Christianity remains to this day the greatest misfortune of humanity.
Friedrich NietzscheRead
Socrates and Plato are right: whatever man does he always does well, that is, he does that which seems to him good (useful) according to the degree of his intellect, the particular standard of his reasonableness.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote suggests that individuals act according to what they perceive as good based on their intellect and reasoning standards.
Friedrich Nietzsche's quote reflects the philosophical idea that human actions are guided by individual perceptions of what is good or useful, which is influenced by one's intellect and reasoning ability. This notion aligns with the views of Socrates and Plato, emphasizing the subjective nature of morality and the significance of intellectual understanding in determining one's actions. It highlights the complexity of human behavior and the role of personal judgment in ethical decision-making.
Themes
IntellectReasonablenessMoralitySubjectivityHuman Behavior
In practice
Example use cases
In a philosophical discussion about ethics, you might reference this quote to illustrate the subjectivity of moral judgments.
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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But I believe the words entered me and changed me and still work in me. The words eat me and sustain me. And when I'm dead and in a box in the dark dark ground, and all my various souls have died and I am nothing but insensible bones, something in the marrow will still feel yearning, desire persisting beyond flesh.
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