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Single Idea 20274

[filed under theme 23. Ethics / C. Virtue Theory / 3. Virtues / a. Virtues ]

Full Idea

Honest towards ourselves and whatever else is our friend; courageous toward the enemy; magnanimous toward the defeated; polite - always. This is how the four cardinal virtues want us to be.

Gist of Idea

The cardinal virtues want us to be honest, brave, magnanimous and polite

Source

Friedrich Nietzsche (Dawn (Daybreak) [1881], 556)

Book Ref

Nietzsche,Friedrich: 'Dawn (Daybreak) (v 5)', ed/tr. Smith, Brittain [Stanford 2011], p.276

A Reaction

I take this to be Nietzsche genuinely asserting his four cardinal virtues, rather than being ironic. He certainly asserts politeness as the fourth virtue earlier in the book. Cf a different list in Idea 20382

Related Idea

Idea 20382 The four virtues are courage, insight, sympathy, solitude [Nietzsche]

The 583 ideas from Friedrich Nietzsche

20375 Virtues must be highly personal; if not, it is merely respect for a concept [Nietzsche]
20138 Christianity is at war with the higher type of man, and excommunicates his basic instincts [Nietzsche]
2915 Each person should devise his own virtues and categorical imperative [Nietzsche]
2917 Christianity is a revolt of things crawling on the ground against elevated things [Nietzsche]
2916 The great lie of immortality destroys rationality and natural instinct [Nietzsche]
2918 The story in Genesis is the story of God's fear of science [Nietzsche]
23520 Truth has had to be fought for, and normal life must be sacrificed to achieve it [Nietzsche]
2919 'Faith' means not wanting to know what is true [Nietzsche]
2920 A God who cures us of a head cold at the right moment is a total absurdity [Nietzsche]
2921 Philosophy grasps the limits of human reason, and values are beyond it [Nietzsche]
2922 All intelligent Romans were Epicureans [Nietzsche]
2914 One must never ask whether truth is useful [Nietzsche]
7080 Metaphysics divided the old unified Greek world into two [Nietzsche, by Critchley]
7079 Nietzsche resists nihilism through new values, for a world of becoming, without worship [Nietzsche, by Critchley]
23440 Nietzsche's judgement of actions by psychology instead of outcome was poisonous [Foot on Nietzsche]
7078 The freedom of the subject means the collapse of moral certainty [Nietzsche, by Critchley]
6869 Nietzsche thinks the human condition is to overcome and remake itself [Nietzsche, by Ansell Pearson]
1568 Nietzsche felt that Plato's views downgraded the human body and its brevity of life [Nietzsche, by Roochnik]
2860 The most boring and dangerous of all errors is Plato's invention of pure spirit and goodness [Nietzsche]
2867 Christianity is Platonism for the people [Nietzsche]
11090 Why do we want truth, rather than falsehood or ignorance? The value of truth is a problem [Nietzsche]
20140 We shouldn't object to a false judgement, if it enhances and preserves life [Nietzsche]
20355 The ranking of a person's innermost drives reveals their true nature [Nietzsche]
7834 Great philosophies are confessions by the author, growing out of moral intentions [Nietzsche]
2868 Nature is totally indifferent, so you should try to be different from it, not live by it [Nietzsche]
2291 A thought comes when 'it' wants, not when 'I' want [Nietzsche]
2871 Wanting 'freedom of will' is wanting to pull oneself into existence out of the swamp of nothingness by one's own hair [Nietzsche]
20381 It is psychology which reveals the basic problems [Nietzsche]
2872 In the earliest phase of human history only consequences mattered [Nietzsche]
20137 The great person engages wholly with life, and is happy to endlessly relive the life they created [Nietzsche]
2874 Man is the animal whose nature has not yet been fixed [Nietzsche]
2875 That which is done out of love always takes place beyond good and evil [Nietzsche]
2876 The thought of suicide is a great reassurance on bad nights [Nietzsche]
2877 Morality becomes a problem when we compare many moralities [Nietzsche]
