Thursday 22 May 2008

A Little Nietzche Wisdom



As I often say, the guy is under-rated. One of the greatest philosophers who ever lived.

I'll let him tell you why.

A good writer possesses not only his own spirit but also the spirit of his friends.

A subject for a great poet would be God's boredom after the seventh day of creation.

A woman may very well form a friendship with a man, but for this to endure, it must be assisted by a little physical antipathy.

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

All credibility, all good conscience, all evidence of truth come only from the senses.

All sciences are now under the obligation to prepare the ground for the future task of the philosopher, which is to solve the problem of value, to determine the true hierarchy of values.

All things are subject to interpretation whichever interpretation prevails at a given time is a function of power and not truth.

All truth is simple... is that not doubly a lie?

Although the most acute judges of the witches and even the witches themselves, were convinced of the guilt of witchery, the guilt nevertheless was non-existent. It is thus with all guilt.

Anyone who has declared someone else to be an idiot, a bad apple, is annoyed when it turns out in the end that he isn't.

Art raises its head where creeds relax.

Do whatever you will, but first be such as are able to will.

Egoism is the very essence of a noble soul.

Experience, as a desire for experience, does not come off. We must not study ourselves while having an experience.

Extreme positions are not succeeded by moderate ones, but by contrary extreme positions.

Faith: not wanting to know what is true.

Fanatics are picturesque, mankind would rather see gestures than listen to reasons.

Fear is the mother of morality.

For art to exist, for any sort of aesthetic activity to exist, a certain physiological precondition is indispensable: intoxication.

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

I assess the power of a will by how much resistance, pain, torture it endures and knows how to turn to its advantage.

I cannot believe in a God who wants to be praised all the time.

I still live, I still think: I still have to live, for I still have to think.

In every real man a child is hidden that wants to play.

In heaven, all the interesting people are missing.

Is life not a thousand times too short for us to bore ourselves?

It is good to express a thing twice right at the outset and so to give it a right foot and also a left one. Truth can surely stand on one leg, but with two it will be able to walk and get around.

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

Madness is rare in individuals - but in groups, parties, nations, and ages it is the rule.




Many are stubborn in pursuit of the path they have chosen, few in pursuit of the goal.

Mystical explanations are thought to be deep; the truth is that they are not even shallow.

Not necessity, not desire - no, the love of power is the demon of men. Let them have everything - health, food, a place to live, entertainment - they are and remain unhappy and low-spirited: for the demon waits and waits and will be satisfied.

Not when truth is dirty, but when it is shallow, does the enlightened man dislike to wade into its waters.

Nothing has been purchased more dearly than the little bit of reason and sense of freedom which now constitutes our pride.

Of all that is written, I love only what a person has written with his own blood.

On the mountains of truth you can never climb in vain: either you will reach a point higher up today, or you will be training your powers so that you will be able to climb higher tomorrow.

One has to pay dearly for immortality; one has to die several times while one is still alive.

One ought to hold on to one's heart; for if one lets it go, one soon loses control of the head too.

One should die proudly when it is no longer possible to live proudly.

Our treasure lies in the beehive of our knowledge. We are perpetually on the way thither, being by nature winged insects and honey gatherers of the mind.

People who have given us their complete confidence believe that they have a right to ours. The inference is false, a gift confers no rights.

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

The demand to be loved is the greatest of all arrogant presumptions.

The doer alone learneth.

The future influences the present just as much as the past.

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.

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.

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

The world itself is the will to power - and nothing else! And you yourself are the will to power - and nothing else!

There are no moral phenomena at all, but only a moral interpretation of phenomena.

There is an innocence in admiration; it is found in those to whom it has never yet occurred that they, too, might be admired some day.

There is in general good reason to suppose that in several respects the gods could all benefit from instruction by us human beings. We humans are - more humane.

There is not enough love and goodness in the world to permit giving any of it away to imaginary beings.

These people abstain, it is true: but the bitch Sensuality glares enviously out of all they do.

This is what is hardest: to close the open hand because one loves.

What does not destroy me, makes me stronger.

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.

Women can form a friendship with a man very well; but to preserve it - to that end a slight physical antipathy must probably help.

13 comments:

Anonymous said...

You know I never have read this man's work at all. That's what comes of a scientific bent I guess or lack of intellect or something. But since I recognize some of these quotes, he has made it into the mainstream.

Women can form a friendship with a man very well; but to preserve it - to that end a slight physical antipathy must probably help.
or they are happily in other established relationships. Plus why do men put so much emphasis on physical appearance when women do not? You might have a great brain but if you are physically antipathetic he's just not interested physically. Now I am mad at him!

Anonymous said...

A woman may very well form a friendship with a man, but for this to endure, it must be assisted by a little physical antipathy.


Well... :)

Anonymous said...

One ought to hold on to one's heart; for if one lets it go, one soon loses control of the head too.

This be true.

Anonymous said...

Pretty good quotes

> This is what is hardest: to close the open hand because one loves.
Explain this one to me, please... what does he mean? :-)

> Women can form a friendship with a man very well; but to preserve it - to that end a slight physical antipathy must probably help.
Yeah;-)

Anonymous said...

jmb- I'm a big fan of Nietzche, it's true to see the first time I read him, it was like a cold shower.

