Friedrich Quotes

Are we not plunging continually? Backward, sideward, forward, in all directions? Is there still any up or down? Are we not straying, as through an infinite nothing? Do we not feel the breath of empty space? Has it not become colder? Is not night continually closing in on us? ~ Friedrich Nietzsche

There are many more languages than one imagines. And man reveals himself much more often than he wishes. So many things that speak! But there are always so few listeners, so that man, so to speak, only chatters in a void when he engages in confessions. He wastes his truths just as the sun wastes its light. Isn't it too bad that the void has no ears? ~ Friedrich Nietzsche

No one tells me anything new, so I tell myself my own story. ~ Friedrich Nietzsche

Consider the cattle, grazing as they pass you by. They do not know what is meant by yesterday or today, they leap about, eat, rest, digest, leap about again, and so from morn till night and from day to day, fettered to the moment and its pleasure or displeasure, and thus neither melancholy nor bored. [ ... ] A human being may well ask an animal: 'Why do you not speak to me of your happiness but only stand and gaze at me?' The animal would like to answer, and say, 'The reason is I always forget what I was going to say' - but then he forgot this answer too, and stayed silent. ~ Friedrich Nietzsche

That little hypocrites and half-crazed people dare to imagine that on their account the laws of nature are constantly broken; such an enhancement of every kind of selfishness to infinity, to impudence, cannot be branded with sufficient contempt. And yet Christianity owes its triumph to this pitiable flattery of personal vanity. ~ Friedrich Nietzsche

One never perishes through anybody but oneself. ~ Friedrich Nietzsche

He who recites dramatic works makes discoveries about his own character. ~ Friedrich Nietzsche

Praise is more obtrusive than a reproach. ~ Friedrich Nietzsche

From the Sun I learned this: when he goes down, overrich; he pours gold into the sea out of inexhaustible riches, so that even the poorest fisherman still rows with golden oars. For this I once saw and I did not tire of my tears as I watched it. ~ Friedrich Nietzsche

Dangerous Helpfulness. There are people who want to make men's lives more difficult for no other reason than afterwards to offer them their prescriptions for making life easier
their Christianity, for example. ~ Friedrich Nietzsche

Ultimately, nobody can get more out of things, including books, than he already knows. ~ Friedrich Nietzsche

The truthful man ends up realizing that he always lies. ~ Friedrich Nietzsche

All political theories assume, of course, that most individuals are very ignorant. Those who plead for liberty differ from the rest in that they include among the ignorant themselves as well as the wisest. Compared with the totality of knowledge which is continually utilized in the evolution of a dynamic civilization, the difference between the knowledge that the wisest and that the most ignorant individual can deliberately employ is comparatively insignificant. ~ Friedrich Hayek

Many a one cannot loosen his own fetters, but is nevertheless his friend's emancipator. ~ Friedrich Nietzsche

Virtue is reason which has become energy. ~ Karl Wilhelm Friedrich Schlegel

One person is always too many around me. ~ Friedrich Nietzsche

Economic control is not merely control of a sector of human life which can be separated from the rest; it is the control of the means for all our ends. And whoever has sole control of the means must also determine which ends are to be served, which values are to be rated higher and which lower-in short, what men should believe and strive for. ~ Friedrich Hayek

Principle of "Christian love": it insists upon being well paid in the end. ~ Friedrich Nietzsche

If we wish to preserve a free society, it is essential that we recognize that the desirability of a particular object is not sufficient justification for the use of coercion. ~ Friedrich Hayek

Brave and creative men never consider pleasure and pain as ultimate values - they are epiphenomena: one must desire both if one is to achieve anything. ~ Friedrich Nietzsche

The root of all evil: that the slavish morality of meekness, chastity, selflessness, absolute obedience, has triumphed - ruling natures were thus condemned (1) to hypocrisy, (2) to torments of conscience - creative natures felt like rebels against God, uncertain and inhibited by eternal values.

In summa: the best things have been slandered because the weak or the immoderate swine have cast a bad light on them - and the best men have remained hidden - and have often misunderstood themselves. ~ Friedrich Nietzsche

This modernity makes us ill: whinging peace and cowardly compromise, the whole virtuous filth of the modern mentality. This tolerance and largeur of the heart that "forgives" everything because it "understands" everything is a desert wind for us. Better to live amid the ice than among modern virtues and other such southern winds! ~ Friedrich Nietzsche

Not through enmity does enmity come to an end; enmity comes to an end through friendship. ~ Friedrich Nietzsche

