Beyond Good and Evil
Jenseits von Gut und Böse [Beyond Good and Evil] (1886) is a major 19th century philosophical work by Friedrich Nietzsche.
Quotes
[edit]Prelude
[edit]- Es scheint, dass alle grossen Dinge, um der Menschheit sich mit ewigen Forderungen in das Herz einzuschreiben, erst als ungeheure und furchteinflössende Fratzen über die Erde hinwandeln müssen [1]
- It seems that in order to inscribe themselves upon the heart of humanity with everlasting claims, all great things have first to wander about the earth as enormous and awe-inspiring caricatures [2]
Chapter I: On the Prejudices of Philosophers
[edit]- The falseness of an opinion is not for us any objection to it: it is here, perhaps, that our new language sounds most strangely. The question is, how far an opinion is life-furthering, life- preserving, species-preserving, perhaps species-rearing, and we are fundamentally inclined to maintain that the falsest opinions ...
- Aphorism 4, Translator: w:Helen Zimmern
- Gradually it has become clear to me what every great philosophy has been: namely, the personal confession of its author and a kind of involuntary and unconscious memoir; also that the moral (or immoral) intentions in every philosophy constituted the real germ of life from which the whole plant has grown.
- Aphorism 6, Translator: Walter Kaufmann, 1966 edition
- So you want to live 'according to nature?' Oh, you noble Stoics, what a fraud is in this phrase! Imagine something like nature, profligate without measure, indifferent without measure, without purpose and regard, without mercy and justice, fertile and barren and uncertain at the same time, think of indifference itself as power — how could you live according to this indifference? Living — isn't that wanting specifically to be something other than this nature? Isn't living assessing, preferring, being unfair, being limited, wanting to be different? And assuming your imperative to 'live according to nature' basically amounts to 'living according to life' — well how could you not? Why make a principle out of what you yourselves are and must be?
- Aphorism 9
- It seems to me that today attempts are made everywhere to divert attention from the actual influence Kant exerted on German philosophy, and especially to ignore prudently the value he set upon himself. Kant was first and foremost proud of his table of categories; with that in his hand he said: "This is the most difficult thing that could ever be undertaken on behalf of metaphysics".
- Aphorism 11, Translator: Walter Kaufmann, 1966 edition
- Physiologists should think twice before positioning the drive for self-preservation as the cardinal drive of an organic being. Above all, a living thing wants to discharge its strength — life itself is will to power -: self-preservation is only one of the indirect and most frequent consequences of this.
- Aphorism 13
Chapter II: The Free Spirit
[edit]- Niemand lügt soviel als der Entrüstete.
- Independence is an issue that concerns very few people: — it is a prerogative of the strong. And even when somebody has every right to be independent, if he attempts such a thing without having to do so, he proves that he is probably not only strong, but brave to the point of madness. He enters a labyrinth, he multiplies by a thousand the dangers already inherent in the very act of living, not the least of which is the fact that no one with eyes will see how and where he gets lost and lonely and is torn limb from limb by some cave-Minotaur of conscience. And assuming a man like this is destroyed, it is an event so far from human comprehension that people do not feel it or feel for him: — and he cannot go back again! He cannot go back to their pity again!
- Aphorism 29
- Walter Kaufmann's translation: Independence is for the very few; it is a privilege of the strong. And whoever attempts it even with the best right but without inner constraint proves that he is probably not only strong, but also daring to the point of recklessness. He enters into a labyrinth, he multiplies a thousandfold the dangers which life brings with it in any case, not the least of which is that no one can see how and where he loses his way, becomes lonely, and is torn piecemeal by some minotaur of conscience. Supposing one like that comes to grief, this happens so far from the comprehension of men that they neither feel it nor sympathize. And he cannot go back any longer. Nor can he go back to the pity of men.
