“The most common lie is that with which one lies to oneself; lying to others is, relatively, an exception.”
Posts Tagged ‘Nietzsche’
The Portable Nietzsche, pg 613
December 22, 2010“The very word ‘Christianity’ is a misunderstanding: in truth, there was only one Christian, and he died on the cross. The ‘evangel’ died on the cross. What has been called ‘evangel’ from that moment was actually the opposite of that which he had lived: ‘ill tidings,’ a dysangel. It is false to the point of nonsense to find the mark of the Christian in a ‘faith,’ for instance, in the faith in redemption through Christ: only Christian practice, a life such as he lived who died on the cross, is Christian.
Such a life is still possible today, for certain people even necessary: genuine, original Christianity will be possible at all times.
Not a faith, but a doing; above all, a not doing of many things, another state of being. States of consciousness, any faith, considering something true, for example – every psychologist knows this – are fifth-rank matters of complete indifference compared to the value of the instincts: speaking more strictly, the whole concept of spiritual causality is false. To reduce being a Christian, Christianism, to a matter of considering something true, to a mere phenomenon of consciousness, is to negate Christianism.”
The Portable Nietzsche, pg 608
December 22, 2010“This ‘bringer of glad tidings’ died as he had lived, as he had taught – not to ‘redeem men’ but to show how one must live. This practice is his legacy to mankind: his behavior before the judges, before the catchpoles, before the accusers and all kinds of slander and scorn – his behavior on the cross. He does not resist, he does not defend his right, he takes no step which might ward off the worst; on the contrary, he provokes it. And he begs, he suffers, he loves with those, in those, who do him evil. Not to resist, not to be angry, not to hold responsible – to resist not even the evil one – to love him.”
The Portable Nietzsche, pg 608
December 22, 2010“The ‘kingdom of heaven’ is a state of the heart – not something that is to come ‘above the earth’ or ‘after death.’ The whole concept of natural death is lacking in the evangel: death is no bridge, no transition; it is lacking because it belongs to a wholly different, merely apparent world, useful only insofar as it furnishes signs. The ‘hour of death’ is no Christian concept – an ‘hour,’ time, physical life and its crises do not even exist for the teacher of the ‘glad tidings.’ The ‘kingdom of God’ is nothing that one expects; it has no yesterday and no day after tomorrow, it will not come in ‘a thousand years’ – it is an experience of the heart; it is everywhere, it is nowhere.”
The Portable Nietzsche, pg 596
December 22, 2010“The lie of the ‘moral world order’ runs through the whole development of modern philosophy. What does ‘moral world order’ mean? That there is a will of God, once and for all, as to what man is to do and what he is not to do; that the value of a people, of an individual, is to be measured according to how much or how little the will of God is obeyed; that the will of God manifests itself in the destinies of a people, of an individual, as the ruling factor, that is to say, as punishing and rewarding according to the degree of obedience.”
The Portable Nietzsche, pg 558
December 22, 2010“In the end, it is courage in the face of reality that distinguishes a man like Thucydides from Plato: Plato is a coward before reality, consequently he flees into the ideal; Thucydides has control of himself, consequently he also maintains control of things.”
The Portable Nietzsche, pg 552
December 22, 2010“In Athens, in the time of Cicero, who expresses his surprise about this, the men and youths were far superior in beauty to the women. But what work and exertion the service of beauty had the male sex there imposed on itself for centuries! For one should make no mistake about the method in this case: a breeding of feelings and thoughts alone is almost nothing; one must first persuade the body. Strict perseverance in significant and exquisite gestures together with the obligation to live only with people who do not ‘let themselves go’ – that is quite enough for one to become significant and exquisite, and in two or three generations all this becomes inward. It is decisive for the lot of a people and of humanity that culture should begin in the right place – not in the ‘soul’ (as was the fateful superstition of the priests and half-priests): the right place is the body, the gesture, the diet, physiology; the rest follows from that. Therefore the Greeks remain the first cultural event in history: they knew, they did, what was needed; and Christianity, which despised the body, has been the greatest misfortune of humanity so far.”
The Portable Nietzsche, pg 542
December 22, 2010“Danger alone acquaints us with our own resources, our virtues, our armor and weapons, our spirit, and forces us to be strong. First principle: one must need to be strong – otherwise one will never become strong.”
The Portable Nietzsche, pg 530
December 22, 2010“Whatever we have words for, that we have already got beyond.”
The Portable Nietzsche, pg 525
December 22, 2010“I fear greatly that modern man is simply too comfortable for some vices, so that they die out by default. All evil that is a function of a strong will – and perhaps there is no evil without strength of will – degenerates into virtue in our tepid air. The few hypocrites whom I have met imitated hypocrisy: like almost every tenth person today, they were actors.”
