“Art is not merely an imitation of the reality of nature, but in truth a metaphysical supplement to the reality of nature, placed alongside thereof for its conquest.”

“Art is the proper task of life.”

“Art raises its head where creeds relax.”

“Sleeping is no mean art: for its sake one must stay awake all day.”

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

“The bad gains respect through imitation, the good loses it especially in art.”

“Admiration for a quality or an art can be so strong that it deters us from striving to possess it.”

“I do not know what the spirit of a philosopher could more wish to be than a good dancer. For the dance is his ideal, also his fine art, finally also the only kind of piety he knows, his 'divine service.'”

“For art to exist, for any sort of aesthetic activity to exist, a certain physiological precondition is indispensable: intoxication.”

“He who laughs best today, will also laughs last.”

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

“The best author will be the one who is ashamed to become a writer.”

“The best weapon against an enemy is another enemy.”

“The doer alone learneth.”

“Not necessity, not desire - no, the love of power is the demon of men. Let them have everything - health, food, a place to live, entertainment - they are and remain unhappy and low-spirited: for the demon waits and waits and will be satisfied.”

“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.”

“Judgments, value judgments concerning life, for or against, can in the last resort never be true: they possess value only as symptoms, they come into consideration only as symptoms - in themselves such judgments are stupidities.”

“Let us beware of saying that death is the opposite of life. The living being is only a species of the dead, and a very rare species.”

“Without music, life would be a mistake.”

“The lie is a condition of life.”

“Regarding life, the wisest men of all ages have judged alike: it is worthless.”

“Is life not a thousand times too short for us to bore ourselves?”

“He who has a why to live can bear almost any how.”

“Success has always been a great liar.”