad."

"Insanity in individuals is something rare - but in groups, parties, nations and epochs, it is the rule."

"Is life not a thousand times too short for us to bore ourselves? Is man one of God's blunders? Or is God one of man's blunders?"
"It is always consoling to think of suicide: in that way one gets through many a bad night."

"It is good to express a thing twice right at the outset and so to give it a right foot and also a left one. Truth can surely stand on one leg, but with two it will be able to walk and get around."
"It is impossible to suffer without making someone pay for it; every complaint already contains revenge."
"It is my ambition to say in ten sentences what others say in a whole book."
"It is not a lack of love, but a lack of friendship that makes unhappy marriages."
"It is not when truth is dirty, but when it is shallow, that the lover of knowledge is reluctant to step into its waters."
"It is the most sensual men who need to flee women and torment their bodies."
"It says nothing against the ripeness of a spirit that it has a few worms."
"Judgments, value judgments concerning life, for or against, can in the last resort never be true: they possess value only as symptoms, they come into consideration only as symptoms - in themselves such judgments are stupidities."
"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."
"Love is blind; friendship closes its eyes."
"Love is not consolation. It is light."
"Love matches, so called, have illusion for their father and need for their mother."
"Madness is rare in individuals - but in groups, parties, nations, and ages it is the rule."
"Many a man fails as an original thinker simply because his memory it too good."
"Many a man fails to become a thinker for the sole reason that his memory is too good."
"Many are stubborn in pursuit of the path they have chosen, few in pursuit of the goal."
"Morality is the herd-instinct in the individual."
"Mystical explanations are thought to be deep; the truth is that they are not even shallow."
"Necessity is not an established fact, but an interpretation."
"No one lies so boldly as the man who is indignant."
"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."
"Not when truth is dirty, but when it is shallow, does the enlightened man dislike to wade into its waters."
"Nothing has been purchased more dearly than the little bit of reason and sense of freedom which now constitutes our pride."
"Nothing is beautiful, only man: on this piece of naivete rests all aesthetics, it is the first truth of aesthetics. Let us immediately add its second: nothing is ugly but degenerate man - the domain of aesthetic judgment is therewith defined."
"Of all that is written, I love only what a person has written with his own blood."
"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."
"Once spirit was God, then it became man, and now it is even becoming mob."
"One has to pay dearly for immortality; one has to die several times while one is still alive."
"One may sometimes tell a lie, but the grimace that accompanies it tells the truth."
"One must still have chaos in oneself to be able to give birth to a dancing star."
"One often contradicts an opinion when what is uncongenial is really the tone in which it was conveyed."
"One ought to hold on to one's heart; for if one lets it go, one soon loses control of the head too."
"One should die proudly when it is no longer possible to live proudly."
"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."
"Our vanity is hardest to wound precisely when our pride has just been wounded."
"People who have given us their complete confidence believe that they have a right to ours. The inference is false, a gift confers no rights."
"Perhaps I know best why it is man alone who laughs; he alone suffers so deeply that he had to invent laughter."
"Perhaps I know why it is man alone who laughs: He alone suffers so deeply that he had to invent laughter."
"Plato was a bore."
"Regarding life, the wisest men of all ages have judged alike: it is worthless."
"Rejoicing in our joy, not suffering over our suffering, makes someone a friend."
"Shared joys make a friend, not shared sufferings."
"Sleeping is no mean art: for its sake one must stay awake all day."
"Some are made modest by great praise, others insolent."
"Stupid as a man, say the women: cowardly as a woman, say the men. Stupidity in a woman is unwomanly."
"Success has always been a great liar."
"Talking much about oneself can also be a means to conceal oneself."
"That which does not kill us makes us stronger."
"The "kingdom of Heaven" is a condition of the heart - not something that comes "upon the earth" or "after death."
"The abdomen is the reason why man does not readily take himself to be a god."
"The aphorism in which I am the first master among Germans, are the forms of "eternity"; my ambition is to say in ten sentences what everyone else says in a book - what everyone else does not say in a book."
"The bad gains respect through imitation, the good loses it especially in art."
"The best author will be the one who is ashamed to become a writer."
"The best weapon against an enemy is another enemy."
"The Christian resolution to find the world ugly and bad has made the world ugly and bad."
"The demand to be loved is the greatest of all arrogant presumptions."
"The desire to annoy no one, to harm no one, can equally well be the sign of a just as of an anxious disposition."
"The doer alone learneth."
"The essence of all beautiful art, all great art, is gratitude."
"The future influences the present just as much as the past."
"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."
"The irrationality of a thing is no argument against its existence, rather a condition of it."
"The lie is a condition of life."
"The man of knowledge must be able not only to love his enemies but also to hate his friends."
"The most common lie is that which one lies to himself; lying to others is relatively an exception."
"The press, the machine, the railway, the telegraph are premises whose thousand-year conclusion no one has yet dared to draw."
"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."
"The true man wants two things: danger and play. For that reason he wants woman, as the most dangerous plaything."
"The word "Christianity" is already a misunderstanding - in reality there has been only one Christian, and he died on the Cross."
"The world itself is the will to power - and nothing else! And you yourself are the will to power - and nothing else!"
