Christianity remains to this day the greatest misfortune of humanity.
Friedrich NietzscheRead
The life of the enemy . Whoever lives for the sake of combating an enemy has an interest in the enemy's staying alive.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Engaging with a rival or adversary can create a paradox where their existence becomes essential to your own purpose.
This quote by Friedrich Nietzsche highlights the complex relationship one can have with an adversary. It suggests that individuals who are fixated on an enemy or rival often find that their own existence and purpose are intertwined with that enemy's life. This dependency creates an interesting dynamic where the adversary is not merely an opponent but also a crucial element of one's own identity and drive, ultimately reflecting a deeper philosophical perspective on conflict and motivation.
Themes
EnemyPurposeConflictIdentityMotivation
In practice
Example use cases
During a debate on ethics, one might use this quote to illustrate how adversarial positions can reflect personal motivations.
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
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He that will maintain that man's free will is able to do or work anything in spiritual cases, be they never so small, denies Christ.
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The most fateful change that unfolded during the past three decades was not an increase in greed. It was the expansion of markets, and of market values, into spheres of life where they donβt belong.
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Every living creature is the son of the supreme Lord, and He does not tolerate even ants being killed
A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami PrabhupadaRead
It was very different when the masters of science sought immortality and power; such views, although futile, were grand: but now the scene was changed. The ambition of the inquirer seemed to limit itself to the annihilation of those visions on which my interest in science was chiefly founded. I was required to exchange chimeras of boundless grandeur for realities of little worth.
Mary Wollstonecraft ShelleyRead