Christianity remains to this day the greatest misfortune of humanity.
Friedrich NietzscheRead
Reckoned physiologically, everything ugly weakens and afflicts man. It recalls decay, danger, impotence; he actually suffers a loss of energy in its presence. The effect of the ugly can be measured with a dynamometer. Whenever man feels in any way depressed, he senses the proximity of something ugly. His feeling of power, his will to power, his courage, his pride - they decline with the ugly, they increase with the beautiful.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The ugly diminishes human strength and spirit, while beauty enhances them.
Friedrich Nietzsche's quote emphasizes the profound impact that aesthetics have on human psychology and vitality. It suggests that exposure to ugliness not only evokes a sense of decay and danger but also drains one's energy, will, and confidence, while beauty has the opposite effect, uplifting and empowering individuals. This perspective invites contemplation on the importance of beauty in our lives and its vital role in fostering human strength and joy.
Themes
BeautyUglinessEnergyPsychologyStrength
In practice
Example use cases
This quote can be used in a discussion about art and its impact on human emotions during a lecture.
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
We all labour against our own cure, for death is the cure of all diseases.
Thomas BrowneRead
Not only around our infancy Doth heaven with all its splendors lie; Daily, with souls that cringe and plot, We Sinais climb and know it not.
James Russell LowellRead
These handwritten words in the pages of my journal confirm that from an early age I have experienced each encounter in my life twice: once in the world, and once again on the page.
Terry Tempest WilliamsRead
There is no greater impotence in all the world like knowing you are right and that the wave of the world is wrong, yet the wave crashes upon you.
Norman MailerRead
The Word of God can be in the mind without being in the heart; but it cannot be in the heart without first being in the mind.
R. C. SproulRead
One must not judge everyone in the world by his qualities as a soldier: otherwise we should have no civilization.
Erwin RommelRead