Christianity remains to this day the greatest misfortune of humanity.
Friedrich NietzscheRead
Suspicious.- To admit a belief merely because it is a custom - but that means to be dishonest, cowardly, lazy! - And so could dishonesty, cowardice and laziness be the preconditions for morality?
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote critiques the uncritical acceptance of beliefs based solely on tradition, suggesting that such behavior is morally questionable.
In this quote, Friedrich Nietzsche challenges the idea of adhering to beliefs simply because they are customary. He argues that accepting beliefs without critical examination can be seen as dishonest, cowardly, and lazy, raising the question of whether such traits could ever serve as a foundation for genuine morality. Nietzsche’s thought prompts us to reflect upon our beliefs and evaluate their validity beyond societal expectations.
Themes
BeliefsCustomsMoralityCritical ThinkingPhilosophy
In practice
Example use cases
In a debate on morality, one might use this quote to emphasize the importance of questioning societal norms.
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
In every heart there is an inner room, where we can hold our greatest treasures and our deepest pain.
Marianne WilliamsonRead
Laughter. Yes, laughter is the Zen attitude towards death and towards life too, because life and death are not separate. Whatsoever is your attitude towards life will be your attitude towards death, because death comes as the ultimate flowering of life. Life exists for death. Life exists through death. Without death there will be no life at all. Death is not the end but the culmination, the crescendo. Death is not the enemy it is the friend. It makes life possible.
RajneeshRead
If I were a younger man, I would write a history of human stupidity; and I would climb to the top of Mount McCabe and lie down on my back with my history for a pillow; and I would take from the ground some of the blue-white poison that makes statues of men; and I would make a statue of myself, lying on my back, grinning horribly, and thumbing my nose at You Know Who.
Kurt VonnegutRead
It is the resurrection that makes Good Friday good.
Ravi ZachariasRead
No state of society or laws can render men so much alike but that education, fortune, and tastes will interpose some differences between them; and though different men may sometimes find it their interest to combine for the same purposes, they will never make it their pleasure.
Alexis De TocquevilleRead
The way the public sees it is this. If we don't leave, we are idiots. If we do leave but don't succeed in our mission, we are incompetent. But if we do succeed, it's because it was easy and anyone could have done it.
Bertrand PiccardRead