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What If God Were Not Exactly Truth, And If This Could Be Proved? And If He Were Instead The Vanity, The Desire For Power, The Ambitions, The Fear, And The Enraptured And Terrified Folly Of Mankind?

-Friedrich Nietzsche

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What If God Were

Friedrich Nietzsche

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What If God Were Not Exactly Truth, And If This Could Be Proved? And If He Were Instead The Vanity, The Desire For Power, The Ambitions, The Fear, And The Enraptured And Terrified Folly Of Mankind?

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Words Of Wisdom

More From Friedrich Nietzsche

You Say A Good Cause Justifies Any War; But I Say A Good War Justifies Any Cause.

Sensuality Often Makes Love Grow Too Quickly, So That The Root Remains Weak And Is Easy To Pull Out.

He Who Seeks Intelligence Lacks Intelligence.

Plato Was A Bore.

Your Highest Thought, However, Ye Shall Have It Commanded Unto You By Me - And It Is This: Man Is Something That Is To Be Surpassed.

We Can Speak Very Much To The Purpose And Yet In Such A Way That The Whole World Cries Out In Contradiction: Namely, When We Are Not Speaking To The Whole World.

The Value Of Life Itself Cannot Be Estimated.

What An Age Experiences As Evil Is Usually An Untimely Reverberation Echoing What Was Previously Experienced As Good--the Atavismof An Older Ideal.

You Have Not Yet Suffered Enough! For You Suffer Only From Yourselves, You Have Not Yet Suffered From Man.

Morality Is The Best Of All Devices For Leading Mankind By The Nose.

We Seldom Break Our Leg So Long As Life Continues A Toilsome Upward Climb. The Danger Comes When We Begin To Take Things Easily And Choose The Convenient Paths.

The Aphorism, The Apothegm, In Which I Am The First Among The Germans To Be A Master, Are The Forms Of “eternity”; It Is My Ambition To Say In Ten Sentences What Everyone Else Says In A Book — What Everyone Else Does Not Say In A Book.

The Truth Is Ugly: We Have Art So As Not To Perish From The Truth.

Admiration For A Quality Or An Art Can Be So Strong That It Deters Us From Striving To Possess It.

One Should Part From Life As Odysseus Parted From Nausicaa-blessing It Rather Than In Love With It.

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.

My Philosophy Is Inverted Platonism: The Further A Thing Is From True Being, The Purer, The Lovelier, The Better It Is. Living Inillusion As A Goal!

People To Whom Their Daily Life Appears Too Empty And Monotonous Easily Grow Religious; This Is Comprehensible And Excusable, Only They Have No Right To Demand Religious Sentiments From Those Whose Daily Life Is Not Empty And Monotonous.

Love Is More Afraid Of Change Than Destruction.

The Strongest Have Their Moments Of Fatigue.

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.

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.

Freedom Of Opinion Is Like Health; Both Are Individual, And No Good General Conception Can Be Set Up Of Either Of Them.

There Was At All Events One Advantage In The Choice Of This Day To My Birth; My Birthday Throughout The Whole Of My Childhood Was A Day Of Public Rejoicing.

Two Great European Narcotics, Alcohol And Christianity.

There Would Be No Sunshine In Society If The Born Flatterers, I Mean The So-called Amiable People, Did Not Bring It In With Them.

All Isolation Is Wrong So Say The Herd. And Long Didst Thou Belong To The Herd.

The Purpose Of Criminal Law Is To Punish The Enemies Of Those In Power.

The Enjoyment That All Morality Has Given Us To Now And That It Continues To Give Us--and So, What Has Kept It Going Up To Now--lies In Everyone's Right, Without Lengthy Investigation, To Praise And Blame. And Who Could Endure Life Without Praising And Blaming!

One Does Not Know - Cannot Know - The Best That Is In One.

There Are Few Pains So Grievous As To Have Seen, Divined, Or Experienced How An Exceptional Man Has Missed His Way And Deteriorated

Hold A True Friend With Both Your Hands.

To Predict The Behavior Of Ordinary People In Advance, You Only Have To Assume That They Will Always Try To Escape A Disagreeable Situation With The Smallest Possible Expenditure Of Intelligence.