2859 The idea of the categorical imperative is just that we should all be very obedient [Nietzsche]
2878 We see an approximation of a tree, not the full detail [Nietzsche]
20134 Moralities extravagantly address themselves to 'all', by falsely generalising [Nietzsche]
2879 In ancient Rome pity was considered neither good nor bad [Nietzsche]
2880 The greatest possibilities in man are still unexhausted [Nietzsche]
22394 Democracy diminishes mankind, making them mediocre and lowering their value [Nietzsche]
2881 Virtue has been greatly harmed by the boringness of its advocates [Nietzsche]
20139 Only aristocratic societies can elevate the human species [Nietzsche]
20373 A healthy aristocracy has no qualms about using multitudes of men as instruments [Nietzsche]
2882 Morality originally judged people, and actions only later on [Nietzsche]
2883 Noble people see themselves as the determiners of values [Nietzsche]
2884 The morality of slaves is the morality of utility [Nietzsche]
20382 The four virtues are courage, insight, sympathy, solitude [Nietzsche]
2885 The noble soul has reverence for itself [Nietzsche]
20230 The very idea of a critique of morality is regarded as immoral! [Nietzsche]
20229 No authority ever willingly accepts criticism [Nietzsche]
20380 Why should truth be omnipotent? It is enough that it is very powerful [Nietzsche]
20231 People used to think that outcomes were from God, rather than consequences of acts [Nietzsche]
20233 Punishment has distorted the pure innocence of the contingency of outcomes [Nietzsche]
20232 Get rid of the idea of punishment! It is a noxious weed! [Nietzsche]
20234 Morality prevents us from developing better customs [Nietzsche]
20235 Like animals, we seek truth because we want safety [Nietzsche]
20236 Marriage upholds the idea that love, though a passion, can endure [Nietzsche]
20237 Moral feelings are entirely different from the moral concepts used to judge actions [Nietzsche]
20238 Treating morality as feelings is just obeying your ancestors [Nietzsche]
20240 The Jews treated great anger as holy, and were in awe of those who expressed it [Nietzsche]
20241 Enquirers think finding our origin is salvation, but it turns out to be dull [Nietzsche]
20242 Things are the boundaries of humanity, so all things must be known, for self-knowledge [Nietzsche]
20243 Human beings are not majestic, either through divine origins, or through grand aims [Nietzsche]
20244 Christianity replaces rational philosophical virtues with great passions focused on God [Nietzsche]
20245 Christianity hoped for a short cut to perfection, that skipped the hard labour of morality [Nietzsche]
20246 If you feel to others as they feel to themselves, you must hate a self-hater [Nietzsche]
20247 Christianity was successful because of its heathen rituals [Nietzsche]
20248 People do nothing for their real ego, but only for a phantom ego created by other people [Nietzsche]
20249 Our knowledge of the many drives that constitute us is hopelessly incomplete [Nietzsche]
20250 We may be unable to remember, but we may never actually forget [Nietzsche]
20251 Actions done for a purpose are least understood, because we complacently think it's obvious [Nietzsche]
20252 Marriage is too serious to be permitted for people in love! [Nietzsche]
20253 Modern wars arise from the study of history [Nietzsche]
20254 People govern for the pleasure of it, or just to avoid being governed [Nietzsche]
20255 Early 19th century German philosophers enjoyed concepts, rather than scientific explanations [Nietzsche]
20256 What we think is totally dictated by the language available to express it [Nietzsche]
20257 Cool courage and feverish bravery have one name, but are two very different virtues [Nietzsche]
20258 Most people treat knowledge as a private possession [Nietzsche]
20259 Teach youth to respect people who differ with them, not people who agree with them [Nietzsche]
20260 Carlyle spent his life vainly trying to make reason appear romantic [Nietzsche]
20261 History does not concern what really happened, but supposed events, which have all the influence [Nietzsche]
