Christianity remains to this day the greatest misfortune of humanity.
Friedrich NietzscheRead
Remain faithful to the earth, my brothers, with the power of your virtue. Let your gift-giving love and your knowledge serve the meaning of the earth. Thus I beg and beseech you. Do not let them fly away from earthly things and beat with their wings against eternal walls. Alas, there has always been so much virtue that has flown away. Lead back to the earth the virtue that flew away, as I do—back to the body, back to life, that it may give the earth a meaning, a human meaning.
Interpretation
What this quote means
This quote emphasizes the importance of valuing earthly existence and using our virtues to enrich life on earth.
Friedrich Nietzsche's quote reminds us to stay grounded and loyal to the physical world around us. He argues that our virtues, love, and knowledge should be applied to give meaning to our earthly experience rather than becoming distracted by abstract or eternal concepts. Nietzsche expresses a heartfelt plea to redirect our focus back to life, encouraging us to breathe vitality into our existence and to appreciate the intrinsic meaning that being human provides.
Themes
EarthVirtueMeaningLifeHumanity
In practice
Example use cases
In a speech about environmental conservation, one might quote this to emphasize the connection between virtue and our duty to the earth.
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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