 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. |
| Thoughts are the shadows of our feelings - always darker, emptier and simpler. |
| 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. |
| He who cannot give anything away cannot feel anything either. |
| After coming into contact with a religious man I always feel I must wash my hands. |
| A friend should be a master at guessing and keeping still: you must not want to see everything. |
| One often contradicts an opinion when what is uncongenial is really the tone in which it was conveyed. |
| Art raises its head where creeds relax. |
| Madness is rare in individuals - but in groups, parties, nations, and ages it is the rule. |
| It is always consoling to think of suicide: in that way one gets through many a bad night. |
| Success has always been a great liar. |
| It is impossible to suffer without making someone pay for it; every complaint already contains revenge. |
| Those who cannot understand how to put their thoughts on ice should not enter into the heat of debate. |
| Woman was God's second mistake. |
| The future influences the present just as much as the past. |
| There is not enough love and goodness in the world to permit giving any of it away to imaginary beings. |
| What then in the last resort are the truths of mankind? They are the irrefutable errors of mankind. |
| There are no eternal facts, as there are no absolute truths. |
| There is a rollicking kindness that looks like malice. |
| What is good? All that heightens the feeling of power, the will to power, power itself in man. |