- "There is no other way: the feelings of devotion, self-sacrifice for one’s neighbor, the whole morality of self-denial must be questioned mercilessly and taken to court- no less than the aesthetics of “contemplation devoid of all interest” which is used today as a seductive hose for emasculation of art, to give it a good conscience"
- Aphorism 33, trans: Walter Kauffmann
- 'Truth' and the search for truth are no trivial matter; and if a person goes about searching in too human a fashion, I'll bet he won't find anything !
- Aphorism 35
- O Voltaire! O humaneness! O nonsense! There is something about "truth", about the search for truth; and when a human being is too human about it- "il ne cherche le vrai que pour faire le bien"- I bet he finds nothing.
- Translated by Walter Kauffmann
- Will they be new friends of "truth," these coming philosophers? Very probably, for all philosophers hitherto have loved their truths. But assuredly they will not be dogmatists. It must be contrary to their pride, and also contrary to their taste, that their truth should still be truth for every one--that which has hitherto been the secret wish and ultimate purpose of all dogmatic efforts. "My opinion is MY opinion:another person has not easily a right to it"--such a philosopher of the future will say, perhaps. One must renounce the bad taste of wishing to agree with many people. "Good" is no longer good when one's neighbour takes it into his mouth. And how could there be a "common good"! The expression contradicts itself; that which can be common is always of small value. In the end things must be as they are and have always been--the great things remain for the great, the abysses for the profound, the delicacies and thrills for the refined, and, to sum up shortly, everything rare for the rare.
- Aphorism 42
Chapter III: What is Religious
[edit]- People used to believe in 'the soul' as they believed in grammar and the grammatical subject: people said that 'I' was a condition and 'think' was a predicate and conditioned — thinking is an activity and a subject must be thought of as its cause. Now, with admirable tenacity and cunning, people are wondering whether they can get out of this net — wondering whether the reverse might be true: that 'think' is the condition and 'I' is conditioned, in which case 'I' would be a synthesis that only gets produced through thought itself.
- Aphorism 54
- There is a great ladder of religious cruelty, and, of its many rungs, three are the most important. People used to make human sacrifices to their god, perhaps even sacrificing those they loved the best ... Then, during the moral epoch of humanity, people sacrificed the strongest instincts they had, their 'nature,' to their god; the joy of this particular festival shines in the cruel eyes of the ascetic, that enthusiastic piece of 'anti-nature.' Finally: what was left to be sacrificed? In the end, didn't people have to sacrifice all comfort and hope, everything holy or healing, any faith in hidden harmony or a future filled with justice and bliss? Didn't people have to sacrifice God himself and worship rocks, stupidity, gravity, fate, or nothingness out of sheer cruelty to themselves? To sacrifice God for nothingness — that paradoxical mystery of the final cruelty has been reserved for the race that is now approaching: by now we all know something about this.
- Aphorism 55
Chapter IV: Maxims and Interludes
[edit]
- Die Liebe zu Einem ist eine Barbarei: denn sie wird auf Unkosten aller Übrigen ausgeübt. Auch die Liebe zu Gott.
- Love of one is a piece of barbarism: for it is practised at the expense of all others. Love of God likewise.
- Aphorism 67
- Source: Projekt Gutenberg-DE / Translation source: Penguin Classics edition, translated by R. J. Hollingdale, ISBN 014044923X
- "Das habe ich getan" sagt mein Gedächtnis. Das kann ich nicht getan haben — sagt mein Stolz und bleibt unerbittlich. Endlich — gibt das Gedächtnis nach.
- "I have done that", says my memory. "I cannot have done that" — says my pride, and remains adamant. At last — memory yields.
- Aphorism 68
- Source: Gutenberg-DE / Translation source: Hollingdale
- One has only seen little of life, if one hasn't also seen the hand that mercifully — kills.
- Aphorism 69
- To stage as astronomer, So long as thou feelest the stars as an ‘above thee’, Thou lackest the eye of the discerning one
- Aphorism 71, Helen Zimmern translation from German into English
- Ein Mensch mit Genie ist unausstehlich, wenn er nicht mindestens noch zweierlei dazu besitzt: Dankbarkeit und Reinlichkeit.