When One Thinks Profusely And Cleverly, Not Only His Face But His Body Too Takes On A Clever Appearance.

Yes, Life Is A Woman!

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.

What We Know Oman Today Is Limited Precisely By The Extent To Which We Have Regarded Him As A Machine.

A Thing Can Only Live Through A Pious Illusion.

Acknowledge Your Will And Speak To Us All, "this Alone Is What I Will To Be!" Hang Your Own Penal Code Up Above You: We Want To Be Its Enforcers!

...if I Continued To Harbour Any Hope For Music It Lay In The Expectation That A Musician Might Come Who Was Sufficiently Bold, Subtle, Malicious, Southerly, Superhealthy To Confront That Music And In An Immortal Fashion Take Revenge On It.

Another Christian Concept, No Less Crazy, Has Passed Even More Deeply Into The Tissue Of Modernity: The Concept Of The 'equality Of Souls Before God.' This Concept Furnishes The Prototype Of All Theories Of Equal Rights.

Without The Perpetual Counterfeiting Of The Universe By Number, Man Could Not Continue To Live

The Value Of A Man Can Only Be Measured With Regard To Other Men.

With Sturdy Shoulders, Space Stands Opposing All Its Weight To Nothingness. Where Space Is, There Is Being.

For Men Are Not Equal: Thus Speaks Justice.

God Is A Gross Answer, An Indelicacy Against Us Thinkers- At Bottom Merely A Gross Prohibition For Us: You Shall Not Think!

The Pure Soul Is A Pure Lie.

I Love Him Who Chasteneth His God, Because He Loveth His God: For He Must Succumb Through The Wrath Of His God.

One Should Not Wrongly Reify 'cause' And 'effect,' As The Natural Scientists Do (and Whoever, Like Them, Now 'naturalizes' In His Thinking), According To The Prevailing Mechanical Doltishness Which Makes The Cause Press And Push Until It 'effects' Its End; One Should Use 'cause' And 'effect' Only As Pure Concepts, That Is To Say, As Conventional Fictions For The Purpose Of Designation And Communication-not For Explanation.

It Is The Business Of The Very Few To Be Independent; It Is A Privilege Of The Strong.

If A Man Has Character, He Has Also His Typical Experience, Which Always Recurs.

The Man Who Does Not Wish To Belong To The Mass Needs Only To Cease Taking Himself Easily; Let Him Follow His Conscience, Which Calls To Him: "be Your Self! All You Are Now Doing, Thinking, Desiring, Is Not You Yourself.

Convictions Are More Dangerous Foes Of Truth Than Lies.

If That Glad Message Of Your Bible Were Written In Your Faces, You Would Not Need To Demand Belief In The Authority Of That Book In Such Stiff-necked Fashion.

A Sure Way To Irritate People And To Put Evil Thoughts Into Their Heads Is To Keep Them Waiting A Long Time. This Makes Them Immoral.

There Is An Innocence In Lying Which Is The Sign Of Good Faith In A Cause.

God Is A Too Palpably Clumsy Answer; An Answer Which Shows A Lack Of Delicacy Towards Us Thinkers-fundamentally, Even A Crude Prohibition To Us: You Shall Not Think!

Whoever Despises Himself Still Esteems The Despiser Within Himself.

What Do We Have In Common With The Rosebud, Which Trembles Because A Drop Of Dew Lies On Its Body?

For Out Of Fear And Need Each Religion Is Born, Creeping Into Existence On The Byways Or Reason.

The Superman Is The Meaning Of The Earth. Let Your Will Say: The Superman Is To Be The Meaning Of The Earth! I Beseech You, My Brothers, Be True To The Earth, And Do Not Believe Those Who Speak To You Of Otherworldly Hopes! They Are Poisoners, Whether They Know It Or Not.

Verily, I Do Not Like Them, The Merciful Who Feel Blessed In Their Pity: They Are Lacking Too Much In Shame. If I Must Pity, At Least I Do Not Want It Known; And If I Do Pity, It Is Preferably From A Distance.

