The Birth of Tragedy

Die Geburt der Tragödie, Oder: Griechenthum und Pessimismus, 3rd ed., 1886. Recommended translations:

  • The Birth of Tragedy and The Case of Wagner, trans. Walter Kaufmann, Random House, 1967.
  • The Birth of Tragedy & The Genealogy of Morals, trans. Francis Golffing, Doubleday, 1956.

Excerpt: Whatever may be at the bottom of this questionable book, it must have been an exceptionally significant and fascinating question, and deeply personal at that: the time in which it was written, in spite of which it was written, bears witness to that—the exciting time of the… More

The Case of Wagner

Der Fall Wagner: Ein Musikanten-Problem, 1888. Recommended translation: The Birth of Tragedy and The Case of Wagner, trans. Walter Kaufmann, Random House, 1967.

Excerpt: I am writing this to relieve my mind. It is not malice alone which makes me praise Bizet at the expense of Wagner in this essay. Amid a good deal of jesting I wish to make one point clear which does not admit of levity. To turn my back on Wagner was for me a piece of fate, to get… More

On the Genealogy of Morals

Zur Genealogie der Moral: Eine Streitschrift, 1887. Recommended translation: On the Genealogy of Morals and Ecce Homo, trans. Walter Kaufmann, Vintage Books, 1969.

Excerpt: We are unknown to ourselves, we men of knowledge—and with good reason. We have never sought ourselves—how could it happen that we should ever find ourselves? It has rightly been said: “Where your treasure is, there will your heart be also” [Matthew 6:21]; our… More

Untimely Meditations

Unzeitgemässe Betrachtungen, 1876. Recommended translation: Untimely Meditations, ed. Daniel Breazeale, trans. R. J. Hollingdale, Cambridge University Press, 1983, 1997.

Excerpt: I. David Strauss, the Confessor and the Writer Public opinion in Germany seems almost to forbid discussion of the evil and perilous consequences of a war, and especially of one that has ended victoriously: there is thus all the more ready an ear for those writers who know no… More

Human, All Too Human

Menschliches, Allzumenschliches, 1878. Recommended translations:

  • Human, All Too Human: A Book for Free Spirits, trans. Marion Faber, with Stephen Lehmann, with introduction and notes by Marion Faber, University of Nebraska Press, 1984, 1986.
  • Human, All Too Human: A Book for Free Spirits, 2nd ed., trans. R. J. Hollingdale, Cambridge University Press, 1996.

Excerpt: Often enough, and always with great consternation, people have told me that there is something distinctive in all my writings, from The Birth of Tragedy to the most recently publishedPrologue to a Philosophy of the Future. All of them, I have been told, contain snares and nets… More

Daybreak: Thoughts on the Prejudices of Morality

Morgenröte: Gedanken über die moralischen Vorurteile, 1881. Recommended translation: Daybreak: Thoughts on the Prejudices of Morality, ed. Maudemarie Clark and Brian Leiter, trans. R. J. Hollingdale, Cambridge University Press, 1997.

Excerpt: 1. In this book you will discover a ‘subterranean man’ at work, one who tunnels and mines and undermines. You will see him—presupposing you have eyes capable of seeing this work in the depths—going forward slowly, cautiously, gently inexorable, without… More

The Gay Science

Die fröhliche Wissenschaft, 1882. Recommended translations: The Gay Science, with a Prelude in Rhymes and an Appendix of Songs, trans. Walter Kaufmann, Random House, 1974. The Gay Science (The Joyful Wisdom), trans. Thomas Common, Macmillan Co., 1924.

Excerpt: 1. Invitation Take a chance and try my fare: It will grow on you, I swear; Soon it will taste good to you. If by then you should want more, All the things I’ve done before Will inspire things quite new. 2. My Happiness Since I grew tired of the chase And search, I learned… More

Thus Spoke Zarathustra

Also sprach Zarathustra: Ein Buch für Alle und Keinen, 1883. Recommended translation: Thus Spoke Zarathustra: A Book for Everyone and No One, trans. R. J. Hollingdale, Penguin, 1961.

Excerpt: When Zarathustra was thirty years old, he left his home and the lake of his home, and went into the mountains. There he enjoyed his spirit and solitude, and for ten years did not weary of it. But at last his heart changed,—and rising one morning with the rosy dawn, he went… More

Beyond Good and Evil

Jenseits von Gut und Böse: Vorspiel einer Philosophie der Zukunft, 1886. Recommended translation: Beyond Good and Evil: Prelude to a Philosophy of the Future, trans. Walter Kaufmann, Random House, 1966.  

Excerpt: The will to truth which will still tempt us to many a venture, that famous truthfulness of which all philosophers so far have spoken with respect—what questions has this will to truth not laid before us! What strange, wicked, questionable questions! That is a long story even… More

Ecce Homo

Ecce homo: Wie man wird, was man ist, 1908. Recommended translations: On the Genealogy of Morals and Ecce Homo, trans. Walter Kaufmann, Vintage Books, 1969. Ecce Homo: How One Becomes what One Is, trans. R. J. Hollingdale, Penguin, 1982.

Excerpt: The happiness of my existence, its unique character perhaps, lies in its fatefulness: expressing it in the form of a riddle, as my own father I am already dead, as my own mother I still live and, grow old. This double origin, taken as it were from the highest and lowest rungs of… More

The Antichrist

Der Antichrist, 1895. Recommended translation: The Twilight of the Idols and The Anti-Christ, trans. R. J. Hollingdale, Penguin, 1977.

Excerpt: –Let us look each other in the face. We are Hyperboreans–we know well enough how remote our place is. “Neither by land nor by water will you find the road to the Hyperboreans”: even Pindar,in his day, knew that much about us. Beyond the North, beyond the… More

The Will to Power

Der Wille zur Macht, ed. Elisabeth Förster-Nietzsche, Heinrich Köselitz, Ernst Horneffer, and August Horneffer, 1901, 1906. Recommended translation: The Will to Power, trans. Walter Kaufmann and R. J. Hollingdale, ed., with commentary, Walter Kaufmann, Vintage, 1968.

Excerpt: Book One, European Nihilism 1. Nihilism stands at the door: whence comes this uncanniest of all guests? Point of departure: it is an error to consider “social distress” or “physiological degeneration” or, worse, corruption, as the cause of nihilism. Ours… More

Twilight of the Idols

Götzen-Dämmerung, oder, Wie man mit dem Hammer philosophiert, 1889. Recommended translation: Twilight of the Idols and The Anti-Christ, trans. R. J. Hollingdale, Penguin, 1977.

Excerpt: In every age the wisest have passed the identical judgment on life: it is worthless. . . . Everywhere and always their mouths have uttered the same sound – a sound full of doubt, full of melancholy, full of weariness with life, full of opposition to life. Even Socrates said as… More