QuoteProject
Even the most beautiful scenery is no longer assured of our love after we have lived in it for three months, and some distant coast attracts our avarice: possessions are generally diminished by possession.
Friedrich Nietzsche
ShareWTF𝕏

Interpretation

What this quote means

Familiarity can diminish our appreciation for beauty and value.

This quote by Friedrich Nietzsche highlights the idea that prolonged exposure to beautiful or valuable things can lead to a loss of appreciation for them. When we first encounter something beautiful, it captivates us, but over time, our affection may wane as we take it for granted and instead become drawn to distant or new desires, illustrating the paradox of possession where having something can lessen its perceived value.

Themes

BeautyAppreciationFamiliarityValuePossession

In practice

Example use cases

This quote can be used in a discussion about how we often take our relationships for granted.

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

If we look at the world with a love of life, the world will reveal its beauty to us.
Daisaku IkedaRead
Wake up, you idiots! Whatever made you think that money was so valuable?
Kurt VonnegutRead
Sorrow is tranquility remembered in emotion.
Dorothy ParkerRead
We do not need a truth to serve us, we need a truth that we can serve
Jacques MaritainRead
For instance, I never complained that my birthday was overlooked; people were even surprised, with a touch of admiration, by my discretion on this subject. But the reason for my disinterestedness was even more discreet: I longed to be forgotten in order to be able to complain to myself... Once my solitude was thoroughly proved, I could surrender to the charms of a virile self-pity.
Albert CamusRead
We need autocracies and failing democracies alike to understand that they cannot scapegoat LGBT citizens to distract from their own shortcomings.
Kerry KennedyRead

A little wisdom, now and then

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

Quote by Friedrich Nietzsche | QuoteProject