20262 Don't use wisdom in order to become clever! [Nietzsche]
20263 Fear reveals the natures of other people much more clearly than love does [Nietzsche]
20264 The easy and graceful aspects of a person are called 'soul', and inner awkwardness is called 'soulless' [Nietzsche]
20265 The desire for a complete system requires making the weak parts look equal to the rest [Nietzsche]
20266 It is essential that wise people learn to express their wisdom, possibly even as foolishness [Nietzsche]
20267 Seeing duty as a burden makes it a bit cruel, and it can thus never become a habit [Nietzsche]
20268 Most dying people have probably lost more important things than what they are about to lose [Nietzsche]
20269 'I believe because it is absurd' - but how about 'I believe because I am absurd' [Nietzsche]
20270 There is no one scientific method; we must try many approaches, and many emotions [Nietzsche]
20271 Beauty in art is the imitation of happiness [Nietzsche]
20272 Honesty is a new young virtue, and we can promote it, or not [Nietzsche]
20273 The French Revolution gave trusting Europe the false delusion of instant recovery [Nietzsche]
20274 The cardinal virtues want us to be honest, brave, magnanimous and polite [Nietzsche]
20275 Most people think they are already complete, but we can cultivate ourselves [Nietzsche]
20131 We can cultivate our drives, of anger, pity, curiosity, vanity, like a gardener, with good or bad taste [Nietzsche]
2887 I am not an atheist because of reasoning or evidence, but because of instinct [Nietzsche]
2886 The distinction between egoistic and non-egoistic acts is absurd [Nietzsche]
4426 A bad result distorts one's judgement about the virtue of what one has done [Nietzsche]
2889 One repays a teacher badly if one remains only a pupil [Nietzsche]
20132 To become what you are you must have no self-awareness [Nietzsche]
20144 Eternal recurrence is the highest attainable affirmation [Nietzsche]
4425 The overcoming of pity I count among the noble virtues [Nietzsche]
4424 A warlike philosopher challenges problems to single combat [Nietzsche]
24096 Unlike time, space is subjective. Empty space was assumed, but it doesn't exist [Nietzsche]
24084 Seeing with other eyes is more egoism, but exploring other perspectives leads to objectivity [Nietzsche]
24085 For absolute morality a goal for mankind is needed [Nietzsche]
24086 The goal is to settle human beings, like other animals, but humans are still changeable [Nietzsche]
24087 People who miss beauty seek the sublime, where even the ugly shows its 'beauty' [Nietzsche]
24088 See our present lives as eternal! Religions see it as fleeting, and aim at some different life [Nietzsche]
24089 Essences are fictions needed for beings who represent things [Nietzsche]
24115 There is no proof that we forget things - only that we can't recall [Nietzsche]
24090 Our inclinations would not conflict if we were a unity; we imagine unity for our multiplicity [Nietzsche]
24091 The sublimity of nature which dwarfs us was a human creation [Nietzsche]
24116 Justice says people are not equal, and should become increasingly unequal [Nietzsche]
24092 I tell the truth, even if it is repulsive [Nietzsche]
24093 We can aspire to greatness by creating new functions for ourselves [Nietzsche]
24117 We need lower and higher drives, but they must be under firm control [Nietzsche]
24094 Humans are vividly aware of short-term effects, and almost ignorant of the long-term ones [Nietzsche]
24095 Our growth is too subtle to perceive, and long events are too slow for us to grasp [Nietzsche]
24118 Do away with punishment. Counter-retribution is as bad as the crime [Nietzsche]
24119 The eternal return of wastefulness is a terrible thought [Nietzsche]
24120 Great orators lead their arguments, rather than following them [Nietzsche]
24122 Life is forces conjoined by nutrition, to produce resistance, arrangement and value [Nietzsche]
24123 My eternal recurrence is opposed to feeling fragmented and imperfect [Nietzsche]
24097 The pragmatics of language is more comprehensible than the meaning [Nietzsche]
