QuoteProject
The bite of conscience is indecent.
Friedrich Nietzsche
ShareWTF𝕏

Interpretation

What this quote means

This quote suggests that feeling guilty or having a troubled conscience can be an inappropriate or disturbing experience.

Friedrich Nietzsche, through this quote, critiques the nature of conscience and guilt, proposing that the feeling of being burdened by one's conscience is often seen as 'indecent' or morally questionable. He encourages a reevaluation of how we perceive guilt, suggesting that it may be a societal construct that hinders true freedom and self-expression, rather than a reflection of moral strength.

Themes

ConscienceGuiltMoralityFreedomPhilosophy

In practice

Example use cases

In a discussion about moral dilemmas, this quote can illustrate the weight of conscience.

More from Friedrich Nietzsche

Christianity remains to this day the greatest misfortune of humanity.
Friedrich NietzscheRead
That which does not kill us makes us stronger.
Friedrich NietzscheRead
Hope in reality is the worst of all evils because it prolongs the torments of man.
Friedrich NietzscheRead
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.
Friedrich NietzscheRead
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.
Friedrich NietzscheRead
The anarchist and the Christian have a common origin.
Friedrich NietzscheRead

Similar quotes

Voltaire! A name that excites the admiration of men, the malignity of priests. Pronounce that name in the presence of a clergyman, and you will find that you have made a declaration of war.
Robert Green IngersollRead
How long had he been doing what was necessary instead of what was right? In a fair world they would be one and the same.
Robert JordanRead
Why is it immoral for you to desire, but moral for others to do so? Why is it immoral to produce a value and keep it, but moral to give it away? And if it is not moral for you to keep a value, why is it moral for others to accept it? If you are selfless and virtuous when you give it, are they not selfish and vicious when they take it?
Ayn RandRead
There are times when I am so unlike myself that I might be taken for someone else of an entirely opposite character.
Jean-Jacques RousseauRead
Happily ever after?" "If justice doesn't triumph and love doesn't make the circle in entertainment fiction, what's the point? Real life sucks too often.
Nora RobertsRead
Ask yourself whether you are happy', observed the philosopher John Stuart Mill, 'and you cease to be so.' At best, it would appear, happiness can only be glimpsed out of the corner of an eye, not stared at directly.
Oliver BurkemanRead

A little wisdom, now and then

Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.

Quote by Friedrich Nietzsche | QuoteProject