QuoteProject
Those who are bent on revolutionizing society may be divided into those who seek something for themselves thereby and those who seek something for their children and grandchildren.
Friedrich Nietzsche
ShareWTF𝕏

Interpretation

What this quote means

Nietzsche distinguishes between self-serving revolutionaries and those motivated by the well-being of future generations.

In this quote, Friedrich Nietzsche reflects on the motives behind social revolution. He asserts that revolutionaries can be categorized into two types: those who pursue change primarily for their own benefits and those who are driven by a vision of improving society for the sake of future generations. This distinction highlights the varying intentions behind efforts to alter the social order, emphasizing a self-centered approach versus an altruistic one.

Themes

RevolutionSocietySelflessnessFutureLegacy

In practice

Example use cases

In a discussion about social change, this quote may highlight the differences in motivations.

More from Friedrich Nietzsche

Christianity remains to this day the greatest misfortune of humanity.
Friedrich NietzscheRead
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 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.
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 don't like to dwell on the past. I'm interested in Fischerandom now, I am working on a new clock, I'm trying to make chess a more exciting game today. I am not interested in sitting in my rocking chair thinking what I did 10, 20 or 30 years ago.
Bobby FischerRead
When great changes occur in history, when great principles are involved, as a rule the majority are wrong.
Eugene V. DebsRead
You have to change your mind with every orchestra because every orchestra has a different character.
Kurt MasurRead
The seasons alter: hoary-headed frosts _x000D_ _x000D_ Fall in the fresh lap of the crimson rose,_x000D_ _x000D_ And on old Hiems' thin and icy crown _x000D_ _x000D_ An odorous chaplet of sweet summer buds_x000D_ _x000D_ Is, as in mockery, set. The spring, the summer,_x000D_ _x000D_ The childing autumn, angry winter, change_x000D_ _x000D_ Their wonted liveries, and the mazed world,_x000D_ _x000D_ By their increase, now knows not which is which.
William ShakespeareRead
All human nature vigorously resists grace because grace changes us and the change is painful.
Flannery O'ConnorRead
The end he had been born to serve yet did not see had led him to escape by an unseen path and now it beckoned to him once more and a new adventure was about to be opened to him.
James JoyceRead

A little wisdom, now and then

Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.