Christianity remains to this day the greatest misfortune of humanity.
Friedrich NietzscheRead
What really raises one's indignation against suffering is not suffering intrinsically, but the senselessness of suffering
Interpretation
What this quote means
Suffering becomes unbearable not because of the pain itself, but due to its lack of purpose or meaning.
Friedrich Nietzsche emphasizes that it is not suffering in itself that provokes our anger or indignation, but rather the perception that suffering is meaningless or senseless. This notion challenges us to interrogate the reasons behind suffering; a world where suffering appears to lack justification can provoke deep emotional responses, whereas suffering with purpose or meaning might be more bearable.
Themes
SufferingMeaninglessnessIndignationPhilosophyNietzsche
In practice
Example use cases
This quote can be used during a discussion on the nature of human suffering in a philosophical debate.
More from Friedrich Nietzsche
All quotes βThat which does not kill us makes us stronger.
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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 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.
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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.
Friedrich NietzscheRead
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