Friedrich Nietzsche Quotations : CULTURE, THE ARTS, MUSIC, LITERATURE, THEATRE |
Books for the general reader are always ill-smelling books, the odour of paltry people clings to them. Beyond Good and Evil, Chapter 2, The Free Spirit, Friedrich Nietzsche Go to Quote |
Where the populace eat and drink, and even where they reverence, it is accustomed to stink. Beyond Good and Evil, Chapter 2, The Free Spirit, Friedrich Nietzsche Go to Quote |
By means of music the very passions enjoy themselves. Beyond Good and Evil, Chapter 4, Maxims and Interludes, Friedrich Nietzsche Go to Quote |
In order to do justice to this essay a man ought to suffer from the destiny of music as from an open wound. Ecce Homo, The Wagner Case, Friedrich Nietzsche |
The great poet draws his creations only from out of his own reality. Ecce Homo, Why I am So Clever, Friedrich Nietzsche |
As an artist a man has no home in Europe except in Paris Ecce Homo, Why I am So Clever, Friedrich Nietzsche |
If one wishes to escape from unbearable pressure then one needs hashish. Well, I needed Wagner. Ecce Homo, Why I am So Clever, Friedrich Nietzsche |
If I try to find a new word for music I can never find any other than Venice. Ecce Homo, Why I am So Clever, Friedrich Nietzsche |
I do not know how to draw any distinction between tears and music. Ecce Homo, Why I am So Clever, Friedrich Nietzsche |
Early in the morning, at the break of day, in all the fullness and dawn of one’s strength, to read a book—this I call vicious! Ecce Homo, Why I am So Clever, Friedrich Nietzsche |
When I try to picture the character of a perfect reader I always imagine a monster of courage and curiosity as well as of suppleness, cunning and prudence—in short a born adventurer and explorer. Ecce Homo, Why I Write Such Excellent Books, Friedrich Nietzsche |
I am capable of many kinds of style—in short the most manifold art of style that any man has ever had at his disposal. Ecce Homo, Why I Write Such Excellent Books, Friedrich Nietzsche |
One should only speak where one cannot remain silent, and only speak of what one has conquered — the rest is all chatter, "literature", bad breeding. Human, All-Too-Human : Miscellaneous Maxims and Opinions, PREFACE, Friedrich Nietzsche Go to Quote |
He who speaks of deeper needs and unsatisfied yearnings for art among the people, as it is, is a crank or an impostor. Be honest! Human, All-Too-Human : Miscellaneous Maxims and Opinions, 169. THE ART-NEED OF THE SECOND ORDER, Friedrich Nietzsche Go to Quote |
What is it that we long for at the sight of beauty? We long to be beautiful, we fancy it must bring much happiness with it. But that is a mistake. Human, All-Too-Human : Part One, 149. THE SLOW ARROW OF BEAUTY, Friedrich Nietzsche Go to Quote |
The thinker or artist whose better self has fled into his works feels an almost malicious joy when he sees his body and spirit slowly broken into and destroyed by time; it is as if he were in a corner, watching a thief at work on his safe, all the while knowing that it is empty and that all his treasures have been rescued. Human, All-Too-Human : Part One, 209. JOY IN OLD AGE, Friedrich Nietzsche Go to Quote |
For even the ablest artist from time to time finds his handicraft and his workshop unendurable. This temptation is so strong that it makes the artist show all the world what no one wishes to see, that his little chamber of thought is cramped and untidy. Human, All-Too-Human : The Wanderer and His Shadow, 123. ARTISTS' AFFECTATION OF SCIENTIFIC METHOD, Friedrich Nietzsche Go to Quote |
The book should demand pen, ink, and desk, but usually it is pen, ink, and desk that demand the book. Human, All-Too-Human : The Wanderer and His Shadow, 133. BAD BOOKS, Friedrich Nietzsche Go to Quote |
For you know of course that all great modern artists suffer from bad consciences? The Gay Science : Fifth Book, 366. At the Sight of a Learned Book, Friedrich Nietzsche Go to Quote |
In the theatre we are only honest in the mass; as individuals we lie, we lie even to ourselves. The Gay Science : Fifth Book, 368. The Cynic Speaks., Friedrich Nietzsche Go to Quote |
This seems to me almost the normal condition with fruitful artists- nobody knows a child less well than its parents and the rule applies even (to take an immense example) to the entire Greek world of poetry and art : it never "knew" what it had done. The Gay Science : Fifth Book, 369. Juxtapositions in us, Friedrich Nietzsche Go to Quote |
One not only wants to be understood when one writes, but also quite as certainly not to be understood. The Gay Science : Fifth Book, 381. The Question of being understandable, Friedrich Nietzsche Go to Quote |
If there be still enjoyment in society and in art, it is enjoyment such as over worked slaves provide for themselves. The Gay Science : Fourth Book, 329. Leisure and Idleness, Friedrich Nietzsche Go to Quote |
I mean to say that the world is overfull of beautiful things, but it is nevertheless poor, very poor, in beautiful moments, and in the unveiling of those beautiful things. The Gay Science : Fourth Book, 339. Vita femina, Friedrich Nietzsche Go to Quote |
He who has enough of tragedy and comedy in himself probably does best when stays away from the theatre. The Gay Science : Second Book, 86. The Theatre, Friedrich Nietzsche Go to Quote |
One now seeks to allure the exhausted and sickly from the great suffering path of humanity for a wanton moment by means of works of art ; one furnishes them with a little ecstasy and insanity. The Gay Science : Second Book, 89. Now and Formerly, Friedrich Nietzsche Go to Quote |
Warfare is the father of all good things, it is also the father of good prose! The Gay Science : Second Book, 92. Prose and Poetry, Friedrich Nietzsche Go to Quote |
We cannot be sufficiently on our guard against taking a dislike to an artist on account of an occasional, perhaps very unfortunate and presumptuous masquerade; let us not forget that the dear artists are all of them something of actors and must be so ; it would be difficult for them to hold out in the long run without stage playing. The Gay Science : Second Book, 99. The Followers of Schopenhauer, Friedrich Nietzsche Go to Quote |
Culture, they call it; it distinguishes them from the goatherds. Thus Spoke Zarathustra, Zarathustra's Prologue, Friedrich Nietzsche Go to Quote |
I call it the state where everyone - good and bad - are poison drinkers, where all lose themselves: the state, where univesal slow suicide is called - "life”. Thus Spoke Zarathustra, The New Idol, Friedrich Nietzsche Go to Quote |
That there is struggle and inequality and war for power and supremacy even in beauty: that does he here teach us in the plainest parable. Thus Spoke Zarathustra, The Tarantulas, Friedrich Nietzsche Go to Quote |
Of all that is written, I love only what a person has written with his blood. Thus Spoke Zarathustra, Reading and Writing, Friedrich Nietzsche Go to Quote |
Everyone being allowed to learn to read – will ruin in the long run not only writing but thinking too. Thus Spoke Zarathustra, Reading and Writing, Friedrich Nietzsche Go to Quote |
Without music, life would be an error. Twighlight of the Idols, Maxims and Arrows, Friedrich Nietzsche Go to Quote |