Christianity remains to this day the greatest misfortune of humanity.
Friedrich NietzscheRead
Extreme positions are not succeeded by moderate ones, but by contrary extreme positions.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Extreme beliefs often lead to the rise of opposing extremes rather than moderation.
Friedrich Nietzsche's quote highlights the tendency of ideologies and positions to polarize. When a group or individual adopts an extreme viewpoint, the reaction often brings about an equally extreme counter-reaction, rather than leading to a moderate or balanced perspective. This underscores the dynamic nature of belief systems and suggests that seeking extreme solutions can perpetuate a cycle of extremism.
Themes
ExtremismPositionsBalanceBeliefReaction
In practice
Example use cases
In a debate about political ideologies, this quote can illustrate how extreme views often provoke extreme responses.
More from Friedrich Nietzsche
All quotes βThat 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 would rather sit on a pumpkin and have it all to myself, than be crowded on a velvet cushion.
Henry David ThoreauRead
People who care about animals tend to care about people. They don't care about animals to the exclusion of people. Caring is not a finite resource and, even more than that, it's like a muscle: the more you exercise it, the stronger it gets.
Jonathan Safran FoerRead
In our society, the ideal self is bold, gregarious, and comfortable in the spotlight. We like to think that we value individuality, but mostly we admire the type of individual who's comfortable 'putting himself out there.'
Susan CainRead
Ideology knows the answer before the question has been asked. Principles are something different: a set of values that have to be adapted to circumstances but not compromised away.
George PackerRead
The Kingdom of God is not a matter of getting individuals to heaven, but of transforming the life on earth into the harmony of heaven.
Walter RauschenbuschRead
I could write a thesis on the physiology of vision. But I had no way to look through the fabric of confabulation spun by a man with severe lung disease who was prescribed 'home oxygen', but gave a false address out of embarrassment because he had no 'home.'
Siddhartha MukherjeeRead