Otto Weininger
Otto Weininger
Otto Weiningerwas an Austrian philosopher. In 1903, he published the book Geschlecht und Charakter, which gained popularity after his suicide at the age of 23. Today, Weininger is viewed as misogynistic and antisemitic in academic circles, but was held to be a great genius by the philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein and the writer August Strindberg...
NationalityAustrian
ProfessionPhilosopher
Date of Birth3 April 1880
CountryAustria
men thinking law
It is certainly true that most men need some kind of a God. A few, and they are the men of genius, do not bow to an alien law. The rest try to justify their doings and misdoings, their thinking and existence (at least the menial side of it), to some one else, whether it be the personal God of the Jews, or a beloved, respected, and revered human being. It is only in this way that they can bring their lives under the social law. . . .
genius chaos mystery
All genius is a conquering of chaos and mystery.
desire causes immortality
It is not the fear of death which creates the desire for immortality, but the desire for immortality which causes the fear of death.
reality doe genius
The great genius does not let his work be determined by the concrete finite conditions that surround him, whilst it is from these that the work of the statesman takes its direction and its termination. ... It is the genius in reality and not the other who is the creator of history, for it is only the genius who is outside and unconditioned by history.
america genius morality
A genius has perhaps scarcely ever appeared amongst the negroes, and the standard of their morality is almost universally so low that it is beginning to be acknowledged in America that their emancipation was an act of imprudence.
genius individual cases
In those rare individual cases where women approach genius they also approach masculinity.
self arrogance individual
An individual's arrogance is always in proportion to his lack of self-assurance.
men female genius
The man of genius possesses, like everything else, the complete female in himself; but woman herself is only a part of the Universe, and the part can never be the whole; femaleness can never include genius. This lack of genius on the part of woman is inevitable because woman is not a monad, and cannot reflect the Universe.
character men opposites
In the case of complex personalities the matter stands thus: one of these can understand other men better than they can understand themselves, because within himself he has not only the character he is grasping, but also its opposite. Duality is necessary for observation and comprehension.
men compassion people
No one suffers so much as he [the genius] with the people, and, therefore, for the people, with whom he lives. For, in a certain sense, it is certainly only "by suffering" that a man knows. If compassion is not itself clear, abstractly conceivable or visibly symbolic knowledge, it is, at any rate, the strongest impulse for the acquisition of knowledge. It is only by suffering that the genius understands men. And the genius suffers most because he suffers with and in each and all; but he suffers most through his understanding. . . .
men genius littles
The great man of science, unless he is also a philosopher, ... deserves the title of genius as little as the man of action.
men genius conscious
Woman, in short, has an unconscious life, man a conscious life, and the genius the most conscious life.
mean past men
The man of genius is he whose ego has acquired consciousness. He is enabled by it to distinguish the fact that others are different, to perceive the "ego" of other men, even when it is not pronounced enough for them to be conscious of it themselves. But it is only he who feels that every other man is also an ego, a monad, an individual centre of the universe, with specific manner of feeling and thinking and a distinct past, he alone is in a position to avoid making use of his neighbours as means to an end.
women thinking opinion
No men who really think deeply about women retain a high opinion of them; men either despise women or they have never thought seriously about them.