Christianity remains to this day the greatest misfortune of humanity.
Friedrich NietzscheRead
Where is the lightning to lick you with its tongue? Where is the madness with which you should be cleansed? Behold, I show you the Superman. He is this lightning, he is this madness.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote reflects on the transformative nature of the 'Superman' concept and challenges conventional morality.
In this quote, Nietzsche introduces the idea of the 'Superman' as a figure embodying extraordinary qualities that can provoke both fear and admiration. The imagery of lightning and madness suggests a radical departure from traditional values, implying that true greatness comes from embracing chaos and transcendence, rather than conforming to societal norms. Nietzsche challenges individuals to seek their own paths and redefine what it means to be human.
Themes
NietzscheSupermanLightningMadnessTransformation
In practice
Example use cases
In a lecture on personal development, a speaker might quote Nietzsche to inspire attendees to explore their potential.
More from Friedrich Nietzsche
All quotes →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 — 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.
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
...that melancholy which we feel when we cease to obey orders which, from one day to another, keep the future hidden, and realise that we have at last begun to live in real earnest, as a grown-up person, the life, the only life that any of us has at his disposal.
Marcel ProustRead
The single clenched fist lifted and ready, Or the open asking hand held out and waiting. Choose: For we meet by one or the other.
Carl SandburgRead
What religion a man shall have is a historical accident, quite as much as what language he shall speak.
George SantayanaRead
The existence of any evil anywhere at any time absolutely ruins a total optimism.
George SantayanaRead
God belongs to all free beings. He is the life of all, the salvation of all ~faithful and unfaithful, just and unjust, pious and impious, passionate and dispassionate, monks and laymen, wise and simple, healthy and sick, young and old just as the effusion of light, the sight of the sun, and the changes of the seasons are for all alike; 'for there is no respect of persons with God.'
John ClimacusRead
What profit is there in agreeing that universal friendship is good, and talking of the solidarity of the human race as a grand ideal? Unless these thoughts are translated into the world of action, they are useless. The wrong in the world continues to exist just because people only talk of their ideals, and do not strive to put them into practice. If actions took the place of words, the world's misery would very soon be changed into comfort.
Abdu'L-BahRead