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Where there have been powerful governments, societies, religions, public opinions, in short wherever there has been tyranny, there the solitary philosopher has been hated; for philosophy offers an asylum to a man into which no tyranny can force it way, the inward cave, the labyrinth of the heart.

— Friedrich Nietzsche

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More quotes by Friedrich Nietzsche

The true man wants two things: danger and play. For that reason he wants woman, as the most dangerous toy.

Thus Spoke Zarathustra (1883)

He who fights with monsters might take care lest he thereby become a monster. And when you gaze long into an abyss the abyss also gazes into you.

Beyond Good and Evil (1886)

The spiritualization of sensuality is called love.

Twilight of the Idols (1889)

Gradually it has become clear to me what every great philosophy has been: namely, the personal confession of its author and a kind of involuntary and unconscious memoir.

Beyond Good and Evil (1886)

They are not clean enough for me, either: they all disturb their waters so that they may seem deep.

Thus Spoke Zarathustra (1883)

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The moment the idea is admitted into society, that property is not as sacred as the law of God, and that there is not a force of law and public justice to protect it, anarchy and tyranny commence.

John Adams A Defence of the Constitutions of Government (1787)

There is no governor anywhere; you are all absolutely free. There is no restraint that cannot be escaped.

Robert Anton Wilson

When we see a great man desiring power instead of his real goal we soon recognize that he is sick, or more precisely that his attitude to his work is sick.

Martin Buber What is Man? (1938)

Of all tyrannies a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive.

C. S. Lewis God in the Dock (1970)

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Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: Friedrich Nietzsche (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.