Christianity remains to this day the greatest misfortune of humanity.
Friedrich NietzscheRead
Natural death is independent of all reason and is really an irrational death, in which the pitiable substance of the shell determines how long the kernel is to exist or not; in which, accordingly, the stunted, diseased and dull witted jailer is lord, and indicates the moment at which his distinguished prisoner shall die.
Interpretation
What this quote means
This quote suggests that natural death occurs beyond reason, governed by the body's condition rather than the mind or spirit.
Friedrich Nietzsche's quote reflects on the nature of death, proposing that our physical state, often described as a 'shell', ultimately controls the duration of our existence, which he views as a tragic irony. The quote speaks to the conflict between the soul, represented as a 'distinguished prisoner', and the body, the 'stunted, diseased, and dull-witted jailer' who dictates when life ends, highlighting the irrationality of death that transcends human reasoning and logic.
Themes
DeathLifePhilosophyExistenceIrrationality
In practice
Example use cases
This quote could be used in a philosophy class discussion about the nature of existence and mortality.
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
The moment you venture out, something takes place in you and about you. Life comes to your aid in various ways. You may not like the form in which it comes to you - it may be misery, struggle, starvation - but when you invite life, things begin to happen.
Jiddu KrishnamurtiRead
Suddenly absurdism wasn’t an intellectual abstraction, it was actually realism. You could see the way that wealth was begetting wealth, wealth was begetting comfort — and that the cumulative effect of an absence of wealth was the erosion of grace.
George SaundersRead
There are only three possible endings -aren't there? - to any story: revenge, tragedy or forgiveness. That's it. All stories end like that.
Jeanette WintersonRead
He who loves the coming of the Lord is not he who affirms that it is far off, nor is it he who says it is near, but rather he who, whether it be far off or near, awaits it with sincere faith, steadfast hope, and fervent love.
Saint AugustineRead
For the Fourth Amendment protects people, not places. What a person knowingly exposes to the public, even in his own home or office, is not a subject of Fourth Amendment protection. But what he seeks to preserve as private, even in an area accessible to the public, may be constitutionally protected.
Potter StewartRead
The main thing is to remain oneself, under any circumstances; that was and is our common purpose.
Madeleine AlbrightRead