- A man with genius is unendurable if he does not also possess at least two things: gratitude and cleanliness.
- Aphorism 74
- Note: An earlier translation had "purity" in place of "cleanliness".
- Source: Gutenberg-DE / Translation source: Hollingdale
- Anyone who despises himself will still respect himself as a despiser.
- Aphorism 78
- Die gleichen Affekte sind bei Mann und Weib doch im Tempo verschieden: deshalb hören Mann und Weib nicht auf, sich misszuverstehn.
- The same emotions in man and woman are, however, different in tempo: therefore man and woman never cease to misunderstand one another.
- Aphorism 85
- Source: Gutenberg-DE / Translation source: Hollingdale
- Reife des Mannes: das heisst den Ernst wiedergefunden haben, den man als Kind hatte, beim Spiel.
- Mature manhood: that means to have rediscovered the seriousness one had as a child at play.
- Aphorism 94
- Source: Gutenberg-DE / Translation source: Hollingdale
- Wenn man sein Gewissen dressirt, so küsst es uns zugleich, indem es beisst.
- If one trains one's conscience it will kiss us as it bites.
- Aphorism 98
- Source: Gutenberg-DE / Translation source: Hollingdale
- Die Sinnlichkeit übereilt oft das Wachsthum der Liebe, so dass die Wurzel schwach bleibt und leicht auszureissen ist.
- Sensuality often makes love grow too quickly, so that the root remains weak and is easy to pull out.
- Aphorism 120
- Source: Gutenberg-DE / Translation source: Hollingdale
- Es ist eine Feinheit, daß Gott griechisch lernte, als er Schriftsteller werden wollte, und ebenso dies, daß er es nicht besser lernte!
- It was subtle of God to learn Greek when he wished to become an author – and not to learn it better.
- Aphorism 121
- Variant: It is a curious thing that God learned Greek when he wished to turn author - and that he did not learn it better.
- Even cohabitation has been corrupted—by marriage.
- Aphorism 123
- Man wird am besten für seine Tugenden bestraft.
- One is punished most for one's virtues.
- Aphorism 132
- Note: An earlier translation had "best" in place of "most".
- Source: Gutenberg-DE / Translation source: Hollingdale
- One seeks a midwife for his thoughts, another someone to whom he can be a midwife: thus originates a good conversation.
- Aphorism 136
- Wir machen es auch im Wachen wie im Traume: wir erfinden und erdichten erst den Menschen, mit dem wir verkehren — und vergessen es sofort.
- What we do in dreams we also do when we are awake: we invent and fabricate the person with whom we associate — and immediately forget we have done so.
- Aphorism 138
- Source: Gutenberg-DE / Translation source: Hollingdale
- Was wir am besten thun, von dem möchte unsre Eitelkeit, dass es grade als Das gelte, was uns am schwersten werde. Zum Ursprung mancher Moral.
- Our vanity would have just that which we do best count as that which is hardest for us. The origin of many a morality.
- Aphorism 143
- Source: Gutenberg-DE / Translation source: Hollingdale
- Wer mit Ungeheuern kämpft, mag zusehn, dass er nicht dabei zum Ungeheuer wird. Und wenn du lange in einen Abgrund blickst, blickt der Abgrund auch in dich hinein.
- He who fights with monsters might take care lest he thereby become a monster. And when you gaze long into an abyss the abyss also gazes into you.
- Aphorism 146
- Source: Gutenberg-DE / Translation source: Hollingdale
- Variant Translation: Battle not with monsters, lest ye become a monster; for if you gaze into the abyss, the abyss gazes back into you.
- Das, was ein Alter fühlt sich böse zu sein ist in der Regel ein vorzeitiges Widerhall dessen, was ehemals als gut - der Atavismus eines alten ideal.
- That which an age feels to be evil is usually an untimely echo of what was formerly considered good - the atavism of an old ideal.