"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."
"There are no eternal facts, as there are no absolute truths."
"There are no facts, only interpretations."
"There are no moral phenomena at all, but only a moral interpretation of phenomena."
"There are people who want to make men's lives more difficult for no other reason than the chance it provides them afterwards to offer their prescription for alleviating life; their Christianity, for instance."
"There are slavish souls who carry their appreciation for favors done them so far that they strangle themselves with the rope of gratitude."
"There are various eyes. Even the Sphinx has eyes: and as a result there are various truths, and as a result there is no truth."
"There cannot be a God because if there were one, I could not believe that I was not He."
"There is a rollicking kindness that looks like malice."
"There is always some madness in love. But there is also always some reason in madness."
"There is an innocence in admiration; it is found in those to whom it has never yet occurred that they, too, might be admired some day."
"There is in general good reason to suppose that in several respects the gods could all benefit from instruction by us human beings. We humans are - more humane."
"There is more wisdom in your body than in your deepest philosophy."
"There is not enough love and goodness in the world to permit giving any of it away to imaginary beings."
"There is not enough religion in the world even to destroy religion."
"There is nothing we like to communicate to others as much as the seal of secrecy together with what lies under it."
"These people abstain, it is true: but the bitch Sensuality glares enviously out of all they do."
"This is the hardest of all: to close the open hand out of love, and keep modest as a giver."
"This is what is hardest: to close the open hand because one loves."
"Those who cannot understand how to put their thoughts on ice should not enter into the heat of debate."
"Thoughts are the shadows of our feelings - always darker, emptier and simpler."
"To be ashamed of one's immorality: that is a step on the staircase at whose end one is also ashamed of one's morality."
"To forget one's purpose is the commonest form of stupidity."
"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."
"Today I love myself as I love my god: who could charge me with a sin today? I know only sins against my god; but who knows my god?"
"Two great European narcotics, alcohol and Christianity."
"Undeserved praise causes more pangs of conscience later than undeserved blame, but probably only for this reason, that our power of judgment are more completely exposed by being over praised than by being unjustly underestimated."
"War has always been the grand sagacity of every spirit which has grown too inward and too profound; its curative power lies even in the wounds one receives."
"We do not hate as long as we still attach a lesser value, but only when we attach an equal or a greater value."
"We have art in order not to die of the truth."
"We hear only those questions for which we are in a position to find answers."
"We love life, not because we are used to living but because we are used to loving."
"We often refuse to accept an idea merely because the tone of voice in which it has been expressed is unsympathetic to us."
"We should consider every day lost on which we have not danced at least once. And we should call every truth false which was not accompanied by at least one laugh."
"What can everyone do? Praise and blame. This is human virtue, this is human madness."
"What do I care about the purring of one who cannot love, like the cat?"
"What do you regard as most humane? To spare someone shame."
"What does not destroy me, makes me stronger."
"What doesn't kill us makes us stronger."
"What is good? All that heightens the feeling of power, the will to power, power itself in man."
"What then in the last resort are the truths of mankind? They are the irrefutable errors of mankind."
"What? You seek something? You wish to multiply yourself tenfold, a hundredfold? You seek followers? Seek zeros!"
"Whatever is done for love always occurs beyond good and evil."
"When a hundred men stand together, each of them loses his mind and gets another one."
"When art dresses in worn-out material it is most easily recognized as art."
"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."
"When one does away with oneself one does the most estimable thing possible: one thereby almost deserves to live."
"When one has a great deal to put into it a day has a hundred pockets."
"When one has finished building one's house, one suddenly realizes that in the process one has learned something that one really needed to know in the worst way - before one began."
"When one has not had a good father, one must create one."
"When you look into an abyss, the abyss also looks into you."
"Whenever I climb I am followed by a dog called 'Ego'."
"Whoever battles with monsters had better see that it does not turn him into a monster. And if you gaze long into an abyss, the abyss will gaze back into you."
"Whoever despises himself nonetheless respects himself as one who despises."
"Whoever does not have a good father should procure one."
"Whoever feels predestined to see and not to believe will find all believers too noisy and pushy: he guards against them."
"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."
"Whoever has provoked men to rage against him has always gained a party in his favor, too."
"Whoever has witnessed another's ideal becomes his inexorable judge and as it were his evil conscience."
"Wit is the epitaph of an emotion."
"Without music, life would be a mistake."
"Woman was God's second mistake."
"Women are considered deep - why? Because one can never discover any bottom to them. Women are not even shallow."
"Women are quite capable of entering into a friendship with a man, but to keep it going that takes a little physical antipathy as well."
"Women can form a friendship with a man very well; but to preserve it - to that end a slight physical antipathy must probably help."
"Words are but symbols for the relations of things to one another and to us; nowhere do they touch upon absolute truth."
"You have your way. I have my way. As for the right way, the correct way, and the only way, it does not exist."
"You must have chaos within you to give birth to a dancing star."
"You say it is the good cause that hallows even war? I say unto you: it is the good war that hallows any cause."

