75 of the Best Nietzsche Quotes on Life, Success and More

Friedrich Nietzsche plaque

Whether you are already familiar with him or not, prepare to be amazed at the man who was Friedrich Nietzsche. If you were to search the internet for famous philosophers, you would likely see Nietzsche in the top five of most lists. He is in the same company as Aristotle, Plato and Socrates.

Nietzsche was a German philosopher born in 1844, who, by the age of 24, was the youngest person to become the Chair of Classical Philology at the University of Basel.

Before passing away in 1900 due to health problems, his work was comprised of philosophy, poetry, cultural criticism and even fiction. Fundamentally believing that "the exemplary human being must craft his/her own identity through self-realization, and to do so without relying on anything transcending that life." Most famously, he criticized the traditional European moral of commitments, along with the foundations of Christianity.

Keep reading and find out how these 75 Nietzsche quotes will change how you view the world.

Related: Wisdom from the 'Philosopher King'—75 Famous Quotes from Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius

75 Friedrich Nietzsche Quotes

1. "To live is to suffer, to survive is to find some meaning in the suffering."

2. "We love life, not because we are used to living but because we are used to loving."

3. "A matter that becomes clear ceases to concern us."

4. "He who laughs best today, will also laugh last."

5. "One has to pay dearly for immortality; one has to die several times while one is still alive."

6. "To do great things is difficult, but to command great things is more difficult."

7. "All truly great thoughts are conceived by walking."

8. "Is man one of God’s blunders or is God one of man’s blunders?"

9. "One may sometimes tell a lie, but the grimace that accompanies it tells the truth."

10. "Convictions are more dangerous enemies of truth than lies."

11. "I cannot believe in a God who wants to be praised all the time.”

12. “One should die proudly when it is no longer possible to live proudly."

13. "To make the individual uncomfortable, that is my task."

14. "He who despises himself nevertheless esteems himself as a self-despiser."

Related: 101 of the Best Confucius Quotes and Sayings to Motivate and Inspire You

15. "It is not a lack of love, but a lack of friendship that makes unhappy marriages."

16. "The future influences the present just as much as the past."

17. "The snake which cannot cast its skin has to die. As well the minds which are prevented from changing their opinions; they cease to be mind."

18. "Blessed are the forgetful, for they get the better even of their blunders."

19. "One must be a sea, to receive a polluted stream without becoming impure."

20. "Success has always been a great liar."

21. "When you stare into the abyss, the abyss stares back at you."

22. "The real world is much smaller than the imaginary."

23. "If a man has character, he has also his typical experience, which always recurs."

24. "It is nobler to declare oneself wrong than to insist on being right, especially when one is right."

25. "In heaven, all the interesting people are missing."

26. "He who has a 'why' to live for, can bear almost any 'how'."

27. "What is the truth, but a lie agreed upon."

28. "There are no beautiful surfaces without a terrible depth."

29. "Whatever has its price has little value."

30. "Every deep thinker is more afraid of being understood than being misunderstood."

31. "We often refuse to accept an idea merely because the tone of which it has been expressed is unsympathetic to us."

Related: Let’s Wax Poetic! 150 Thought-Provoking Ralph Waldo Emerson Quotes

32. "But I need solitude, which is to say, recovery, return to myself, the breath of a free, light, playful air."

33. "The mother of excess is not joy but joylessness."

34. "Digressions, objections, delight in mockery, carefree mistrust are signs of health; everything unconditional belongs in pathology."

35. "Back then you carried your ashes to the mountain; would you now carry your fire into the alley?"

36. "Only those who continue to change remain my kin."

37. "Without music, life would be a mistake."

38. "Once spirit was God, then it became man, and now it is even becoming mob."

39. "The pure soul is a pure lie."

40. "There are two different types of people in this world. Those who want to know and those who want to believe."

41. "Terribleness is part of greatness: let us not deceive ourselves."

Related: The Man Behind the Theories and Equations—We've Got 50 Brilliant Albert Einstein Quotes

42. "Hope in reality is the worst of all evils because it prolongs the torments of man."

43. "Nothing is as precious as human reason and freedom."

44. "Everything done in weakness fails. Moral: Do nothing."

45. "Everything the State says is a lie, and everything it has, it has stolen."

46. "Creating. That is the great salvation from suffering."

47. "I am not upset that you lied to me. I am upset that from now on I can't believe you."

48. "Faith means not wanting to know what is true."

49. "That which does not kill us, makes us stronger."

50. "We have to be careful that in throwing out the devil, we don't throw out the best part of ourselves."

51. "Ten truths must you find during the day; otherwise, you will seek truth during the night, and your soul will stay hungry. Ten times must you laugh during the day, and be cheerful; otherwise, your stomach, the father of affliction and gloom, will disturb you in the night."

52. "All history is the experimental refutation of the theory of the so-called moral order of things."

53. "He who cannot obey himself will be commanded."

54. "There is more wisdom in your body than your deepest philosophies."

55. "One must have chaos within oneself to be able to give birth to a dancing star."

56. "Perhaps I know best why man alone laughs; he alone suffers so deeply he had to invent laughter."

Related: 125 Inspiring Mahatma Gandhi Quotes That Will Change Your Life

57. "Do you want to have an easy life? Then always stay with the herd and lose yourself in the herd."

58. "Morality is the herd instinct in the individual."

59. "We should call every truth false which was not accompanied by at least one laugh."

60. "I hate who steals my solitude, without, in exchange, offering me true company."

61. "One must give value to their existence by behaving as if one's very existence is a work of art."

62. "We love life, not because we are used to living, but because we are used to loving."

63. "He who would learn to fly one day must first learn to stand and walk and run and climb and dance; one cannot fly into flying."

64. "The doer alone learneth."

65. "There are no facts, only interpretations."

66. "In every real man a child is hidden that wants to play."

67. "To forget one's purpose is the commonest form of stupidity."

68. "Whenever I climb, I am followed by a dog called 'Ego'."

69. "It is always consoling to think of suicide: in that way one gets through many a bad night."

70. "Whatever is done for love always occurs beyond good and evil."

Related: 101 Buddha Quotes on Love, Life, Happiness and Death

71. "There are no eternal facts, as there are no absolute truths."

72. "This is the hardest of all: to close the open hand out of love and keep modest as a giver."

73. "Wit is the epitaph of an emotion."

74. "Do whatever you will, but first be such as are able to will."

75. "Whoever despises himself nonetheless respects himself as one who despises."

Next: How to Use Wisdom to 'Know Your Enemy'—Here Are the 75 Best Sun Tzu Quotes