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

"No one can construct for you the bridge upon which precisely you must cross the stream of life, no one but you yourself alone."

"When we are tired, we are attacked by ideas we conquered long ago."

"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."

"In individuals, insanity is rare; but in groups, parties, nations and epochs, it is the rule."

"The advantage of a bad memory is that one enjoys several times the same good things for the first time."

"Man is the cruelest animal."

"The surest way to corrupt a youth is to instruct him to hold in higher esteem those who think alike than those who think differently."

"Is man merely a mistake of God's? Or God merely a mistake of man?"

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

"Thoughts are the shadows of our feelings -- always darker, emptier and simpler."

"Faith: not wanting to know what the truth is."

"I would believe only in a God that knows how to dance."

"The thought of suicide is a great consolation: by means of it one gets through many a dark night."

"A casual stroll through the lunatic asylum shows that faith does not prove anything."

"The higher we soar the smaller we appear to those who cannot fly."

"A thinker sees his own actions as experiments and questions--as attempts to find out something. Success and failure are for him answers above all."

"The true man wants two things: danger and play. For that reason he wants woman, as the most dangerous plaything."

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

"I am a forest, and a night of dark trees: but he who is not afraid of my darkness, will find banks full of roses under my cypresses."

"Be careful, lest in casting out your demon you exorcise the best thing in you."

"We have art in order not to die of the truth."

"There are two different types of people in the world, those who want to know, and those who want to believe."

"A good writer possesses not only his own spirit but also the spirit of his friends."

"All truly great thoughts are conceived while walking."

"One ought to hold on to one's heart; for if one lets it go, one soon loses control of the head too."

"One ought to hold on to one's heart; for if one lets it go, one soon loses control of the head too."

"All things are subject to interpretation. Whichever interpretation prevails at a given time is a function of power and not truth."

"You must be ready to burn yourself in your own flame; how could you rise anew if you have not first become ashes?"

"That which is done out of love is always beyond good and evil."

"All I need is a sheet of paper and something to write with, and then I can turn the world upside down."

"Ah, women. They make the highs higher and the lows more frequent."

"Art is the proper task of life."

"Silence is worse; all truths that are kept silent become "poisonous"."

"There is not enough love and goodness in the world to permit giving any of it away to imaginary beings."

"What does your conscience say? — 'You should become the person you are'."

"Beware that, when fighting monsters, you yourself do not become a monster... for when you gaze long into the abyss. The abyss gazes also into you."

"Invisible threads are the strongest ties."

"Perhaps I know best why it is man alone who laughs; he alone suffers so deeply that he had to invent laughter."

"Amor Fati – “Love Your Fate”, which is in fact your life."

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

"The lonely one offers his hand too quickly to whomever he encounters."

"Stupidity in a woman is unfeminine."

"After coming into contact with a religious man I always feel I must wash my hands."

"Today as always, men fall into two groups: slaves and free men. Whoever does not have two-thirds of his day for himself, is a slave, whatever he may be: a statesman, a businessman, an official, or a scholar."

"A thought, even a possibility, can shatter and transform us."

"One must still have chaos in oneself to be able to give birth to a dancing star."

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

"Ultimately, it is the desire, not the desired, that we love."

"The visionary lies to himself, the liar only to others."