Welcome home! Please contact lincoln@icrontic.com if you have any difficulty logging in or using the site. New registrations must be manually approved which may take several days. Can't log in? Try clearing your browser's cookies.
Friedrich Nietzsche/Quotes
upekka
Veteran
in Philosophy
Friedrich Nietzsche/Quotes
That which does not kill us makes us stronger.
When you look into an abyss, the abyss also looks into you.
Insanity in individuals is something rare - but in groups, parties, nations and epochs, it is the rule.
what do you think about F Nietzsche?
1
Comments
-He had no use for the English :-)
He was a bit of a misanthrope, no?
Fascinating reading if you have the stamina, plenty of great one-liners if you don't.
I was reading a book some time ago that referenced Nietzsche several times. Thought I should read some of his writing, found to my dismay that the local library - largest library in the state, did not have a single book of his in its collections. :0( Books about Nietzsche, commentary on Nietzsche, etc. - none of his actual writing. Finally found "Thus Spake Zarathustra" in a small library a couple hundred miles from here, checked it out, got through a dozen pages or so and realized I was one of those who lacked the stamina to get through it, though I greatly respected the evident depth and acuity of his thought.
Mostly what I remember at this remove is bits and pieces of his life story - his brilliant but brief career as a professor of philosophy, the godawful illness that rendered him unable to work, his wretched life spent living on a small and inadequate stipend, final complete loss of his mental faculties, eventual death and then the heavy-handed editing (mangling, really ) of his writings by his sister, which resulted in their being wrongly associated with Nazism.
Some fine day, perhaps, I will find another of his books and try again.
Yes stamina seems to be a requirement to approach Nietzche. I can't see it was successful on my part. But another day perhaps. Thanks for the reference to his sister which I need to explore.
He was a gradually disintegrating mess. I have little time for him, both literally and metaphorically.
I enjoy his writing, but it is definitely dense. I first started reading (as much as I could at the time anyhow) him when I was probably 16 or so, because of a quote of his that was in book I read about serial killers, the first part of the abyss quote: "Whoever fights monsters should see to it that in the process he does not become a monster himself." That quote has popped up multiple times in my life, and is certainly prudent in the state of policing in the US. The whole idea behind it is part of the reason I opted not to go into a career in that field, as at that time I knew my ability to protect my mind was limited.
" 'Everything evolves' will come to mean 'nothing' is true !"
I like his line of thought....
Dead end.
Insight through madness?
Buddhism is more pragmatic. Wisdom improves, does not lose people in themselves ...
Sunyata! Eeek! Run away! Cling to some residual beliefs, clutch at some metaphysical straws!
still cling to some residuals, but no more beliefs
instead of clutching i know i have to let go of them (it)
The rhythm of life
I found this joke on the internet:
God is dead.
-Nietzsche
After a few years.....
Nietzsche is dead.
-God
Had a friend who was very big on Nietzsche,sadly he ended up being sectioned. The guy told me he had a breakdown after reading Nietzsche. Too much thinking can be bad for some of us.
I recently saw a documentary on Nietzsche,very interesting.
Very screwy.... Sad.
I had a similar experience but was not sectioned. I was advised (by my private tutor/German master) when I was about 11 or 12 to never read Nietzsche as it would send me insane. What a challenge. Finally at age 20 I got hold of a copy of the newly published Kaufman translation of Zarathustra. Shortly after, I had my Zarathustra moment. Life has never been the same since and the only moments I regret are those spent swallowing ordinary "morality". Nietzsche and to a greater extent Jung form the backbone of my reading and outlook.