Christianity remains to this day the greatest misfortune of humanity.
But he who is hated by the people, as the wolf by the dogs - is the free spirit, the enemy of fetters, the non-adorer, the dweller in the woods.
Interpretation
What this quote means
This quote suggests that those who are misunderstood or rejected by society often embody true freedom and individuality.
Friedrich Nietzsche articulates a stark contrast between societal acceptance and the state of being a 'free spirit.' He likens such an individual to a wolf, which is detested by dogs, to highlight how those who defy societal norms or expectations are often ostracized. This encapsulates Nietzsche's belief that true individuality and freedom often come with rejection and isolation from conventional society, portraying the free spirit as one who embraces solitude and self-authenticity.
Themes
In practice
Example use cases
This quote can be used in a discussion about art and the artist's role in society.
More from Friedrich Nietzsche
All quotes βThat which does not kill us makes us stronger.
Hope in reality is the worst of all evils because it prolongs the torments of man.
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.
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.
The anarchist and the Christian have a common origin.
Similar quotes
The result of the voyage does not depend on the speed of the ship, but on whether or not it keeps a true course.
The Constitution that I interpret and apply is not living, but dead, or as I prefer to call it, enduring. It means, today, not what current society, much less the court, thinks it ought to mean, but what it meant when it was adopted.
Ultimately we want to use dream to liberate ourselves from all relative conditions, not simply to improve them.
REJECT ALL FORMS OF CORRUPTION THAT DIVERT RESOURCES FROM THE POOR
The good society is marked by a high degree of order, justice, and freedom. Among these, order has primacy: for justice cannot be enforced until a tolerable civil social order is attained, nor can freedom be anything better than violence until order gives us laws.
A lot of women ask themselves why they should bring a child into the world? So that it will be hungry, so that it will be cold, so that it will be betrayed and humiliated, so that it will be slaughtered by war or disease? They reject the hope that its hunger will be satisfied, its cold warmed, that loyalty and respect will accompany it through life, that it will be a devote a life to the effort to eliminate war and disease.