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Single Idea 24119

[filed under theme 23. Ethics / F. Existentialism / 8. Eternal Recurrence ]

Full Idea

The most terrible thought of an eternal return of wastefulness.

Gist of Idea

The eternal return of wastefulness is a terrible thought

Source

Friedrich Nietzsche (Unpublished Notebooks 1882-84 [1883], 20[02])

Book Ref

Nietzsche,Friedrich: 'Fragments from the period of 'Zarathustra' (v 14)', ed/tr. Loeb/Tinsley [Stanford 2019], p.532


A Reaction

This illuminates quite well his notion of eternal recurrence. Not only what you would do in an eternally recurring life, but what you would avoid.


The 10 ideas with the same theme [implications of having to live the same life over and over]:

Life is a repetition when what has been now becomes [Kierkegaard]
The great person engages wholly with life, and is happy to endlessly relive the life they created [Nietzsche]
Eternal recurrence is the highest attainable affirmation [Nietzsche]
See our present lives as eternal! Religions see it as fleeting, and aim at some different life [Nietzsche]
Who can endure the thought of eternal recurrence? [Nietzsche]
If you want one experience repeated, you must want all of them [Nietzsche]
Imagine if before each of your actions you had to accept repeating the action over and over again [Nietzsche]
Nietzsche says facing up to the eternal return of meaninglessness is the response to nihilism [Nietzsche, by Critchley]
Existence without meaning or goal or end, eternally recurring, is a terrible thought [Nietzsche]
The eternal return of wastefulness is a terrible thought [Nietzsche]