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Among human beings there is no greater banality than death. Second in order, because it is possible to die without being born, comes birth, and next comes marriage.
Friedrich Nietzsche
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Interpretation

What this quote means

Nietzsche suggests that death is a common and trivial aspect of human existence, followed closely by birth and marriage.

In this quote, Nietzsche reflects on the commonplace nature of significant life events such as death, birth, and marriage, indicating that these experiences are often taken for granted and seen as banal. He presents a philosophical view on how these fundamental aspects of life are regarded as standard occurrences, exploring the implications of their inevitability and the lack of profound appreciation for them in the human experience.

Themes

DeathBirthMarriageBanalityHuman Experience

In practice

Example use cases

During a philosophical discussion on life and death.

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Christianity remains to this day the greatest misfortune of humanity.
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That which does not kill us makes us stronger.
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Hope in reality is the worst of all evils because it prolongs the torments of man.
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Watch them clamber, these swift monkeys! They clamber over one another and thus drag one another into the mud and the depth. They all want to get to the throne: that is their madness β€” as if happiness sat on the throne. Often, mud sits on the throne β€” and often the throne also on mud. Mad they all appear to me, clambering monkeys and overardent. Foul smells their idol, the cold monster: foul, they smell to me altogether, these idolators.
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Reason is the cause of our falsification of the evidence of the senses. In so far as the senses show becoming, passing away, change, they do not lie.
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The anarchist and the Christian have a common origin.
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