Let Us Not Underestimate The Privileges Of The Mediocre. As One Climbs Higher, Life Becomes Ever Harder, The Coldness Increases, Responsibility Increases.

All I Need Is A Sheet Of Paper And Something To Write With, And Then I Can Turn The World Upside Down.

Great Intellects Are Skeptical.

They're So Cold, These Scholars! May Lightning Strike Their Food So That Their Mouths Learn How To Eat Fire!

When I Seek Another Word For 'music', I Never Find Any Other Word Than 'venice'

Love Is Blind, Friends Close Their Eyes

Wherever Germany Extends Her Sway, She Ruins Culture.

Whoever Deliberately Attempts To Insure Confidentiality With Another Person Is Usually In Doubt As To Whether He Inspires That Person's Confidence In Him. One Who Is Sure That He Inspires Confidence Attaches Little Importance To Confidentiality.

Who Can Attain To Anything Great If He Does Not Feel In Himself The Force And Will To Inflict Great Pain? The Ability To Suffer Is A Small Matter: In That Line, Weak Women And Even Slaves Often Attain Masterliness. But Not To Perish From Internal Distress And Doubt When One Inflicts Great Suffering And Hears The Cry Of It That Is Great, That Belongs To Greatness.

People Who Wish To Numb Our Caution In Dealing With Them By Means Of Flattery Are Employing A Dangerous Expedient, Like A Sleeping Draught, Which, If It Does Not Put Us To Sleep, Keeps Us All The More Awake.

Not He Is Great Who Can Alter Matter, But He Who Can Alter My State Of Mind.

Everything Which Distinguishes Man From The Animals Depends Upon This Ability To Volatilize Perceptual Metaphors In A Schema, And Thus To Dissolve An Image Into A Concept.

We Often Refuse To Accept An Idea Merely Because The Tone Of Voice In Which It Has Been Expressed Is Unsympathetic To Us.

We Have To Learn How To Come Out Of Unclean Situations Cleaner Than We Were, And Even How To Wash Ourselves With Dirty Water Whenwe Need To.

There Are No Facts, Only Interpretations.

Socrates ... Is The First Philosopher Of Life [lebensphilosoph], ... Thinking Serves Life, While Among All Previous Philosophers Life Had Served Thought And Knowledge. ... Thus Socratic Philosophy Is Absolutely Practical: It Is Hostile To All Knowledge Unconnected To Ethical Implications.

The Overman...who Has Organized The Chaos Of His Passions, Given Style To His Character, And Become Creative. Aware Of Life's Terrors, He Affirms Life Without Resentment.

We Should Be A Mirror Of Being: We Are God In Miniature.

What A Person Is Begins To Betray Itself When His Talent Weakens--when He Stops Showing What He Can Do. Talent, Too, Is Ornamentation, And Ornamentation, Too, Is A Hiding Place.

Ah, Women. They Make The Highs Higher And The Lows More Frequent.

The Deeper Minds Of All Ages Have Had Pity For Animals.

Youth Is An Unpleasant Period; For Then It Is Not Possible Or Not Prudent To Be Productive In Any Sense Whatsoever.

In Being Wildly Natural We Recover Best From Being Unnatural, From Being Spiritual.

One Does Not Only Wish To Be Understood When One Writes; One Wishes Just As Surely Not To Be Understood.

The Melancholia Of Everything Completed!

The Wheel And The Brake Have Different Duties, But Also One In Common: To Hurt One Another.

That Is The Most Extreme Form Of Nihilism: Nothingness (the "meaningless") Eternally!

The Broad Effects Which Can Be Obtained By Punishment In Man And Beast, Are The Increase Of Fear, The Sharpening Of The Sense Of Cunning, The Mastery Of The Desires; So It Is That Punishment Tames Man, But Does Not Make Him "better.".

How Is Freedom Measured, In Individuals As In Nations? By The Resistance Which Has To Be Overcome, By The Effort It Costs To Stay Aloft. One Would Have To Seek The Highest Type Of Free Man Where The Greatest Resistance Is Constantly Being Overcome: Five Steps From Tyranny, Near The Threshold Of The Danger Of Servitude.

