Christianity remains to this day the greatest misfortune of humanity.
Friedrich NietzscheRead
One sticks to an opinion because he prides himself on having come to it on his own, and another because he has taken great pains to learn it and is proud to have grasped it: and so both do so out of vanity.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote reflects on how pride and vanity can influence a person's adherence to their opinions.
Friedrich Nietzsche suggests that people cling to their opinions not solely for their validity, but often out of a sense of pride. Whether because they feel they have independently arrived at their beliefs or because they take pride in the effort they've put into learning them, both perspectives ultimately stem from a vain desire to elevate themselves in their own eyes and possibly in the eyes of others.
Themes
OpinionPrideVanityKnowledgePhilosophy
In practice
Example use cases
This quote can be used in a debate to highlight the role of pride in forming stubborn opinions.
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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 — 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.
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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.
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