Philologist Quotes

“What is wanted - whether this is admitted or not - is nothing less than a fundamental remolding, indeed weakening and abolition of the individual: one never tires of enumerating and indicating all that is evil and inimical, prodigal, costly, extravagant in the form individual existence has assumed hitherto, one hopes to manage more cheaply, more safely, more equitably, more uniformly if there exist only large bodies and their members.”

“This demand follows from an insight that I was the first to articulate: that there are no moral facts.”

“Iron necessity is a thing which in the course of history men come to see as neither iron nor necessary.”

“Many a one cannot loosen his own fetters, but is nevertheless his friend's emancipator.”

“The most common lie is that which one lies to himself; lying to others is relatively an exception.”

“Lift up your hearts, my brothers, high, higher! And don't forget about your legs either! Lift up your legs as well, you good dancers, and better yet--stand also on your heads!”

“Sensuality often hastens the "Growth of Love" so much that the roots remain weak and are easily torn up.”

“A declaration of war on the masses by higher men is needed! ... Everything that makes soft and effeminate, that serves the end of the people or the feminine, works in favor of universal suffrage, i.e. the domination of the inferior men. But we should take reprisal and bring this whole affair to light and the bar of judgment.”

“The radical hostility, the deadly hostility against sensuality, is always a symptom to reflect on: it entitles us to suppositions concerning the total state of one who is excessive in this manner.”

“Shared joys make a friend, not shared sufferings.”

“Even cohabitation has been corrupted - by marriage.”

“I wish to be at any time hereafter only a yea-sayer!”

“Time flies apace-we would fain believe that everything flies forward with it.”

“In a man devoted to knowledge, pity seems almost ridiculous, like delicate hands on a cyclops.”

“He who climbeth on the highest mountains, laugheth at all tragic plays and tragic realities.”

“Those with certain temperaments find no way to endure themselves except by striving towards going under.”

“Too long, the earth has been a madhouse!”

“Human existence basically is──a never to be completed imperfect tense.”

“One repays a teacher badly if one always remains nothing but a pupil.”

“And so while dreams are the individual man's play with reality, the sculptor's art is (in a broader sense) the play with dreams.”

“Spiritual strength and passion, when accompanied by bad manners, only provoke loathing.”

“Anti-theses.- The most senile thing ever thought about man is contained in the celebrated saying 'the ego is always hateful'; the most childish is the even more celebrated 'love thy neighbor as thyself'. - In the former, knowledge of human nature has ceased, in the latter it has not yet even begun.”

“Youth is an unpleasant period; for then it is not possible or not prudent to be productive in any sense whatsoever.”

“Philosophers are in the habit of setting themselves before life and experience.”

“Sharp and mild, dull and keen, well known and strange, dirty and clean, where both the fool and wise are seen: All this am I, have ever been, - in me dove, snake and swine convene!”