Christianity remains to this day the greatest misfortune of humanity.
one does not only wish to be understood when one writes; one wishes just as surely not to be understood.
Interpretation
What this quote means
This quote suggests that when writing, a person desires both understanding and the ambiguity that can lead to multiple interpretations.
Friedrich Nietzsche's quote reflects the dual nature of communication in writing; while the writer seeks clarity and comprehension from the reader, there is also an inherent desire for complexity and misunderstanding. This interplay allows for deeper engagement, where readers can draw their own meanings and insights, thereby enriching the experience of the text. It acknowledges the subjective nature of language and the varied interpretations that can arise from it.
Themes
In practice
Example use cases
In a writing workshop, when discussing the complexity of creative expression.
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.
Similar quotes
It is to be remarked that a good many people are born curiously unfitted for the fate waiting them on this earth.
Everything is good as it comes from the hands of the Maker of the world, but degenerates once it gets into the hands of man
Through this atmosphere of torrid splendor moved wan beings as richly upholstered as the furniture, beings without definite pursuits or permanent relations, who drifted on a languid tide of curiosity... Somewhere behind them, in the background of their lives there was doubtless a real past, yet they had no more real existence than the poet's shades in limbo.
If you're automatically sure that you know what reality is and who and what is really important - if you want to operate on your default-setting - then you, like me, will not consider possibilities that aren't pointless and annoying.
Past, present and future are not amenities of language. Time unfolds into the seamsof being. It passes through you, making and shaping.
We were put here as witnesses to the miracle of life. We see the stars, and we want them. We are beholden to give back to the universe. If we make landfall on another star system, we become immortal.