- Aphorism 149
- Source: Gutenberg-DE / Translation source: Hollingdale
- Ein Talent haben ist nicht genug: man muss auch eure Erlaubniss dazu haben, — wie? meine Freunde?
- It is not enough to possess a talent: one must also possess your permission to possess it — eh, my friends?
- Aphorism 151
- Source: Gutenberg-DE / Translation source: Hollingdale
- Was aus Liebe getan wird, geschieht immer Jenseits von Gut und Böse.
- Translation: What is done out of love always takes place beyond good and evil.
- Aphorism 153
- Source; Gutenberg-DE / Translated by Helen Zimmern
- Der Irrsinn ist bei Einzelnen etwas Seltenes, — aber bei Gruppen, Parteien, Völkern, Zeiten die Regel.
- Madness is something rare in individuals — but in groups, parties, peoples, epochs it is the rule.
- Aphorism 156
- Source: Gutenberg-DE / Translation source: Hollingdale
- Alternate translation: Insanity in individuals is something rare--but in groups, parties, nations, and epochs it is the rule.
- Source:Wikisource:Beyond Good and Evil/Chapter IV Wikisource
- Translation source: Helen Zimmern
- Der Gedanke an den Selbstmord ist ein starkes Trostmittel: mit ihm kommt man gut über manche böse Nacht hinweg.
- The thought of suicide is a powerful solace: by means of it one gets through many a bad night.
- Aphorism 157
- Source: Gutenberg-DE / Translation source: Hollingdale
- Man liebt seine Erkenntniss nicht genug mehr, sobald man sie mittheilt.
- One no longer loves one's knowledge enough when one has communicated it.
- Aphorism 160
- Source: Gutenberg-DE / Translation source: Hollingdale
- Viel von sich reden kann auch ein Mittel sein, sich zu verbergen.
- To talk about oneself a great deal can also be a means of concealing oneself.
- Aphorism 169
- Source: Gutenberg-DE / Translation source: Hollingdale
- In a man devoted to knowledge, pity seems almost ridiculous, like delicate hands on a cyclops.
- Aphorism 171
- Die Eitelkeit Andrer geht uns nur dann wider den Geschmack, wenn sie wider unsre Eitelkeit geht.
- Translation: The vanity of others is only counter to our taste when it is counter to our vanity.
- Aphorism 176, Translated by Helen Zimmern
- Ober Das, was "Wahrhaftigkeit" ist, war vielleicht noch Niemand wahrhaftig genug.
- With regard to what "truthfulness" is, perhaps nobody has ever been sufficiently truthful.
- Aphorism 77, Translated by Helen Zimmern
- Die Folgen unsrer Handlungen fassen uns am Schopfe, sehr gleichgültig dagegen, dass wir uns inzwischen "gebessert" haben.
- The consequences of our actions take us by the scruff of the neck, altogether indifferent to the fact that we have "improved" in the meantime.
- Aphorism 179
- Source: Gutenberg-DE / Translation source: Hollingdale
Chapter V: The Natural History of Morals
[edit]- Kurz, die Moralen sind auch nur eine Zeichensprache der Affekte.
- In short, systems of morals are only a sign-language of the emotions.
- Aphorism 187
- Source: Gutenberg-DE / Translated by Helen Zimmern
- The Jews — a people "born for slavery" as Tacitus and the whole ancient world says, "the chosen people" as they themselves say and believe — the Jews achieved that miracle of inversion of values thanks to which life on earth has for a couple of millennia acquired a new and dangerous fascination — their prophets fused "rich", "godless", "evil", "violent", "sensual" into one and were the first to coin the word "world" as a term of infamy. It is in this inversion of values ... that the significance of the Jewish people resides: with them there begins the slave revolt in morals.
- Aphorism 195
Chapter VII: Our Virtues
[edit]- Selig sind die Vergesslichen: denn sie werden auch mit ihren Dummheiten "fertig."
- Is life not a thousand times too short for us to bore ourselves?
- Aphorism 227
Chapter IX: What is Noble?