Be Careful Who You Choose As Your Enemy Because That's Who You Become Most Like.

We Should Not Talk About Our Friends: Otherwise We Will Talk Away The Feeling Of Friendship.

Probability But No Truth, Facility But No Freedom--it Is Owing To These Two Fruits That The Tree Of Knowledge Cannot Be Confused With The Tree Of Life.

Do I Advise You To Love The Neighbor? I Suggest Rather To Escape From The Neighbor And To Love Those Who Are The Farthest Away From You. Higher Than The Love For The Neighbor Is The Love For The Man Who Is Distant And Has Still To Come.

One Must Know How To Conserve Oneself- The Best Test Of Independence.

That Is An Artist As I Would Have An Artist Be, Modest In His Needs: He Really Wants Only Two Things, His Bread And His Art--panemet Circen.

I Have Found Strength Where One Does Not Look For It: In Simple, Mild, And Pleasant People, Without The Least Desire To Rule -- And, Conversely, The Desire To Rule Has Often Appeared To Me A Sign Of Inward Weakness: They Fear Their Own Slave Soul And Shroud It In A Royal Cloak (in The End, They Still Become The Slaves Of Their Followers, Their Fame, Etc.)

For It Is Only As An Aesthetic Phenomenon That Existence And The World Are Eternally Justified.

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.

Freedom Of Will-that Is The Expression For The Complex State Of Delight Of The Person Exercising Volition, Who Commands And At The Same Time Identifies Himself With The Executor Of The Order-who, As Such, Enjoys Also The Triumph Over Obstacles, But Thinks Within Himself That It Was Really His Own Will That Overcame Them. In This Way The Person Exercising Volition Adds The Feelings Of Delight Of His Successful Executive Instruments, The Useful Underwills Or Under-souls-indeed, Our Body Is But A Social Structure Composed Of Many Souls-to His Feelings Of Delight As Commander.

Strength Is The Morality Of The Man Who Stands Out From The Rest, And It Is Mine.

A Certain Sense Of Cruelty Towards Oneself And Others Is Christian; Hatred Of Those Who Think Differently; The Will To Persecute. Mortal Hostility Against The Masters Of The Earth, Against The 'noble', That Is Also Christian; Hatred Of Mind, Of Pride, Courage, Freedom, Libertinage Of Mind, Is Christian; Hatred Of The Senses, Of Joy In General, Is Christian.

Faith Is The Path Of Least Resistance.

Path Of Least Resistance

No One Can Draw More Out Of Things, Books Included, Than He Already Knows. A Man Has No Ears For That To Which Experience Has Given Him No Access.

All Human Life Is Sunk Deep In Untruth; The Individual Cannot Pull It Out Of This Well Without Growing Profoundly Annoyed With His Entire Past, Without Finding His Present Motives (like Honor) Senseless, And Without Opposing Scorn And Disdain To The Passions That Urge One On To The Future And To The Happiness In It.

It Is Only Possible Through The Fact That Sympathy For The General Life And Suffering Of Mankind Is Very Weakly Developed In The Individual.

There's No Defense Against Stupidity.

They Muddy The Water, To Make It Seem Deep.

I Do Not Give Alms; I Am Not Poor Enough For That.

I Teach The No To All That Makes Weak--that Exhausts. I Teach The Yes To All That Strengthens, That Stores Up Strength, That Pride.

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.

Wedding Anniversary

A Good Aphorism Is Too Hard For The Tooth Of Time, And Is Not Worn Away By All The Centuries, Although It Serves As Food For Every Epoch. Hence It Is The Greatest Paradox In Literature, The Imperishable In The Midst Of Change, The Nourishment Which Always Remains Highly Valued, As Salt Does, And Never Becomes Stupid Like Salt.

Those Who Are Devoid Of Purpose Will Make The Void Their Purpose.

In A Seriously Intended Intellectual Emancipation A Person's Mute Passions And Cravings Also Hope To Find Their Advantage.

Our Salvation Lies Not In Knowing, But In Creating!