24098 Reasons that justify punishment can also justify the crime [Nietzsche]
24121 Greeks might see modern analysis of what is human as impious [Nietzsche]
24099 We contain many minds, which fight for the 'I' of the mind [Nietzsche]
24100 If you don't want war, remove your borders; but you set up borders because you want war [Nietzsche]
24101 We always assign values, but we may not value those values [Nietzsche]
24102 Thoughts are signs (just as words are) [Nietzsche]
24103 You should not want too many virtues; one is enough [Nietzsche]
24104 We don't create logic, time and space! The mind obeys laws because they are true [Nietzsche]
24105 Drives make us feel non-feelings; Will is the effect of those feelings [Nietzsche]
24106 Talk of 'utility' presupposes that what is useful to people has been defined [Nietzsche]
24107 Once a drive controls the intellect, it rules, and sets the goals [Nietzsche]
24108 Actions are just a release of force. They seize on something, which becomes the purpose [Nietzsche]
24109 Actual morality is more complicated and subtle than theory (which gets paralysed) [Nietzsche]
24110 Some things we would never do, even for the highest ideals [Nietzsche]
24111 Happiness is the active equilibrium of our drives [Nietzsche]
24112 To think about being we must have an opinion about what it is [Nietzsche]
24113 Our motives don't explain our actions [Nietzsche]
24114 The pain in truth is when it destroys a belief [Nietzsche]
23208 Caesar and Napoleon point to the future, when they pursue their task regardless of human sacrifice [Nietzsche]
23209 Each of our personal drives has its own perspective [Nietzsche]
23210 That all events are necessary does not mean they are compelled [Nietzsche]
23211 Events are just interpretations of groups of appearances [Nietzsche]
23212 A text has many interpretations, but no 'correct' one [Nietzsche]
23213 The greatest drive of life is to discharge strength, rather than preservation [Nietzsche]
23214 For the strongest people, nihilism gives you wings! [Nietzsche]
23183 Different abilities are needed for living in an incomplete and undogmatic system [Nietzsche]
23184 The mind is a simplifying apparatus [Nietzsche]
23186 Numbers enable us to manage the world - to the limits of counting [Nietzsche]
23187 Whatever their origin, concepts survive by being useful [Nietzsche]
23188 Bad writers use shapeless floating splotches of concepts [Nietzsche]
23189 Concepts are rough groups of simultaneous sensations [Nietzsche]
23190 Consciousness is our awareness of our own mental life [Nietzsche]
23191 Minds have an excluding drive to scare things off, and a selecting one to filter facts [Nietzsche]
23192 Concepts don’t match one thing, but many things a little bit [Nietzsche]
23193 Napoleon was very focused, and rightly ignored compassion [Nietzsche]
23194 People feel united as a nation by one language, but then want a common ancestry and history [Nietzsche]
23195 Laws of nature are actually formulas of power relations [Nietzsche]
23196 Logic is a fiction, which invents the view that one thought causes another [Nietzsche]
23197 Memory is essential, and is only possible by means of abbreviation signs [Nietzsche]
23185 In chemistry every substance pushes, and thus creates new substances [Nietzsche]
23198 Aesthetics can be more basic than morality, in our pleasure in certain patterns of experience [Nietzsche]
23199 What is the search for truth if it isn't moral? [Nietzsche]
23200 The controlling morality of aristocracy is the desire to resemble their ancestors [Nietzsche]
23201 The 'I' does not think; it is a construction of thinking, like other useful abstractions [Nietzsche]
23202 Like all philosophers, I love truth [Nietzsche]
23203 The great question is approaching, of how to govern the earth as a whole [Nietzsche]
23204 To be someone you need property, and wanting more is healthy [Nietzsche]
23205 Thought starts as ambiguity, in need of interpretation and narrowing [Nietzsche]
23206 Schematic minds think thoughts are truer if they slot into a scheme [Nietzsche]
