Top 18 Friedrich Nietzsche Quotes
A selection of Nietzsche’s spikiest lines - plus one that’s surprisingly sweet
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My Substack is called The Nature-Nurture-Nietzsche Newsletter, but if you’ve been following along, you’ll have noticed a distinct lack of Nietzsche. People have asked me about that. The truth is, I’m not actually a card-carrying Nietzschean. The Nietzsche in the title is there for the alliteration, and as a nod to my love of philosophy in general, rather than Nietzsche specifically.
But although I don’t carry a copy of Thus Spoke Zarathustra around with me in a leather satchel, I do think Nietzsche was a great writer, not to mention a world-class aphorist. His best lines are like espresso shots for the brain: short, sharp, and likely to leave you feeling unsettled.
In this post, I’ve gathered together 18 of my favorites. Most are spiky, a few are bleakly funny - and one of them (the last one) is almost tender. Yep, I’m as surprised as you are!
“In individuals, insanity is rare; but in groups, parties, nations and epochs, it is the rule.”
“There is a point in the history of society when it becomes so pathologically soft and tender that among other things it sides even with those who harm it.”
“They muddy the water, to make it seem deep.”
“You should not be afraid of someone who has a library and reads many books; you should fear someone who has only one book; and he considers it sacred, but he has never read it.”
“Faith means not wanting to know what is true.”
“Formerly one sought the feeling of grandeur of man by pointing to his divine origin: this has now become a forbidden way, for at its portal stands the ape, together with other gruesome beasts, grinning knowingly as if to say: no further in this direction!”
“Is man one of God’s blunders? Or is God one of man’s blunders?”
“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.”
“You have your way. I have my way. As for the right way, the correct way, and the only way, it does not exist.”
“The value of a thing sometimes lies not in what one attains with it, but in what one pays for it - what it costs us.”
“Under peaceful conditions the warlike man attacks himself.”
“He who cannot obey himself will be commanded. That is the nature of living creatures.”
“Nothing helps; I must help myself, or I am finished.”
“Look at your habits of which it consists: are they the product of numberless little acts of cowardice and laziness, or of your bravery and inventive reason?”
“There is one path in the world that none can walk but you. Where does it lead? Don’t ask, walk!”
“He who has a why to live for can bear almost any how.”
“The end of a melody is not its goal: but nonetheless, had the melody not reached its end it would not have reached its goal either.”
“Marriage as a long conversation. When marrying you should ask yourself this question: do you believe you are going to enjoy talking with this woman into your old age? Everything else in a marriage is transitory, but most of the time that you’re together will be devoted to conversation.”
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Coming Soon to The Nature-Nurture-Nietzsche Newsletter…
Cognitive Chicanery: Five Ways We Dodge Facts That Offend Us
The Nature-Nurture-Nietzsche Newsletter Linkfest for July 2025
Free Will, Part 1 (“It was always going to be the case that I would write this post…”)
The latest edition of my “12 Things Everyone Should Know” series
Some big news about my next book, A Billion Years of Sex Differences
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Steve Stewart-Williams
I seem to recall discovering that the “one book” one isn’t authentic, but I recognize all the others.
“They muddy the water, to make it seem deep.”
I love this so much.