Christianity remains to this day the greatest misfortune of humanity.
It is very noble hypocrisy not to talk of one's self.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote suggests that avoiding self-promotion is a noble act, indicating humility and selflessness.
Friedrich Nietzsche's quote highlights the value of humility and the virtue of not constantly placing oneself at the center of conversation. By suggesting that it is 'noble hypocrisy' to refrain from talking about oneself, Nietzsche points to the social tendency to self-promote, while also indicating that genuine modesty is often seen as an admirable trait. It serves as a reminder to prioritize others and to recognize that excessive self-focus can detract from meaningful connections.
Themes
In practice
Example use cases
During a team meeting, one might use this quote to emphasize the importance of listening to others rather than making it about 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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What I propose, therefore, is very simple: it is nothing more than to think what we are doing
If Henry Miller often sounded like a village idiot, it is because, like Whitman, he was the rest of the village as well.
The modern mind always tends to reduce the greater to the lesser rather than seeing the lesser as reflecting the greater.
True masters are those who've chosen to make a life rather than a living.