The 20 Best Quotes from Friedrich Nietzsche
Philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche was one of the greatest champions of individual achievement and also was one of the most brilliant minds of the 19th century.
However, he was also unfortunate in two respects.
The first is that he was embraced as a champion of atheism over his widely misinterpreted and taken out of context quote, “God is dead.” (Nietzsche was really questioning how humanity would hold itself together if it moved past the idea of an ultimate rule maker, moral authority, and judge as individuals took those roles upon themselves.) Although Nietzsche was an atheist, his view of Christianity could fairly be called ambivalent. He liked some aspects of it (he admired Jesus, for example) but strongly disliked other parts of it.
Of course, the bigger one was that the Nazis also embraced his work despite the fact that he despised antisemitism and was deeply suspicious of the idea of a powerful state suppressing individuality.
Despite all of that, there’s a lot of value in Nietzsche’s work, so I thought he deserved to have his 20 best quotes shared with the world.
Bonus) “Man is a rope stretched between the animal and the Superman--a rope over an abyss.”
Bonus) “The secret of the greatest fruitfulness and the greatest enjoyment of existence is: to live dangerously!”
Bonus) “Man, the boldest animal and the one most accustomed to pain, does not repudiate suffering as such; he desires it, he even seeks it out, provided that he has been shown a meaning for it, a reason for suffering. The meaninglessness of suffering, and not suffering as such, has been the curse which has hung over mankind up to now.”
20) “The snake which cannot cast its skin has to die. As well the minds which are prevented from changing their opinions; they cease to be mind.”
19) “How many things are now called the worst evil, which are only twelve feet wide and three months long! But some day greater dragons will come into the world.”
18) “They muddy the water to make it seem deep.”
17) “A politician divides mankind into two classes: tools and enemies.”
16) “Distrust all in whom the impulse to punish is powerful.”
15) “Sometimes people don’t want to hear the truth because they don’t want their illusions destroyed.”
14) “Silence is worse; all truths that are kept silent become poisonous.”
13) “The surest way to corrupt a youth is to instruct him to hold in higher esteem those who think alike than those who think differently.”
12) “The true man wants two things: danger and play. For that reason, he wants woman as the most dangerous plaything.”
11) “The individual has always had to struggle to keep from being overwhelmed by the tribe. If you try it, you will be lonely often and sometimes frightened. But no price is too high to pay for the privilege of owning yourself.”
10) “There is a point in the history of society when it becomes so pathologically soft and tender that, among other things, it sides even with those who harm it, criminals, and does this quite seriously and honestly. Punishing somehow seems unfair to it, and it is certain that imagining ‘punishment’ and ‘being supposed to punish’ hurts it, arouses fear in it. ‘Is it not enough to render him undangerous? Why still punish? Punishing itself is terrible.’ With this question, herd morality, the morality of timidity, draws its ultimate consequence.”
9) “To live is to suffer, to survive is to find some meaning in the suffering.”
8) “When we are tired, we are attacked by ideas we conquered long ago.”
7) “He who cannot obey himself will be commanded. That is the nature of living creatures.”
6) “In individuals, insanity is rare; but in groups, parties, nations, and epochs, it is the rule.”
5) “I’m not upset that you lied to me, I’m upset that from now on I can’t believe you.”
4) “He who has a why to live for can bear almost any how.”
3) “God is dead. God remains dead. And we have killed him. How shall we comfort ourselves, the murderers of all murderers? What was holiest and mightiest of all that the world has yet owned has bled to death under our knives: who will wipe this blood off us? What water is there for us to clean ourselves? What festivals of atonement, what sacred games shall we have to invent? Is not the greatness of this deed too great for us? Must we ourselves not become gods simply to appear worthy of it?”
2) “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.”
1) “That which does not kill us makes us stronger.”
Mr. Hawkins errs (but so do we all and he is still very much worth reading) when he includes in his list of 2 failings that Nietzsche was taken up by the National Socialists in Germany.
Nietzsche was long dead and had no control over that.
When Reagan ran for Governor of California, the System media uttered the mantra over and over again that Reagan "...is supported by members of the John Birch Society."
Reagan had a sensible answer to this odd kind of "guilt by association", one that was and is eminently sensible and should resonate with sane people ("liberals" are not "sane"):
"If the Birchers are supporting me, it means they are supporting me. It does not mean I am supporting them."
[Before anyone thinks I am attacking the John Birch Society or that I am a Bircher, let me make 2 things very clear:
1. I am not now nor never have been a member of the John Birch Society. (But I did benefit greatly from the American Opinion Bookstore run by that Society which opened in 1964 in Atlanta when I was high school student. It was the only place I could go to get books that contained contrary views to what was being fed us in the textbooks and on the television. I've always been grateful to the people - Birchers - who sacrificed their time and money and expended their energy in opening that bookstore and keeping it open during my formative years.)
2. The John Birch Society was demonized in the System Media but did not deserve demonization and was a harmless group. So harmless as to have been really a moderate or even liberal organization. On 2 critical issues: it was philosemitic and opposed to "racism." Already, instinctively, in my peach-faced youth, I was to the "right" of the John Birch Society, as were most Georgians.]
Nietzsche bears no responsibility for the National Socialists' interest in him. Indeed, given Nietzsche's championing of extreme individualism while the National Socialists understood as the ancient Greeks did that man is "a social animal" and must be part of a society.
I like Nietzsche, although I am uncomfortable with him for 2 reasons:
1. Like Mr. Hawkins I find his atheism puts me off.
2. Unlike Mr. Harkins I do not share Nietzsche's hyper-individualism. Over my life experience has taught me that our cause in general and ourselves specifically are better off with teamwork and playing as a team. "Conservatives" (how dislike that word but I find myself one with people who are comfortable with that label...like Mr. Hawkins) as a group are far too individualistic and eager to quarrel.
Here are my 2 cents' worth on the subject of Nietzsche quotes:
Nietzsche Quote #10 in his list: These thoughts run along the lines of something Seneca said. I can no longer quote it in Latin but in English his statement was that someone who cannot bear incurring hatred from others is unqualified to bear the reins of power. We have the misfortune to be ruled by people whom Nietzsche in Quote #10 condemns. Our "leadership" throughout society and not merely in government has been feminized. Most people in America worship popularity and are uncomfortable punishing the wicked.
My own favorite Nietzsche quote?
Here it is:
SYMPATHY MULTIPLIES MISERY.
This is a profound truth both in society as a whole and in individuals.
Haiti is an example of the truth of "sympathy multiplies misery."
I remember only a few decades ago when the System Media was carrying on about "three millions starving Haitians."
So, we shipped food to them, provided them with medical care, etc.
Now today we hear about "thirteen million starving Haitians."
In 20 years those of you who will still be alive will be hearing about "forty million starving Haitians" and that figure will not even include the fifteen million Haitians who will have moved to America, commenced voting and be living off food stamps, welfare, etc.
Sympathy multiplies misery.
On the individual level if sympathy is made commonplace, many people will choose to make themselves miserable in order to extort sympathy, consolation and kindness from others.
I'm sure many of Mr. Hawkins' followers have encountered the kind of person common in our society who, when you say, "Good morning! How are you?" proceed to tell you about their aching feet, how many traffic lights they missed that day on the way to work, their cold last week, how badly they slept last night and so on.
The make themselves miserable in order to get sympathy.
Sympathy multiplies misery.
It's so true.
Sam Dickson