23207 Appearance is the sole reality of things, to which all predicates refer [Nietzsche]
6579 Nietzsche's perspectivism says our worldview depends on our personality [Nietzsche, by Fogelin]
4275 You cannot advocate joyful wisdom while rejecting pity, because the two are complementary [Scruton on Nietzsche]
20125 The ethical teacher exists to give purpose to what happens necessarily and without purpose [Nietzsche]
20198 Many virtues are harmful traps, but that is why other people praise them [Nietzsche]
9306 To ward off boredom at any cost is vulgar [Nietzsche]
20126 The strength of knowledge is not its truth, but its entrenchment in our culture [Nietzsche]
24076 A morality ranks human drives and actions, for the sake of the herd, and subordinating individuals [Nietzsche]
4423 We assume causes, geometry, motion, bodies etc to live, but they haven't been proved [Nietzsche]
2931 God is dead, and we have killed him [Nietzsche]
24077 Necessity is thought to require an event, but is only an after-effect of the event [Nietzsche]
24078 Thoughts cannot be fully reproduced in words [Nietzsche]
24079 The best life is the dangerous life [Nietzsche]
24080 We should give style to our character - by applying an artistic plan to its strengths and weaknesses [Nietzsche]
20141 Higher human beings see and hear far more than others, and do it more thoughtfully [Nietzsche]
24081 Most of our intellectual activity is unconscious [Nietzsche]
2932 'Know thyself' is impossible and ridiculous [Nietzsche]
2933 Why do you listen to the voice of your conscience? [Nietzsche]
2934 To see one's own judgement as a universal law is selfish [Nietzsche]
2935 No two actions are the same [Nietzsche]
2936 Imagine if before each of your actions you had to accept repeating the action over and over again [Nietzsche]
6842 Nietzsche says facing up to the eternal return of meaninglessness is the response to nihilism [Nietzsche, by Critchley]
24082 Is the will to truth the desire to avoid deception? [Nietzsche]
22471 Nietzsche thought it 'childish' to say morality isn't binding because it varies between cultures [Nietzsche, by Foot]
20121 Grammar only reveals popular metaphysics [Nietzsche]
20122 We have no organ for knowledge or truth; we only 'know' what is useful to the human herd [Nietzsche]
20119 We became increasingly conscious of our sense impressions in order to communicate them [Nietzsche]
20118 Only our conscious thought is verbal, and this shows the origin of consciousness [Nietzsche]
20116 Most of our lives, even the important parts, take place outside of consciousness [Nietzsche]
20120 Whatever moves into consciousness becomes thereby much more superficial [Nietzsche]
20115 All of our normal mental life could be conducted without consciousness [Nietzsche]
20117 Only the need for communication has led to consciousness developing [Nietzsche]
20360 We Germans value becoming and development more highly than mere being of what 'is' [Nietzsche]
24083 It would be absurd to say we are only permitted our own single perspective [Nietzsche]
3793 We must question the very value of moral values [Nietzsche]
4407 Plato, Spinoza and Kant are very different, but united in their low estimation of pity [Nietzsche]
3259 Nietzsche rejects impersonal morality, and asserts the idea of living well [Nietzsche, by Nagel]
23715 Psychologists should be brave and proud, and prefer truth to desires, even when it is ugly [Nietzsche]
4408 The concept of 'good' was created by aristocrats to describe their own actions [Nietzsche]
4409 Only the decline of aristocratic morality led to concerns about "egoism" [Nietzsche]
4410 The truly great haters in world history have always been priests [Nietzsche]
23716 A strong rounded person soon forgets enemies, misfortunes, and even misdeeds [Nietzsche]
23717 Modern nihilism is now feeling tired of mankind [Nietzsche]
23718 If we say birds of prey could become lambs, that makes them responsible for being birds of prey [Nietzsche]
4411 It is a delusion to separate the man from the deed, like the flash from the lightning [Nietzsche]
