Christianity remains to this day the greatest misfortune of humanity.
Friedrich NietzscheRead
But this people has deliberately made itself stupid, for nearly a millennium: nowhere have the two great European narcotics, alcohol and Christianity, been abused more dissolutely.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Nietzsche critiques the self-imposed ignorance of society, influenced by alcohol and Christianity.
In this quote, Friedrich Nietzsche highlights the idea that society has willingly chosen ignorance over knowledge for centuries, attributing this to the excessive indulgence in alcohol and the dogmatic nature of Christianity. He suggests that these two elements have contributed to a decline in critical thinking and awareness, leading to a populace that is disengaged from the pursuit of intellectual and spiritual growth.
Themes
SocietyIgnoranceAlcoholChristianityCritique
In practice
Example use cases
In a lecture on societal influences, this quote can be used to highlight the dangers of complacency in thought.
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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Now the story of Christ is simply a true myth: a myth working on us the same way as the others, but with this tremendous difference that it really happened: and one must be content to accept it in the same way, remembering that it is Godβs myth where the others are menβs myths: i.e., the Pagan stories are God expressing Himself through the minds of poets, using such images as He found there, while Christianity is God expressing Himself through what we call 'real things'.
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I lapsed into my pathetic cut-off period. Often with humans, both good and bad, my senses simply shut off, they get tired, I give up. I am polite. I nod. I pretend to understand because I donβt want anybody to be hurt. That is the one weakness that has lead me into the most trouble. Trying to be kind to others I often get my soul shredded into a kind of spiritual pasta. No matter. My brain shuts off. I listen. I respond. And they are too dumb to know that I am not there.
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Chiang Kai-ShekRead