Christianity remains to this day the greatest misfortune of humanity.
Friedrich NietzscheRead
The complete irresponsibility of man for his actions and his nature is the bitterest drop which he who understands must swallow.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote highlights the heavy burden of acknowledging that humans often evade responsibility for their actions and inherent nature.
Nietzsche's quote underscores the profound discomfort that comes with recognizing human irresponsibility. It suggests that those who fully grasp the implications of this lack of accountability face a deep internal conflict, as they must confront the reality that both individual actions and human nature can be flawed and untrustworthy. This awareness can lead to a sense of bitterness and despair, but it is also a call to acknowledge our own humanity.
Themes
ResponsibilityHuman NatureIrresponsibilityAccountabilityPhilosophy
In practice
Example use cases
During a lecture about ethics, one might say this quote to provoke a discussion on accountability.
More from Friedrich Nietzsche
All quotes βThat 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
As no roads are so rough as those that have just been mended, so no sinners are so intolerant as those that have just turned saints.
Charles Caleb ColtonRead
I exist. It's sweet, so sweet, so slow. And light: you'd think it floated all by itself. It stirs. It brushes by me, melts and vanishes. Gently, gently. There is bubbling water in my mouth. I swallow. It slides down my throat, it caresses me β and now it comes up again into my mouth. For ever I shall have a little pool of whitish water in my mouth - lying low - grazing my tongue. And this pool is still me. And the tongue. And the throat is me.
Jean-Paul SartreRead
What I know for sure is that what you give comes back to you. That's not just my theory or point of view, it's physics. Life is an energy of giving and receiving... Those that are greedy, hit a road block where they are alone. Give more than you receive and be grateful for those around you.
Oprah WinfreyRead
We are stripped bare by the curse of plenty.
Winston ChurchillRead
The moon of Mahomet Arose, and it shall set; While, blazoned as on heaven's immortal noon, The cross leads generations on.
Percy Bysshe ShelleyRead
I was taught that Jesus the Son of God was a white man, and hearing black people singing, 'Lord, wash me, and I will be whiter than snow,' made me sick.
Peter ToshRead