Let them storm on. In fury let them rage!
Firm is this castle, and beneath its ruins
I will be buried ere I yield to them.
- Johanna, answer me! only be mine,
And I will shield thee 'gainst a world in arms. ~ Friedrich Schiller

Man wishes woman to be peaceable, but in fact she is essentially warlike, like the cat. ~ Friedrich Nietzsche

I believe only in French culture and consider everything in Europe that calls itself 'culture' a misunderstanding, not to speak of German culture. ~ Friedrich Nietzsche

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! ~ Friedrich Nietzsche

A: But why this solitude? - B: I am not at odds with anyone. But when I am alone I seem to see my friends in a clearer and fairer light than when I am with them; and when I loved and appreciated music the most, I lived far from it. It seems I need a distant perspective if I am to think well of things. ~ Friedrich Nietzsche

Life is a dark chain of events. ~ Friedrich Nietzsche

Friedrich Hayek is not an important figure in the history of macroeconomics. ~ Paul Krugman

He who does not lie does not know what truth is. ~ Friedrich Nietzsche

We no longer love our knowledge enough once we have passed it on. ~ Friedrich Nietzsche

One must have all the virtues to sleep well. Shall I bear false witness? Shall I commit adultery? Shall I covet my neighbor's maid? All that would go ill with good sleep. ~ Friedrich Nietzsche

Every attainment, every step forward in knowledge, follows from courage, from hardness against oneself, from cleanliness in relation to oneself. ~ Friedrich Nietzsche

A society that does not recognise that each individual has values of his own which he is entitled to follow can have no respect for the dignity of the individual and cannot really know freedom. ~ Friedrich August Von Hayek

We must apologise to the readers for returning with such insistence to the Robinson Crusoe and Friday story, which properly belongs to the nursery and not to the field of science - but how can we help it? ~ Friedrich Engels

If you wish to understand a philosopher, do not ask what he says, but find out what he wants ~ Friedrich Nietzsche

In order that the concept of substance could originate
which is indispensable for logic although in the strictest sense nothing real corresponds to it
it was likewise necessary that for a long time one did not see or perceive the changes in things. The beings that did not see so precisely had an advantage over those who saw everything "in flux." At bottom, every high degree of caution in making inferences and every skeptical tendency constitute a great danger for life. No living beings would have survived if the opposite tendency
to affirm rather than suspend judgment, to err and make up things rather than wait, to assent rather than negate, to pass judgment rather than be just
had not been bred to the point where it became extraordinarily strong. ~ Friedrich Nietzsche

But the higher you climb, the smaller you appear to the eye of envy. And he who flies is hated most of all. ~ Friedrich Nietzsche

There is no better soporific and sedative than skepticism. ~ Friedrich Nietzsche

On this perfect day, when everything is ripening and not only the grape turns brown, the eye of the sun just fell upon my life: I looked back, I looked forward, and never saw so many and such good things at once. It was not for nothing that I buried my forty-fourth year today; I had the right to bury it; whatever was life in it has been saved, is immortal. The first book of the Revaluation of All Values, the Songs of Zarathustra, the Twilight of the Idols, my attempt to philosophize with a hammer - all presents of this year, indeed of its last quarter! How could I fail to be grateful to my whole life? - and so I tell my life to myself. ~ Friedrich Nietzsche

You shall love beyond yourselves some day! So first, learn to love. And for that you have to drink the bitter cup of your love. ~ Friedrich Nietzsche

The successful politician owes his power to the fact that he moves within the accepted framework of thought, that he thinks and talks conventionally. It would be almost a contradiction in terms for a politician to be a leader in the field of ideas. His task in a democracy is to find out what the opinions held by the largest number are, not to give currency to new opinions which may become the majority view in some distant future. ~ Friedrich August Von Hayek

It is ironic that Keynesianism originated as a weapon to combat depression, but became universally accepted and "successful" only during (and because of!) the postwar expansion. At the first sign of renewed world recession, Keynesian theory has proved itself to be a snare and a delusion that has gone into immediate bankruptcy. The resulting "post-Keynesian synthesis" is also the theoretical reason for the reactionary exhumation of the simplistic, neoclassical, and monetarist economic theory of the 1920s. This revival of old theory is highlighted by the award of Nobel prizes in economics to Friedrich von Hayek, whose theoretical work was done before the Great Depression, and Milton Friedman, whose lone voice echoed in the wilderness until the new world economic crisis put his unpopular and antipopulist theories on the agenda of business board rooms and government cabinet rooms in one capitalist country after another. The real reason for the recent interest in fifty-year-old theories is that capital now wants them to legitimize its attack on the welfare state and "unproductive" expenditures on social services, which capital claims to need for "productive" investment in industry, including armaments. ~ Andre Gunder Frank