What Was Silent In The Father Speaks In The Son, And Often I Found In The Son The Unveiled Secret Of The Father.

To The Good Warrior Soundeth "thou Shalt" Pleasanter Than "i Will." And All That Is Dear Unto You, Ye Shall First Have It Commanded Unto You.

When Anyone Apologizes To Us He Has To Do It Very Expertly: Otherwise We Might Easily Come To See Ourselves As The Guilty Party And Experience Unpleasant Feelings.

We Are Franker Towards Others Than Towards Ourselves.

But Thus Do I Counsel You, My Friends: Distrust All In Whom The Impulse To Punish Is Powerful! Distrust All Those Who Talk Much Of Their Justice!

A Sedentary Life Is The Real Sin Against The Holy Spirit. Only Those Thoughts That Come By Walking Have Any Value.

One Has To Know The Size Of One's Stomach.

When You Look Into An Abyss, The Abyss Also Looks Into You.

A Change Of Values - That Means, A Change Of The Creators Of Values. He Who Has To Be A Creator Always Has To Destroy.

I Need Solitude, Which Is To Say, Recovery, Return To My Self, The Breath Of A Free, Light, Playful Air.

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.

One Should Only Question Gods Where None But Gods Can Reply.

Enduring Habits I Hate.... Yes, At The Very Bottom Of My Soul I Feel Grateful To All My Misery And Bouts Of Sickness And Everything About Me That Is Imperfect, Because This Sort Of Thing Leaves Me With A Hundred Backdoors Through Which I Can Escape From Enduring Habits.

I Teach You The Overman. Man Is Something That Shall Be Overcome. What Have You Done To Overcome Him? ... The Time Has Come For Man To Set Himself A Goal. The Time Has Come To Plant The Seed To His Highest Hope.

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?

The Higher You Ascend, The Smaller You Appear To The Eye Of Envy. But Most Of All They Hate Those Who Fly.

Never To Read Another Book That Was Born And Baptized (with Ink) At The Same Time.

Instinct. When The House Burns One Forgets Even Lunch. Yes, But One Eats It Later In The Ashes.

Only Ideas Won By Walking Have Any Value.

Moralities And Religions Are The Principal Means By Which One Can Make Whatever One Wishes Out Of Man, Provided One Possesses A Superfluity Of Creative Forces And Can Assert One's Will Over Long Periods Of Time In The Form Of Legislation And Customs.

I Should Not Believe In A God Who Does Not Dance.

The Living Is Merely A Type Of What Is Dead, And A Very Rare Type.

The Most Unambiguous Sign That A Person Holds Men In Low Esteem Is This, That He Either Acknowledges Them Merely As Means To His Ends Or Does Not Acknowledge Them At All.

We Laugh At A Man Who, Stepping Out Of His Room At The Very Minute When The Sun Is Rising, Says, “it Is My Will That The Sun Shall Rise”; Or At Him Who, Unable To Stop A Wheel, Says, “i Wish It To Roll”; Or, Again, At Him Who, Thrown In A Wrestling Match, Says, “here I Lie, But Here I Wish To Lie.” But, Joking Apart, Do We Not Act Like One Of These Three Persons Whenever We Use The Expression “i Wish”?

Some Rule Out Of A Lust For Ruling; Others, So As Not To Be Ruled:mto These It Is Merely The Lesser Of Two Evils.

What Does It Matter Whether I Am Shown To Be Right! I Am Right Too Much!--and He Who Laughs Best Today Will Also Laugh Last.

In Magnanimity There Is The Same Amount Of Egoism As In Revenge, But Egoism Of A Different Quality.

I Have Never Come Across Someone Who Could Inspire More Respect Than The Greek Philosophers.

In Certain Pious People I Have Found A Hatred Of Reason, And Have Been Favourably Disposed To Them For It: Their Bad Intellectual Conscience Was At Least Exposed By That!

Man, However, Is The Most Courageous Animal: Thereby Has He Overcome Every Animal. With Sound Of Triumph Has He Overcome Every Pain; Human Pain, However, Is The Sorest Pain.

The State Lies In All Languages Of Good And Evil; And Whatever It Says, It Lies-and Whatever It Has, It Has Stolen.

