Christianity remains to this day the greatest misfortune of humanity.
Friedrich NietzscheRead
Morality is the herd-instinct in the individual.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Morality is derived from collective social instincts rather than individual ethics.
Friedrich Nietzsche's quote suggests that what we often consider to be moral behavior is actually a product of social consensus and instinctive drives within a group. Rather than originating from a unique personal understanding of right and wrong, morality reflects the instincts and values of the herd, influencing individual actions and decisions primarily through social conditioning.
Themes
MoralityHerd-InstinctSocial ConsensusEthicsNietzsche
In practice
Example use cases
In a debate on ethics, one might reference this quote to argue that moral standards are shaped by societal norms.
More from Friedrich Nietzsche
All quotes →That which does not kill us makes us stronger.
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Hope in reality is the worst of all evils because it prolongs the torments of man.
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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.
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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.
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The anarchist and the Christian have a common origin.
Friedrich NietzscheRead
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