7 Nietzsche Quotes for Free Thinkers
…and one puzzler
After his death, Frederich Nietzsche’s little sister Elizabeth began to publicize his work but misrepresented the message. Although I wish the man had more sympathy for women, his sister did him no favors.
The two had a convivial relationship until Elizabeth married an anti-Semite. Frederich pulled away — refusing to attend her wedding — then she moved far away and for years there was no contact.
She and her husband, who was deeply bigoted, founded an expat colony in Paraguay but it never thrived. After her husband killed himself, she returned to Germany to find her older brother quite ill and in need of daily care.
She looked after him, and sought to promote his work.
Elizabeth lived to 89, and in her later years joined the Nazi party. Scholars continue to debate the influence she had in promoting Nietzsche as a Nazi sympathizer and supporter, and whether Nietzsche’s original writing had any anti-Semitic leanings all.
Frederich died in 1900 at the age of only 55, after years of suffering from a mental disorder believed to be brought on by syphilis, now considered possibly due to bipolar disorder, meningitis, or some unspecified vascular dementia.
“Nietzsche is Dead”
It was not an easy death. What fame he knew in life was overshadowed by his mental state toward the end. His numerous books, including Beyond Good and Evil, and The Will to Power, are philosophy classics today but he received few accolades while he was alive and lucid.
As a five-year-old child, the boy witnessed his father, a Lutheran pastor, dying from a slow-growing brain tumor. Six months later, his younger brother — only a toddler — also died.
Nietzsche was cursed with a hard-to-spell name but blessed with genius and a sense of humor. He riddled his philosophy with contradictions: he believed we should all strive for greatness, yet promoted some people as greater than others. He didn’t care for women, yet he grew up in a household dominated by females and his mother and sister took care of him in the end.
Nietzsche found his calling young — as a philologist, or “lover of words” — before becoming a philosophy professor at the tender age of 24. He was hired to teach college before even finishing his doctorate, and took an appointment in the city of Basel in neighboring Switzerland.
He grew up being told to worship God by women, and he never forgot the experience. He felt alienated, and spent much of his career writing about the dangers of both females and religion. He would famously tell the world, once he began publishing:
“God is Dead.”
There is an old joke, and it goes like this:
“Nietzsche is dead.” — God
1/ “All things are subject to interpretation and whichever interpretation prevails at a given time is a function of power and not truth.”
Just as confident people appear smarter, so it goes that reality is forged more by power than knowledge. The philosopher conceived truth as highly malleable anyway — a bright spark that comes and goes like a firefly on a summer night.
This is why speaking truth to power matters.
2/ “That which does not kill us makes us stronger.”
This could be his most famous quote. It’s been shortened to a smaller sound byte:
“No pain, no gain.”
Despite sounding tough, this quote is easily disproved now that we know more about trauma and PTSD. Often, what doesn’t kill us can weaken us.
Yet we live in hope that if we survive, we might be better for it.
3/ “There is not enough love and goodness in the world to permit giving any of it away to imaginary beings.”
Nietzsche found the concept of God to be a burden for mankind, and he made no bones about his atheism. During his lifetime, this view wasn’t popular — but America seems to be embracing a new form of atheism in the 21st century. Our church attendance is taking a huge dive, at least.
You cannot argue there isn’t enough goodness and love in the world, whether you believe in a higher being or do not, and this is where his quotes touch people. He perfected the art of stating obvious truths with more interesting language.
4/ “The essence of all beautiful art, all great art, is gratitude.”
Art is originality, which isn’t easy to find. Witness this article, which culls the thoughts of another!
When we feel deep gratitude, we are free to create, and that is a precious feeling.
5/ “We have art in order not to die of truth.”
We know our brains are hard-wired for stories. We can’t resist a good tale, and they are all lies in a way. From Star Wars to Hamilton, every story stimulates the heart and brain but none of them is true.
Truth can be bleak. Ironically, a world without God often feels colorless and bland. Perhaps that is why Nietzsche didn’t need God, for he found his joy in art.
6/ “Success has always been a great liar.”
We succeed and become vulnerable to ego. And in our egoism, we can lie to ourselves, pretending we are great and no longer ordinary like everyone else. At the height of success is “when the devil comes for you” just as we learned a few nights ago, watching Will Smith win and lose on the same night.
7/ “The demand to be loved is the greatest of all arrogant presumptions.”
It’s hard to know if he’s talking about personal love, the hubris of believing that because you having feelings for someone, he or she must feel the same way — or admiration. The quote covers both scenarios. A demand for your crush to love you back is childish, but the belief you should be famous is foolish.
Sometimes, however, Nietzsche seemed to get it completely wrong.
“Egoism is the very essence of a noble soul.”
How can that be true? The brilliant philosopher, so modern and paradoxical, creates a fog. Does he mean none of us should hide our light under a bush? Is he talking about becoming the “uberman” and self-realization — or did the philosopher contradict himself?
Nietzsche died too young, and some scholars argue his core philosophy was twisted by a surviving sister who was a devoted Nazi follower. Even in death, his true meaning begets controversy.
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