People often think faith consists of forcing oneself to accept something that one does not and cannot understand. Often we call people believers if they just accept what others tell them. Some seek faith by denying reason and forcing themselves into something that has not yet become a personal experience. God requires a different faith, though. He is content if you believe what you can experience. Be faithful and hold on to what you have, not to what you do not have. ~ Christoph Friedrich Blumhardt

A virtuous name is the precious only good, for which queens and peasants' wives must contest together. ~ Friedrich Schiller

As much as possible, and this as quickly as possible: that is what the great mental and emotional illness craves that is variously called "present" or "culture," but that is actually a symptom of consumption. ~ Friedrich Nietzsche

What is this man ? A ball of wild snakes which seldom have peace together - so they go forth alone and seek prey in the world. ~ Friedrich Nietzsche

We should conserve evil just as we should conserve the forests. It is true that by thinning and clearing the forests the earth grew warmer. ~ Friedrich Nietzsche

And what ye have called the world shall but be created by you: your reason, your likeness, your will, you love, shall it itself become! and verily, for your bliss ... ~ Friedrich Nietzsche

Sensuality often makes love grow too quickly, so that the root remains weak and is easy to pull out. ~ Friedrich Nietzsche

Only now did I recognize the reciprocal relationship which exits between manufacturing power and the national system of transportation, and that the one can never develop to its fullest without the other. ~ Friedrich List

A man who possesses genius is insufferable unless he also possesses at least two other things: gratitude and cleanliness. ~ Friedrich Nietzsche

When self control is lacking in small things, the ability to apply it to matters of importance withers away. Every day in which one does not at least deny himself some trifle is badly spent and a threat to the day following. ~ Friedrich Nietzsche

By giving the government unlimited powers, the most arbitrary rule can be made legal; and in this way a democracy may set up the most complete despotism imaginable. ~ Friedrich August Von Hayek

[Socialistic] economic planning, regulation, and intervention pave the way to totalitarianism by building a power structure that will inevitably be seized by the most power-hungry and unscrupulous. ~ Friedrich August Von Hayek

I notice that Autumn is more the season of the soul than of nature. ~ Friedrich Nietzsche

Far too long hath there been a slave and a tyrant concealed in a woman. On that account woman is not yet capable of friendship: she knoweth only love.

In a woman's love there is injustice and blindness to all she doth not love.

And even in woman's conscious love, there is always surprise and lightening and night , along with the light. ~ Friedrich Neitzsche

The parasites live where the great have little secret sores. ~ Friedrich Nietzsche

Who can attain to anything great if he does not feel in himself the force and will to inflict great pain? ~ Friedrich Nietzsche

Monogamy was the first form of the family not founded on natural, but on economic conditions, viz.: the victory of private property over primitive and natural collectivism. ~ Friedrich Engels

Whoever does not believe himself always lies. ~ Friedrich Nietzsche

That whatever a man says, promises, or resolves in passion he must stick to later on when he is cold and sober
this demand is among the heaviest burdens that weigh on humankind. ~ Friedrich Nietzsche

Man only plays when in the full meaning of the word he is a man, and he is only completely a man when he plays. ~ Friedrich Schiller

And to me also, who appreciate life, the butterflies, and soap-bubbles, and whatever is like them amongst us, seem most to enjoy happiness. ~ Friedrich Nietzsche

Human life is inexplicable, and still without meaning: a fool may decide its fate. ~ Friedrich Nietzsche

Whoever no longer finds greatness in God no longer finds it anywhere
he must either deny it or create it. ~ Friedrich Nietzsche

That for which we find words is something already dead in our hearts ~ Friedrich Nietzsche

The dyed-in-the-wool teacher takes everything seriously only with respect to his students
himself included. ~ Friedrich Nietzsche

We are noble, good, beautiful, and happy! ~ Friedrich Nietzsche

It takes chaos to give birth to a dancing star ~ Friedrich Nietzsche

I conjure you, my brethren, to remain faithful to earth, and do not believe those who speak unto you of super terrestrial hopes! Poisoners they are, whether they know it or not. ~ Friedrich Nietzsche

All prejudices may be traced back to the intestines. A sedentary life is the real sin against the Holy Ghost. ~ Friedrich Nietzsche

Animals on factory farms and slaughter houses are mutilated, drugged and abused in ways that would be illegal if dogs or cats were treated similarly. The problem is that farm animals are exempted from the Animal Welfare Act. Therefore, companies often act with impunity. ~ Bruce Friedrich

