Christianity remains to this day the greatest misfortune of humanity.
The Devil has the broadest perspectives for God; therefore, he keeps so far away from God -- the Devil being the most ancient friend of wisdom
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote suggests that the Devil's understanding and insight give him a unique distance from God, indicating a complex relationship between wisdom and divinity.
In this quote, Friedrich Nietzsche explores the idea that the Devil possesses a deep understanding of the divine and the nature of existence. This insight, ironically, distances him from God, as his perspectives are shaped by knowledge, experience, and perhaps a recognition of the darker aspects of life. By referring to the Devil as the 'most ancient friend of wisdom,' Nietzsche implies that wisdom can sometimes be found outside the conventional boundaries of good and evil, suggesting that there is value in understanding all facets of existence.
Themes
In practice
Example use cases
In a discussion about the nature of good and evil, one might cite this quote to illustrate the depth of perspective that challenges traditional beliefs.
More from Friedrich Nietzsche
All quotes βThat which does not kill us makes us stronger.
Hope in reality is the worst of all evils because it prolongs the torments of man.
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.
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.
The anarchist and the Christian have a common origin.
Similar quotes
A consciousness of wrongdoing is the first step to salvation...you have to catch yourself doing it before you can correct it.
It is only when human beings see themselves simply as human beings, no longer as gods, that they are in a position to perceive the wholly other nature of God.
If Christians should vote their duty to God at the polls, they would carry every election, and do it with ease. They would elect every clean candidate in the United States, and defeat every soiled one. Their prodigious power would be quickly realized and recognized, and afterward there would be no unclean candidates upon any ticket, and graft would cease.
Feminist: A person who believes in the social, political and economic equality of the sexes.
It ill becomes us to invoke in our daily prayers the blessings of God, the Compassionate, if we in turn will not practice elementary compassion toward our fellow creatures.
When god decided to invent everything he took one reath bigger than a circustent and everything began