Christianity remains to this day the greatest misfortune of humanity.
Friedrich NietzscheRead
For all things are baptized at the font of eternity, and beyond good and evil; good and evil themselves, however, are but intervening shadows and damp afflictions and passing clouds.
Interpretation
What this quote means
This quote reflects on the nature of good and evil as transient notions that are ultimately overshadowed by deeper truths.
In this quote, Nietzsche suggests that all concepts, including good and evil, are part of a larger, timeless reality that transcends them. He argues that good and evil are merely fleeting illusions—like shadows or clouds—that obscure the more profound and eternal essence of existence. This perspective encourages a deeper inquiry into the nature of morality and the human experience.
Themes
GoodEvilPhilosophyEternityTransience
In practice
Example use cases
During a philosophy class discussion on morality and ethics.
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 apartments and cottages, on the street and in the train... I listen... More and more, I turn into one large ear, always turning to another person.
Svetlana AlexievichRead
In Russia a man is called reactionary if he objects to having his property stolen and his wife and children murdered.
Winston ChurchillRead
A curious thing about Ugu the Shoemaker was that he didn't suspect in the least that he was wicked. He wanted to be powerful and great, and he hoped to make himself master of all the Land of Oz that he might compel everyone in that fairy country to obey him, His ambition blinded him to the rights of others, and he imagined anyone else would act just as he did if anyone else happened to be as clever as himself.
L. Frank BaumRead
The truth is that every morning war is declared afresh. And the men who wish to continue it are as guilty as the men who began it, more guilty perhaps, for the latter perhaps did not foresee all its horrors.
Marcel ProustRead
The point is not that Jesus was a good guy who accepted everybody, and thus we should do the same (though that would be good). Rather, his teachings and behaviour reflect an alternative social vision. Jesus was not talking about how to be good and how to behave within the framework of a domination system. He was a critic of the domination system itself.
Marcus BorgRead
Disobedience to conscience is voluntary; bad poetry, on the other hand, is usually not made on purpose.
C. S. LewisRead