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Controversies and Nietzsche:

- Existential Murder. The Nietzsche Syndrome. Nietzsche is said to have "inspired" Hitler and other killers. Report by Katherine Ramsland in 16 chapters for the Crime Library.

http://www.trutv.com/library/crime/notorious_murders/famous/nietzsche_crimes/index.html

- Nietzsche's Übermensch and schizophrenia. Al Siebert, PhD, writes on similarities between the philosopher idea of a superman and the survivor personality.

http://www.successfulschizophrenia.org/articles/nietz.html

- Nietzsche and Nihilism. Nihilism (from the Latin nihil, nothing) is a philosophical position which argues that existence is without objective meaning, purpose, or intrinsic value.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nihilism

- The Aryan Brotherhood. America's most murderous prison gang. The New York Observer published an article named "The Brand" on the AB, quoting Thompson, former AB gang leader.

“We wanted people to think we were a little crazy,” Thompson said. “It was a way, like Nietzsche said, of bending space and reality to our will.”

- Nietzsche and television. Smallville episode called "Reaper", aired in 2002. Character called "Lex" mentions Nietzsche.

Lex: Sun Tzu (3), Machiavelli (2), Nietzsche (1), they were the voices that nurtured me after my mother died.

Lex: Do you know what my father gave me for my tenth birthday? A copy of "The Will to Power." (4)

(1) Friedrich Nietzsche was a German philosopher who questioned the positive and negative attitudes of various systems of morality toward life. Nietzsche's most relevant work (to this show and Lex) is Übermensch (in English, "overman" or "superman").
(2) Niccolò Machiavelli was one of the first people to study objectively -- with what we might now call a scientific attitude -- politics and government as they are actually practiced. His best known work is Il Principe (The Prince), which argued the advantages of cruelty and fraudulence. He inspired the term Machiavellianism, which some social and personality psychologists use to describe a person's tendency to deceive and manipulate others for gain.
(3) Sun Tzu was the author of The Art of War, an immensely influential ancient Chinese book on military strategy.
(4) Will to Power is a book by Friedrick Nietzsche.

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