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The most vulnerable and yet most unconquerable of things is human vanity; nay, through being wounded its strength increases and can grow to giant proportions.
Friedrich Nietzsche
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Interpretation

What this quote means

Human vanity is a powerful force that can grow even stronger when challenged.

This quote by Friedrich Nietzsche reflects on the duality of human vanity, describing it as both a vulnerability and an indomitable strength. When confronted or hurt, vanity does not diminish; rather, it may become more formidable, illustrating the complex interplay between fragility and resilience in human nature.

Themes

VanityHuman NatureStrengthFearPhilosophy

In practice

Example use cases

During a discussion on personal growth, one might quote Nietzsche to highlight how ego can both help and hinder people.

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Christianity remains to this day the greatest misfortune of humanity.
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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 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.
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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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