Christianity remains to this day the greatest misfortune of humanity.
Friedrich NietzscheRead
But thus I counsel you, my friends: Mistrust all in whom the impulse to punish is powerful. They are people of a low sort and stock; the hangmen and the bloodhound look out of their faces. Mistrust all who talk much of their justice! Verily, their souls lack more than honey. And when they call themselves the good and the just, do not forget that they would be pharisees, if only they had-power.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Be wary of those who have a strong desire to punish others, as they may be morally deficient.
This quote by Friedrich Nietzsche warns against blind trust in individuals who are eager to administer punishment, suggesting that their moral character is questionable. Nietzsche emphasizes that those who frequently discuss their own sense of justice may only be concealing a darker aspect of their nature, potentially resembling hypocritical figures like the Pharisees who would uphold their perceived righteousness if given the opportunity.
Themes
MistrustJusticeHypocrisyPunishmentMorality
In practice
Example use cases
In a discussion on justice reform, one might quote Nietzsche to emphasize the potential dangers of punitive mindsets.
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.
Friedrich NietzscheRead
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