Christianity remains to this day the greatest misfortune of humanity.
Friedrich NietzscheRead
That a person cannot and consequently will not defend himself, does not yet cast disgrace upon him in our eyes ; but we despise the person who has neither the ability nor the good will for revenge whether it be a man or a woman.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote discusses the notion of defense and revenge, highlighting our judgments of individuals based on their ability and willingness to retaliate.
Friedrich Nietzsche reflects on the societal perceptions of individuals who do not defend themselves. He suggests that a lack of ability or will for revenge is viewed with disdain, indicating that society often values strength and assertiveness. This quote opens up discussions about morality, power dynamics, and the complexities of human relationships, suggesting that the capacity to retaliate is subtly intertwined with how we assess a person's character.
Themes
DefenseRevengeSocietyPerceptionMorality
In practice
Example use cases
This quote could be shared in a discussion about the ethics of revenge during a philosophy class.
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
I push against the tree and run away, stumbling, the unreal night playing with me, gravity pulling from below, behind, above, making me fall. And I run through a world that is rotating, conscious of the earth's spin, of our planet twirling as it careens through nothingness, of the stars spiraling above, of the uncertainty of everything, even ground, even sky. Mumtaz never calls out, although a thousand and one voices scream in my mind, sing, whisper, taunt me with madness.
Mohsin HamidRead
Man's ultimate concern must be expressed symbolically, because symbolic language alone is able to express the ultimate.
Paul TillichRead
But the perception of life as an organic unity is a slow achievement, and depends for its growth on a people's entry into the main current of world-events.
Muhammad IqbalRead
Zen says that if you drop knowledge - and within knowledge everything is included; your name, your identity, everything, because this has been given to you by others - if you drop all that has been given by others, you will have a totally different quality to your being: innocence. This will be a crucifixion of the persona, the personality, and there will be a resurrection of your innocence. You will become a child again, reborn.
RajneeshRead
There are nuclear-weapons-free zones in several parts of the world already, except that they're not implemented fully, because the U.S. won't allow it.
Noam ChomskyRead
Given the accelerating velocity of history, we should begin charting deliberately the next phase in its trajectory.
Zbigniew BrzezinskiRead