Whoever approaches these Olympians with another religion in his heart, searching among them for moral elevation, even for sanctity, for disincarnate spirituality, for charity and benevolence, will soon be forced to turn his back on them, discouraged and disappointed. For there is nothing here that suggests asceticism, spirituality, or duty. We hear nothing but the accents of an exuberant, triumphant life in which all things, whether good or evil, are deified. ~ Friedrich Nietzsche

The ultimate decision about what is accepted as right and wrong will be made not by individual human wisdom but by the disappearance of the groups that have adhered to the "wrong" beliefs. ~ Friedrich August Von Hayek

He who has attained the freedom of reason to any extent cannot, for a long time, regard himself otherwise than as a wanderer on the face of the earth - and not even as a traveler towards a final goal, for there is no such thing. But he certainly wants to observe and keep his eyes open to whatever actually happens in the world; therefore he cannot attach his heart too firmly to anything individual; he must have in himself something wandering that takes pleasure in change and transitoriness. ~ Friedrich Nietzsche

Some mothers need happy children; others need unhappy ones-otherwise they cannot prove their maternal virtues. ~ Friedrich Nietzsche

What strange, perplexing, questionable questions! ~ Friedrich Nietzsche

How I understand the philosopher - as a terrible explosive, endangering everthing ... my concept of the philosopher is worlds removed from any concept that would include even a Kant, not to speak of academic "ruminants" and other professors of philosophy ... ~ Friedrich Nietzsche

You want to be paid as well, you virtuous! You want reward for virtue, and heaven for earth, and eternity for your today? ~ Friedrich Nietzsche

There are no facts, only interpretations. ~ Friedrich Nietzsche

Did you ever say yes to a pleasure? oh my friends, then you also said yes to all pain. all things are linked, entwined, in love with one another. ~ Friedrich Nietzsche

There is no self-knowledge but an historical one. No one knows what he himself is who does not know his fellow men, especially the most prominent one of the community, the master's master, the genius of the age. ~ Karl Wilhelm Friedrich Schlegel

When women hate. When feeling hatred, women are more dangerous than men. First and foremost because once their hostile feeling has been aroused, they are inhibited by no considerations of fairness but let their hatred swell undisturbed to the final consequences; and second, because they are practiced in finding sore spots (which every man, every party has) and stabbing there: then their rapier-sharp mind performs splendid services for them (while men, when they see wounds, become restrained, often generous and conciliatory). ~ Friedrich Nietzsche

The surest aid in combating the male's disease of self-contempt is to be loved by a clever woman. ~ Friedrich Nietzsche

Around the hero, everything becomes a tragedy.
Around God, everything becomes what? a world? ~ Friedrich Nietzsche

in truth man is polluted river. one must be a sea to receive a polluted river without becoming defiled. ~ Friedrich Nietzsche

In what does the objective measure of value lie? In the quantum of enhanced and organized power alone, in accordance with what occurs in all occurrence, a will to increase. ~ Friedrich Nietzsche

All artists are self-sacrificing human beings, and to become an artist is nothing but to devote oneself to the subterranean gods. ~ Karl Wilhelm Friedrich Schlegel

That mountain there! That cloud there! What is 'real' about those? Try taking away the phantasm and the entire human
contribution, you sober realists! Yes, if only you could do that! If you could forget your heritage, your past, your training – your entire humanity and animality! For us there is no 'reality' – nor for you either, you sober ones. ~ Friedrich Nietzsche

Unlike the rationalism of the French Revolution, true liberalism has no quarrel with religion, and I can only deplore the militant and essentially illiberal antireligionism which animated so much of nineteenth-century Continental liberalism ... What distinguishes the liberal from the conservative here is that, however profound his own spiritual beliefs, he will never regard himself as entitled to impose them on others and that for him the spiritual and the temporal are different sphere which ought not to be confused. ~ Friedrich August Von Hayek

The painter is, as to the execution of his work, a mechanic; but as to his conception and spirit and design he is hardly below even the poet. ~ Friedrich Schiller

There is more wisdom in your body than in your deepest philosophy. ~ Friedrich Nietzsche

He tolerates no other enemy than one in whom nothing is to be despised and a great deal is worthy of respect! ~ Friedrich Nietzsche

Our birthdays are feathers in the broad wing of time. ~ Jean Paul Friedrich Richter

What is the difference between someone who is convinced and one who is deceived? None, if he is well deceived. ~ Friedrich Nietzsche

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. ~ Friedrich Nietzsche

A politician divides mankind into two classes: tools and enemies. ~ Friedrich Nietzsche

Truth is only an illusion we have forgotten is an illusion. ~ Friedrich Nietzsche