Friedrich Nietzsche
Sunday, 12 January 2025
A Book for All and None, composed in four parts between 1883 and 1885. It features the fictional character Zarathustra and was conceived whilst Nietzsche was composing 'The Gay Science'.
But thus I counsel you, my friends: Mistrust all in whom the impulse to punish is powerful. They are people of a low sort and stock; the hangman and the bloodhound look out of their faces. Mistrust all who talk much of their justice! Verily, their souls lack more than honey. And when they call themselves the good and the just, do not forget that they would be pharisees, if only they had - power.
Part II, Chapter 29, Thus Spoke Zarathustra.
Nietzsche Quotes
Watch them clamber, these swift monkeys! They clamber over one another and thus drag one another into the mud and the depth. They all want to get to the throne: that is their madness - as if happiness sat on the throne. Often, mud sits on the throne - and often the throne also on mud. Mad they all appear to me, clambering monkeys and overardent. Foul smells their idol, the cold monster: foul, they smell to me altogether, these idolators.
Thus Spoke Zarathustra (1885). Part I, Chapter 11, "On the New Idol"
Nietzsche Quotes
When power becomes gracious and descends into the visible - such descent I call beauty. And there is nobody from whom I want beauty as much as from you who are powerful: let your kindness be your final self-conquest.
Thus Spoke Zarathustra (1885). Part II, Chapter 13, "Those Who Are Sublime"
Nietzsche Quotes
The true man wants two things: danger and play. For that reason he wants woman, as the most dangerous toy.
Thus Spoke Zarathustra (1885). Ch.18, "Old and Young Women"
Nietzsche Quotes
But thus do I counsel you, my friends: distrust all in whom the impulse to punish is powerful! They are people of bad race and lineage; out of their countenances peer the hangman and the sleuth-hound. Distrust all those who talk much of their justice! Verily, in their souls not only honey is lacking. And when they call themselves 'the good and just,' forget not, that for them to be Pharisees, nothing is lacking but - power!
Thus Spoke Zarathustra (1885). Ch.29, The Tarantulas (Similar statements are attributed to Goethe, and to Dostoevsky)
Nietzsche Quotes
And who among us poets has not adulterated his wine? Many a poisonous hodgepodge has been contrived in our cellars; much that is indescribable was accomplished there.
Thus Spoke Zarathustra (1885). Part II, Chapter 39, On Poets
Nietzsche Quotes
Alas, there are so many things between heaven and earth of which only the poets have dreamed. And especially above the heavens: for all gods are poets' parables, poets' prevarications. Verily, it always lifts us higher - specifically, to the realm of the clouds: upon these we place our motley bastards and call them gods and overmen. For they are just light enough for these chairs - all these gods and overmen. Ah, how weary I am of all the imperfection which must at all costs become event! Ah, how weary I am of poets!
Thus Spoke Zarathustra (1885). Part II, Chapter 39, On Poets
Nietzsche Quotes
Higher than all reconciliation must the Will will, which the will to power is.
Thus Spoke Zarathustra (1885). Part II, Ch.42 "Redemption"
Nietzsche Quotes
And whoever does not want to die of thirst among men must learn to drink out of all cups; and whoever would stay clean among men must know how to wash even with dirty water. And thus I often comforted myself, "Well then, old heart! One misfortune failed you; enjoy this as your good fortune."
Thus Spoke Zarathustra (1885). Part II, Ch.43, "On Human Prudence"
Nietzsche Quotes
It is the stillest words that bring on the storm. Thoughts that come on doves' feet guide the world.
Thus Spoke Zarathustra (1885). Part II, Ch.44, "The Stillest Hour"
Nietzsche Quotes
Whence come the highest mountains? I once asked. Then I learned that they came out of the sea. The evidence is written in their rocks and in the walls of their peaks. It is out of the deepest depth that the highest must come to its height.
Thus Spoke Zarathustra (1885). Part III, Chapter 45, The Wanderer
Nietzsche Quotes
One does not kill by anger but by laughter.
Thus Spake Zarathustra (1885)
Nietzsche Quotes
O my brothers, I dedicate and direct you to a new nobility: you shall become procreators and cultivators and sowers of the future - verily, not to a nobility that you might buy like shopkeepers and with shopkeepers' gold: for whatever has its price has little value. Not whence you came shall henceforth constitute your honor, but whither you are going! Your will and your foot which has a will to go over and beyond yourselves - that shall constitute your new honor.
Thus Spoke Zarathustra (1885). Part III, Ch.56, "On Old and New Tablets"
Nietzsche Quotes
O my brothers, your nobility should not look backward but ahead! Exiles shall you be from all father- and forefather-lands! Your children's land shall you love: this love shall be your new nobility - the undiscovered land in the most distant sea. For that I bid your sails search and search. In your children you shall make up for being the children of your fathers: thus shall you redeem all that is past. This new tablet I place over you.
Thus Spoke Zarathustra (1885). Part III, Ch.56, "On Old and New Tablets"
Nietzsche Quotes
Free from what? As if that mattered to Zarathustra! But your eyes should tell me brightly: free for what?
Thus Spoke Zarathustra (1885). Part I, "On the Way of the Creator"
Nietzsche Quotes
Friedrich Nietzsche Quote of the Day
Sunday, 12 January 2025You have evolved from worm to man, but much within you is still worm. Once you were apes, yet even now man is more of an ape than any of the apes.Thus Spoke Zarathustra (1885). Prologue 3
