Friedrich Nietzsche

The 'kingdom of Heaven' is a condition of the heart - not something that comes 'upon the earth' or 'after death.'

Whoever does not have a good father should procure one.

When one has not had a good father, one must create one.

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

In the last analysis, even the best man is evil: in the last analysis, even the best woman is bad.

He who laughs best today, will also laughs last.

The best weapon against an enemy is another enemy.

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

Art raises its head where creeds relax.

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

When art dresses in worn-out material it is most easily recognized as art.

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.

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.

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

Art is the proper task of life.

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

The essence of all beautiful art, all great art, is gratitude.

The doer alone learneth.

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