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Not he is great who can alter matter, but he who can alter my state of mind.
Friedrich Nietzsche
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Interpretation

What this quote means

True greatness lies in the ability to influence thoughts and feelings rather than merely changing physical things.

In this quote, Friedrich Nietzsche suggests that real power and greatness are not defined by the ability to manipulate the physical world but rather by one's capability to change perceptions and emotional states. It emphasizes the importance of mental and emotional influence over mere material control, highlighting how profound transformations begin in the mind.

Themes

GreatnessMindInfluenceMentalityPower

In practice

Example use cases

This quote can be used in a motivational speech about personal growth.

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Christianity remains to this day the greatest misfortune of humanity.
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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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