On His 119th Death Anniversary, 15 Quotes on Love and Life by Friedrich Nietzsche

A poet, composer, critic and philosopher, Friedrich Nietzsche began his career as a classical philologist before turning to philosophy. Born on October 15, 1844, he would become the youngest person ever to hold the Chair of Classical Philology at the University of Basel in 1869 at the age of 24.

Unfortunately, in 1889, aged 44, he suffered a collapse and lost his total mental faculties. He lived his remaining years in the care of his mother until her death in 1897 and then with his sister Elisabeth Forster-Nietzsche. He died on August 25, 1900.

Nietzsche's thoughts and ideas have greatly shaped the 20th and early-21st century thinkers across the world in areas of existentialism, postmodernism and post-structuralism, as well as art, literature, psychology, politics and popular culture.

On the great philosopher's 119th death anniversary, we look at 15 of his most though-provoking quotes on love and life.

-That which does not kill us makes us stronger.

-It is not a lack of love, but a lack of friendship that makes unhappy marriages.

-And those who were seen dancing were thought to be insane by those who could not hear the music.

-There is always some madness in love. But there is also always some reason in madness.

-Whoever fights monsters should see to it that in the process he does not become a monster. And if you gaze long enough into an abyss, the abyss will gaze back into you.

-You have your way. I have my way. As for the right way, the correct way, and the only way, it does not exist.

-Sometimes people don't want to hear the truth because they don't want their illusions destroyed.

-There are no facts, only interpretations.

-He who has a why to live for can bear almost any how.

-No one can construct for you the bridge upon which precisely you must cross the stream of life, no one but you yourself alone.

-We love life, not because we are used to living but because we are used to loving.

-To live is to suffer, to survive is to find some meaning in the suffering.

-I know of no better life purpose than to perish in attempting the great and the impossible.

-Thoughts are the shadows of our feelings—always darker, emptier and simpler.

-Is man merely a mistake of God's? Or God merely a mistake of man?