I Do Not Mean To Moralise But To Those Who Do, I Would Give This Advice : If You Mean Ultimately To Deprive The Best Things And States Of All All Honour And Worth Then Continue To Talk About Them As You Have Been Doing!

My Formula For Happiness: A Yes, A No, A Straight Line, A Goal.

Every Achievement, Every Step Forward In Knowledge, Is The Consequence Of Courage, Of Toughness Towards Oneself, Of Sincerity To Oneself

The Ordinary Man Is As Courageous And Invulnerable As A Hero When He Does Not Recognize Any Danger, When He Has No Eyes To See It.conversely, The Hero's Only Vulnerable Spot Is On His Back, And So Exactly Where He Has No Eyes.

Do Ask Yourself Why You, The Individual, Exist, And If You Can Get No Other Answer Try For Once To Justify The Meaning Of Your Existence As It Were A Posteriori By Setting Before Yourself An Aim, A Goal, A 'to This End', An Exalted And Noble 'to This End'.

Only Great Pain Is, As The Teacher Of Great Suspicion, The Ultimate Liberator Of The Spirit...i Doubt Whether Such Pain Improves Us-but I Do Know It Deepens Us.

At The Beginning Of A Marriage Ask Yourself Whether This Woman Will Be Interesting To Talk To From Now Until Old Age. Everything Else In Marriage Is Transitory: Most Of The Time Is Spent In Conversation.

Lightning And Thunder Need Time, The Light Of The Stars Needs Time, Deeds Need Time, Even After They Are Done, To Be Seen And Heard.

The Mother Of Excess Is Not Joy But Joylessness.

Illness Is A Clumsy Attempt To Arrive At Health: We Must Come To Nature's Aid With Intellect.

Both Classically- And Romantically-minded Spirits-inasmuch As These Two Species Always Exist-occupy Themselves With A Vision Of The Future: But The Former Do So Out Of A Strength Of Their Age, The Latter Out Of Its Weakness.

Visions Of The Future

What Then In The Last Resort Are The Truths Of Mankind? They Are The Irrefutable Errors Of Mankind.

The Grand Style Arises When Beauty Wins A Victory Over The Monstrous.

Whoever, At Any Time, Has Undertaken To Build A New Heaven Has Found The Strength For It In His Own Hell.

At One Time Or Another, Almost Every Politician Needs An Honest Man So Badly That, Like A Ravenous Wolf, He Breaks Into A Sheep-fold: Not To Devour The Ram He Has Stolen, However, But Rather To Conceal Himself Behind Its Wooly Back.

But He Who Is Hated By The People, As The Wolf By The Dogs - Is The Free Spirit, The Enemy Of Fetters, The Non-adorer, The Dweller In The Woods.

What Is The Ape To Man? A Laughing-stock Or A Painful Embarrassment. And Just That Shall Man Be For The Superman: A Laughing-stock Or A Painful Embarrassment.

Better Know Nothing Than Half-know Many Things.

One Who Has Given Up Any Hope Of Winning A Fight Or Has Clearly Lost It Wants His Style In Fighting To Be Admired All The More.

People Who Feel Insecure In Social Situations Never Miss A Chance To Exhibit Their Dominance Over Close, Submissive Friends, Whomthey Put Down Publicly, In Front Of Everyone--by Teasing, For Example.

We Pay Dearly For Immortality: We Die For It More Than Once During Our Lifetimes.

There Are No Moral Phenomena At All, But Only A Moral Interpretation Of Phenomena.

If Virtue Goes To Sleep, It Will Be More Vigorous When It Awakes.

The Really Royal Calling Of The Philosopher (as Expressed By Alcuin The Anglo-saxon): To Correct What Is Wrong, And Strengthen The Right, And Raise What Is Holy.

There Is A Great Ladder Of Religious Cruelty, And, Of Its Many Rungs, Three Are The Most Important. People Used To Make Human Sacrifices To Their God, Perhaps Even Sacrificing Those They Loved The Best ... Then, During The Moral Epoch Of Humanity, People Sacrificed The Strongest Instincts They Had, Their 'nature,' To Their God... Finally: What Was Left To Be Sacrificed? ... Didn't People Have To Sacrifice God Himself And Worship Rocks, Stupidity, Gravity, Fate, Or Nothingness Out Of Sheer Cruelty To Themselves?

