Christianity remains to this day the greatest misfortune of humanity.
Friedrich NietzscheRead
To be moral, correct, and virtuous is to be obedient to an old established law and custom.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Moral behavior is defined by adherence to long-standing laws and customs.
Friedrich Nietzsche argues that morality is not an inherent trait but rather a construct defined by societal norms and traditions. He suggests that to act in a moral, correct, and virtuous manner means to comply with the established laws and customs that have been passed down through generations, challenging the notion of individual morality disconnected from societal influences.
Themes
MoralityCustomsLawVirtuePhilosophy
In practice
Example use cases
In a debate about ethical behavior, this quote can highlight the importance of societal norms.
More from Friedrich Nietzsche
All quotes βThat 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 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.
Friedrich NietzscheRead
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The history of humanity is not a hotel where someone can rent a room whenever it suits him; nor is it a vehicle which we board or get out of at random. Our past will be for us a burden beneath which we can only collapse for as long as we refuse to understand the present and fight for a better future. Only then β but from that moment on β will the burden become a blessing, that is, a weapon in the battle for freedom.
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It is a clear truth that those who every day barter away other men's liberty will soon care little for their own.
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My guiding principle is this: Guilt is never to be doubted.
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The issue is now clear. It is between light and darkness and everyone must choose his side.
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The power of the future lies not in the hands of those who believe in scarcity but of those who trust God's abundance.
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