Christianity remains to this day the greatest misfortune of humanity.
Friedrich NietzscheRead
The existence of forgetting has never been proved: We only know that some things don't come to mind when we want them.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Forgetting is a natural phenomenon, but its existence cannot be definitively proven; we only notice when thoughts elude us.
Nietzsche emphasizes the elusive nature of memory by stating that while we experience forgetfulness, we cannot actually prove that forgetting exists. Rather, he argues that it is more about our inability to access certain memories or thoughts at particular moments, highlighting the complexities of the mind and our understanding of memory.
Themes
ForgettingMemoryPhilosophyThoughtsExistence
In practice
Example use cases
In a discussion about the nature of memory at a philosophy seminar.
More from Friedrich Nietzsche
All quotes →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 — as if happiness sat on the throne. Often, mud sits on the throne — 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.
Friedrich NietzscheRead
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We live always under the weight of the old and odious customs... of our barbarous ancestors.
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