Friedrich Nietzsche
Friedrich Nietzsche
Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzschewas a German philosopher, cultural critic, poet and Latin and Greek scholar whose work has exerted a profound influence on Western philosophy and modern intellectual history. He began his career as a classical philologist before turning to philosophy. He became the youngest ever to hold the Chair of Classical Philology at the University of Basel in 1869, at the age of 24. Nietzsche resigned in 1879 due to health problems that plagued him most of his life, and...
NationalityGerman
ProfessionPhilosopher
Date of Birth15 October 1844
CityRocken, Germany
CountryGermany
All that philosophers have handled for millennia has been conceptual mummies; nothing actual has ever escaped from their hands alive.
Those moralists, on the other hand, who, following in the footsteps of Socrates, offer the individual a morality of self-control and temperance as a means to his own advantage, as his personal key to happiness, are the exceptions.
The unlucky hand dealt to clear and precise writers is that people assume they are superficial and so do not go to any trouble inreading them: and the lucky hand dealt to unclear ones is that the reader does go to some trouble and then attributes the pleasure he experiences in his own zeal to them.
Without art we would be nothing but foreground and live entirely in the spell of that perspective which makes what is closest at hand and most vulgar appear as if it were vast, and reality itself.
Death is close enough at hand so we do not need to be afraid of life.
The heart and hand of those who always mete out become callous from always meting out.
Is it not better to fall into the hands of a murderer, than into the dreams of a lustful woman?
In a man devoted to knowledge, pity seems almost ridiculous, like delicate hands on a cyclops.
It is not in our hands to prevent our birth; but we can correct this mistake - for in some cases it is a mistake.
One has been a poor spectator of life if one has not witnessed the hand - that kills from mercy.
So far there has been no philosopher in whose hands philosophy has not grown into an apology for knowledge; on this point, at least, every one is an optimist, that the greatest usefulness must be ascribed to knowledge. They are all tyrannized over by logic, and this is optimism in its essence.
Are you one who looks on? or lends a hand? - or who looks away, sidles off?...Third question for the conscience.
Behold! I am weary of my wisdom, like the bee that has gathered too much honey; I need hands outstretched to take it from me. I wish to spread it and bestow it, until the wise have once more become joyous in their folly, and the poor happy in their riches.
Every habit makes our hand more witty, and out wit more handy.