Christianity remains to this day the greatest misfortune of humanity.
'He who seeks may easily get lost himself. It is a crime to go apart and be alone.' Thus speaks the herd.
Interpretation
What this quote means
This quote suggests that the pursuit of individual desires can lead to confusion and isolation, as society often discourages solitude.
Friedrich Nietzsche's quote touches on the struggle between individualism and societal expectations. It implies that the quest for meaning or personal truth can lead one astray, leading to feelings of disconnection and loneliness, as dictated by societal norms that view solitude as a negative state. Nietzsche critiques the herd mentality that shames those who venture apart, emphasizing the importance of understanding oneself amid societal pressures.
Themes
In practice
Example use cases
In a discussion about the importance of self-reflection and staying true to oneself.
More from Friedrich Nietzsche
All quotes βThat which does not kill us makes us stronger.
Hope in reality is the worst of all evils because it prolongs the torments of man.
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.
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.
The anarchist and the Christian have a common origin.
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We've learned how to destroy, but not to create; how to waste, but not to build; how to kill men, but not how to save them; how to die, but seldom how to live.
Adding to your list of enemies is never a sound strategy, yet ISIS' ferocious campaign against the Shia, Kurds, Yazidis, Christians, and Muslims who don't precisely share its views has united every ethnic and religious group in Syria and Iraq against them.
There will be no justice as long as man will stand with a knife or with a gun and destroy those who are weaker than he is.
It is good to remember that the goal of Buddhism is to create Buddhas, not Buddhists, as the goal of Christianity is to create Christs, not Christians. In the same vein, my teachings are not meant to acquire followers or imitators, but to awaken beings to eternal truth and thus to awakened life and living.