Because so much of what he says is stuff you KNOW in your heart to be true, but feared saying, or even admitting that you thought.

People often misunderstand him- he is sen as amoral, when in fact he is PROFOUNDLY moral. He just had contempt for unthinking book morality. In a sense, he was one of the founders of moral relativism. Likewise, it is not true he hated christ. He despised most CHRISTIANS, but he held Jesus up to a true example of one of the finer products of humanity.

And lastly, of course, he would have despised Nazism as everything that is anathema to what he was trying to say, much as Marx would have been sickened by Stalin.

Nietxche's basic philosophy is about man freeing himself from bondage and escaping the lowest common denominator.

Genealogy of Morals is worth reading- especially for some good ideas on sexual taboos.

I think what he meant with this quote is that if a man and a woman are friends for a long time, then they will start to see eachother romantically, unless they don't fancy eachother.

A grain of truth in it, I think. But Nietzche was certainly a pessimist when it came to romance.

Nunyaa- Glad you spotted that one; one amongst many quotes which gives the lie to the idea that Nietzche was an inhumane, amoral thinker. Nietzche believed that what made man unique was both head and heart.

Heart- Note he said 'must probably help', as opposed to impossible.

But compare; 'It is not a lack of love, but a lack of friendship that makes unhappy marriages.'

Taken together, I'd say they implied what we all know as common sense. Start seeing a friend of the opposite sex romantically, there is a danger the friendship will be ruined, but on the other hand, how can you love someone who ISN'T your friend too?

Perhaps the best way to interpret that is, don't ruin a good friendship for sex, but if it's love- REALLY love, then go for it.

Eve- The short answer any parent can tell you :)
It means saying no and seeing the hurt on someone's face, when the truth is, you are saying no because you are doing what is right.

It can mean lots of things, but in the main I think it means stopping giving someone something they think they need, because it isn't good for either you or them, that they need it.

Everyone seems to love that quote- I wonder what Nietzche would have thought of the internet? Maybe he'd he'd have reappraised this one.

Anonymous said...

That's a good answer for me today, Crushed :-)
Haha- yes, re the internet, he'd tell us, like you have, that we're being fools ;-) Well, we live and learn :-)

Anonymous said...

I loved this! I know of his name but I confess to never really taking notice of what he said.
Thanks for doing this... I was almost swooning on a few of his statements... wow.

Anonymous said...

You double quoted the physical antipathy one! I caught you! ;)

The Duke actually wrote his Honours thesis on Nietzche (which is the only reason I can spell it reasonably accurately). He's a pretty fascinating guy whose ideas influenced a lot without always being acknowledged.

Anonymous said...

Ai yah... the princess is right! Maybe that's why we all noticed that line... subliminal programming... repetition ;-) My pastor DID say that the average person tends to hear the gospel at least 7 times before they believe... it takes that many repetitions before it seeps into their brain... heheh

Anonymous said...

Eve- I don't know he'd have said that, but maybe he'd have said;

'Women can form a friendship with a man very well; but to preserve it - to that end a slight physical antipathy must probably help, unless of course, it's over the internet, in which case it's not an issue'.

Kate- I feel that way about much of what he writes. I think he's one of those writers you have to read in small bursts, then go away and take in what you have read.

I would describe myself as being a Nietzcheist to some degree, and I do often feel he needs rescuing from some of the negative press he receives, mainly due to the fact that Hitler used to quote him. True, but so did Jim Morrison. And the Spanish Inquisition quoted Jesus.

Princess P- The truth is, I don't double quote, Nietzche did. If you ckeck, the wording is different. Nietazche did that a lot, if he said something he liked, he often used the line again in a different work. He said BOTH 'What doesn't kill you makes you strongers', and also the version quoted here.

The truth is I was orginally going to do this the hard way until I found a site with Nietzche's 221 most used quotes- and it had of course, almost every line of his that I like. Of course, in some cases, some quotes are just variations of others, as is this. This example escaped my editing- I didn't realise I'd used both variants.

You probably can see how much a lot of my outlook owes to Nietazche, then :)

Eve- Well, to continue the answer I gave the Princess, I guess that's why he so often repeated himself. Nietazche certainly believed that 'Egoism is the very essence of a noble soul', and he had no qualms in believing his words to be important- so he made sure people remembered them.

Which of course they do. Even if half the time, they don't really understand.

But he think he was right to believe he was saying somethingspecial.

Anonymous said...

A woman saying no?
From some of the things I am finding out about you that seems a concept quiet alien to you
cock sucker.

Anonymous said...

Beast- I don't follow your statement, or it's relevance to the post.

Maybe you'd like to clarify?

Maybe you'd care to state what you mean by it, because there seems to be an implied slur contained therein.

Stop me if I'm wrong.

Anonymous said...

Being a quotefreak, Nietzsche is definitely one of my most favourite ppl to quote. He expressed everything you feel but cannot bear putting into words.

“I still live, I still think: I still have to live, for I still have to think.”