Those Are My Enemies: They Want To Overthrow And To Construct Nothing Themselves. They Say: "all That Is Worthless"--and Want To Create No Value Themselves.

Pitch-black Winter Nights Live In My Bones.

But Eternal Liveliness Is What Counts: What Does "eternal Life" Matter, Or Life At All?

What Does Not Destroy Me, Makes Me Stronger.

If You Believed More In Life You Would Fling Yourself Less To The Moment.

It Is So Little True That Martyrs Offer Any Support To The Truth Of A Cause That I Am Inclined To Deny That Any Martyr Has Ever Had Anything To Do With The Truth At All.

All Idealism Is Falsehood In The Face Of Necessity.

The Sick Are The Greatest Danger For The Healthy; It Is Not From The Strongest That Harm Comes To The Strong, But From The Weakest.

Could One Count Such Dilettantes And Old Spinsters As That Mawkish Apostle Of Virginity, Mainlander, As A Genuine German? In The Last Analysis He Probably Was A Jew (all Jews Become Mawkish When They Moralize).

When One Speaks Of Humanity, The Idea Is Fundamental That This Is Something Which Separates And Distinguishes Man From Nature. In Reality, However, There Is No Such Separation: "natural" Qualities And Those Called Truly "human" Are Inseparably Grown Together. Man, In His Highest And Noblest Capacities, Is Wholly Nature And Embodies Its Uncanny Dual Character. Those Of His Abilities Which Are Terrifying And Considered Inhuman May Even Be The Fertile Soil Out Of Which Alone All Humanity Can Grow In Impulse, Deed, And Work.

Ten Times Must You Laugh During The Day, And Be Cheerful; Otherwise Your Stomach, The Father Of Affliction, Will Disturb You In The Night.

You Gave Him An Opportunity Of Showing Greatness Of Character And He Did Not Seize It. He Will Never Forgive You For That.

One Must Renounce The Bad Taste Of Wishing To Agree With Many People.

There Is Always A Certain Noise In Applause: Even In The Applause We Give Ourselves.

I Am A Law Only For My Kind, I Am No Law For All.

Whoever Has Really Sacrificed Anything, Knows That He Wanted And Got Something In Return.

Our Shortcomings Are The Eyes With Which We See The Ideal.

Sometimes All You Need To Do To Win Clever People Over To A Principle Is To Present It In The Form Of A Shocking Paradox.

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.

What Was A Lie In The Father Becomes A Conviction In The Son.

Regarding Life, The Wisest Men Of All Ages Have Judged Alike: It Is Worthless.

Time Flies Apace-we Would Fain Believe That Everything Flies Forward With It.

The Love Of Truth Has Its Reward In Heaven And Even On Earth.

There Is Nothing Very Odd About Lambs Disliking Birds Of Prey, But This Is No Reason For Holding It Against Large Birds Of Prey That They Carry Off Lambs. And When The Lambs Whisper Among Themselves, "these Birds Of Prey Are Evil, And Does This Not Give Us A Right To Say That Whatever Is The Opposite Of A Bird Of Prey Must Be Good," There Is Nothing Intrinsically Wrong With Such An Argument-though The Birds Of Prey Will Look Somewhat Quizzically And Say, We Have Nothing Against These Good Lambs; In Fact, We Love Them; Nothing Tastes Better Than A Tender Lamb.

Men Seldom Persevere In A Vocation Unless They Believe Or Can Convince Themselves That It Is Fundamentally More Important Than Anyother Calling. Women Are The Same With Their Lovers.

What Do You Regard As Most Humane? To Spare Someone Shame.

God Is A Thought Who Makes Crooked All That Is Straight.

You Are Treading The Path To Your Greatness: No One Shall Follow You Here! Your Passage Has Effaced The Path Behind You, And Above That Path Stands Written: Impossibility.

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