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
Through searching out origins, one becomes a crab. The historian looks backwards, and finally he also believes backwards.
The great wars of the present age are the effects of the study of history.
A lack of the historical sense is the hereditary fault of all philosophers.
The more abstract the truth you wish to teach, the more you need to seduce the senses to it.
The thirst for equality can express itself either as a desire to draw everyone down to one's level, or to raise oneself and everyone else up.
Only strong personalities can endure history, the weak ones are extinguished by it.
Discontent is the seed of ethics.
Every fact and every work exercises a fresh persuasion over every age and every new species of man. History always enunciates new truths.
To think historically is almost the same thing now as if in all ages history had been made according to theory.
Every past is worth condemning.
History belongs above all to the man...who needs models, teachers, comforters and cannot find them among his contemporaries.
When man does not have firm, calm lines on the horizon of his life- mountain and forest lines, as it were- then a man's innermost will becomes agitated, preoccupied, and wistful.
However modest one may be in one's demand for intellectual cleanliness, one cannot help feeling, when coming into contact with the New Testament, a kind of inexpressible discomfiture: for the unchecked impudence with which the least qualified want to raise their voice on the greatest problems, and even claim to be judges of things, surpasses all measure. The shameless levity with which the most intractable problems (life, world, God, purpose of life) are spoken of, as if they were not problems at all but simply things that these little bigots KNEW!
He who does not lie does not know what truth is.