Christianity remains to this day the greatest misfortune of humanity.
Friedrich NietzscheRead
That a person cannot and consequently will not defend himself, does not yet cast disgrace upon him in our eyes ; but we despise the person who has neither the ability nor the good will for revenge whether it be a man or a woman.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote discusses the notion of defense and revenge, highlighting our judgments of individuals based on their ability and willingness to retaliate.
Friedrich Nietzsche reflects on the societal perceptions of individuals who do not defend themselves. He suggests that a lack of ability or will for revenge is viewed with disdain, indicating that society often values strength and assertiveness. This quote opens up discussions about morality, power dynamics, and the complexities of human relationships, suggesting that the capacity to retaliate is subtly intertwined with how we assess a person's character.
Themes
DefenseRevengeSocietyPerceptionMorality
In practice
Example use cases
This quote could be shared in a discussion about the ethics of revenge during a philosophy class.
More from Friedrich Nietzsche
All quotes →That 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 — 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.
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
Similar quotes
Children and lunatics cut the Gordian knot which the poet spends his life patiently trying to untie.
Jean CocteauRead
There are certain things that our age needs, and certain things that it should avoid. It needs compassion and a wish that mankind should be happy; it needs the desire for knowledge and the determination to eschew pleasant myths; it needs, above all, courageous hope and the impulse to creativeness.
Bertrand RussellRead
My book centers in on the New Testament, the goal being to help a person who wants to understand the Bible to see how what God did as revealed in the New Testament will reveal to them their own personal story.
Max LucadoRead
The idea that political freedom can be preserved in the absence of economic freedom, and vice versa, is an illusion. Political freedom is the corollary of economic freedom.
Ludwig Von MisesRead
Satan promises the best, but pays with the worst; he promises honor, and pays with disgrace; he promises pleasure, and pays with pain; he promises profit, and pays with loss, he promises life, and pays with death. But God pays as he promises; all his payments are made in pure gold.
Thomas BrooksRead
I am a part of the part that at first was all, part of the darkness that gave birth to the light, that supercilious light which now disputes with Mother Night her ancient rank and space, and yet cannot succeed; no matter how it struggles, it sticks to matter and can't get free. Light flows from substance, makes it beautiful.
Johann Wolfgang Von GoetheRead