[edit]- Every enhancement of the type "man" has so far been the work of an aristocratic society—and it will be so again and again—a society that believes in the long ladder of an order of rank and differences in value between man and man, and that needs slavery in some sense or other.
- Aphorism 257
- Vanity is an atavism.
- Aphorism 261
- It is some basic certainty which the noble soul has about itself, something which does not allow itself to be sought out or found or perhaps even to be lost. The noble soul has reverence for itself.
- What is noble? What does the word “noble” still mean to us today? What betrays, what allows one to recognize the noble human being, under this heavy, overcast sky of the beginning rule of the plebs that makes everything opaque and leaden?
- It is not actions that prove him – actions are always open to many interpretations, always unfathomable – nor is it “works.” Among artists and scholars today one finds enough of those who betray by their works how they are impelled by a profound desire for what is noble; but just this need for what is noble is fundamentally different from the needs of the noble soul itself and actually the eloquent and dangerous mark of its lack. It is not the works, it is the faith that is decisive here, that determines the order of rank – to take up again an ancient religious formula in a new and more profound sense: some fundamental certainty that a noble soul has about itself, something that cannot be sought, nor found, nor perhaps lost.The noble soul has reverence for itself.
- Aphorism 287
Unsorted
[edit]- Wer mit Ungeheuern kämpft, mag zusehn, dass er nicht dabei zum Ungeheuer wird. Und wenn du lange in einen Abgrund blickst, blickt der Abgrund auch in dich hinein.
- He who fights with monsters should see to it that he himself does not become a monster. And if you gaze long into an abyss, the abyss also gazes into you.
- Aphorism 146
- Ist das Leben nicht hundert Mal zu kurz, sich in ihm— zu langweilen?
- Is not life a hundred times too short for us— to bore ourselves?
- Chapter VII, 227
- Für jede hohe Welt muß man geboren sein; deutlicher gesagt, man muß für sie gezüchtet sein: ein Recht auf Philosophie -- das Wort im grossen Sinne genommen -- hat man nur Dank seiner Abkunft, die Vorfahren, das »Geblüt« entscheidet auch hier. Viele Geschlechter müssen der Entstehung des Philospohen vorgearbeitet haben; jede seiner Tungenden muß einzeln erworben, gepflegt, fortgeerbt, einverleibt worden sein...
- One must be born to any superior world — to make it plainer, one must be bred for it. One has a right to philosophy (taking the word in its greatest sense) only by virtue of one's breeding; one's ancestors, one's "blood," decides this, too. Many generations must have worked on the origin of a philosopher; each one of his virtues must have been separately earned, cared for, passed on, and embodied.
- Translated by Marianne Cowan [Henry Regnery Company, 1955, p. 139]; Jenseits von Gut und Böse [Philipp Reclam, Stuttgart, 1988, p. 130]
- wir vermeinen, daß Härte, Gewaltsamkeit, Sklaverie, Gefahr auf der Gasse und im Herzen, Verborgenheit, Stoicismus, Versucherkunst und Teufelei jeder Art, daß alles Böse, Furchtbare, Tyrannische, Raubthier- und Schlangenhafte am Menschen so gut zur Erhöhung der Species »Mensch« dient, als sein Gegensatz...
- We imagine that hardness, violence, slavery, peril in the street and in the heart, concealment, Stoicism, temptation, and deviltry of every sort, everything evil, frightful, tyrannical, raptor- and snake-like in man, serves as well for the advancement of the species "man" as their opposite.
- Translated by Marianne Cowan [Henry Regnery Company, 1955, p. 50]; Jenseits von Gut und Böse [Philipp Reclam, Stuttgart, 1988, p. 130]
Misattributed
[edit]- A moral system valid for all is basically immoral.
- Generally attributed to Nietzsche, this is a quotation from Curtis Cate's Friedrich Nietzsche: A Biography (2003) and is the author's interpretation of Nietzsche's Aphorism 221.
See also
[edit]Works about Beyond Good and Evil
