Christianity remains to this day the greatest misfortune of humanity.
Friedrich NietzscheRead
Natural death is independent of all reason and is really an irrational death, in which the pitiable substance of the shell determines how long the kernel is to exist or not; in which, accordingly, the stunted, diseased and dull witted jailer is lord, and indicates the moment at which his distinguished prisoner shall die.
Interpretation
What this quote means
This quote suggests that natural death occurs beyond reason, governed by the body's condition rather than the mind or spirit.
Friedrich Nietzsche's quote reflects on the nature of death, proposing that our physical state, often described as a 'shell', ultimately controls the duration of our existence, which he views as a tragic irony. The quote speaks to the conflict between the soul, represented as a 'distinguished prisoner', and the body, the 'stunted, diseased, and dull-witted jailer' who dictates when life ends, highlighting the irrationality of death that transcends human reasoning and logic.
Themes
DeathLifePhilosophyExistenceIrrationality
In practice
Example use cases
This quote could be used in a philosophy class discussion about the nature of existence and mortality.
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.
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