2930 The main aim of philosophy must be to determine the order of rank among values [Nietzsche]
23719 Forgetfulness is a strong positive ability, not mental laziness [Nietzsche]
4414 Philosophers invented "free will" so that our virtues would be permanently interesting to the gods [Nietzsche]
4415 Guilt and obligation originated in the relationship of buying and selling, credit and debt [Nietzsche]
4416 Basic justice is the negotiation of agreement among equals, and the imposition of agreement [Nietzsche]
4417 Only that which has no history is definable [Nietzsche]
23720 Punishment makes people harder, more alienated, and hostile [Nietzsche]
4418 A masterful and violent person need have nothing to do with contracts [Nietzsche]
20142 The state begins with brutal conquest of a disorganised people, not with a 'contract' [Nietzsche]
23721 Old tribes always felt an obligation to the earlier generations, and the founders [Nietzsche]
20129 All animals strive for the ideal conditions to express their power, and hate any hindrances [Nietzsche]
4419 People who think in words are orators rather than thinkers, and think about facts instead of thinking facts [Nietzsche]
4420 There is only 'perspective' seeing and knowing, and so the best objectivity is multiple points of view [Nietzsche]
23722 Objectivity is not disinterestedness (impossible), but the ability to switch perspectives [Nietzsche]
20143 Scientific knowledge is nothing without a prior philosophical 'faith' [Nietzsche]
4421 Philosophers have never asked why there is a will to truth in the first place [Nietzsche]
20103 You are mastered by your own virtues, but you must master them, and turn them into tools [Nietzsche]
20111 We could live more naturally, relishing the spectacle, and not thinking we are special [Nietzsche]
14807 The history of morality rests on an error called 'responsibility', which rests on an error called 'free will' [Nietzsche]
14808 Over huge periods of time human character would change endlessly [Nietzsche]
14809 All societies of good men give a priority to gratitude [Nietzsche]
14810 Originally it was the rulers who requited good for good and evil for evil who were called 'good' [Nietzsche]
14811 In Homer it is the contemptible person, not the harmful person, who is bad [Nietzsche]
20112 Pity consoles those who suffer, because they see that they still have the power to hurt [Nietzsche]
14812 Intellect is tied to morality, because it requires good memory and powerful imagination [Nietzsche]
14813 Science rejecting the teaching of Christianity in favour of Epicurus shows the superiority of the latter [Nietzsche]
14814 Execution is worse than murder, because we are using the victim, and really we are the guilty [Nietzsche]
20378 Just as skin hides the horrors of the body, vanity conceals the passions of the soul [Nietzsche]
14815 We get enormous pleasure from tales of noble actions [Nietzsche]
14816 Justice (fairness) originates among roughly equal powers (as the Melian dialogues show) [Nietzsche]
14817 The 'good' man does the moral thing as if by nature, easily and gladly, after a long inheritance [Nietzsche]
14818 First morality is force, then custom, then acceptance, then instinct, then a pleasure - and finally 'virtue' [Nietzsche]
14819 Slavery cannot be judged by our standards, because the sense of justice was then less developed [Nietzsche]
14820 People always do what they think is right, according to the degree of their intellect [Nietzsche]
14821 Apart from philosophers, most people rightly have a low estimate of pity [Nietzsche]
14822 If self-defence is moral, then so are most expressions of 'immoral' egoism [Nietzsche]
14824 It is absurd to blame nature and necessity; we should no more praise actions than we praise plants or artworks [Nietzsche]
14823 Ceasing to believe in human responsibility is bitter, if you had based the nobility of humanity on it [Nietzsche]
22473 Nietzsche said the will doesn't exist, so it can't ground moral responsibility [Nietzsche, by Foot]
14825 In religious thought nature is a complex of arbitrary acts by conscious beings [Nietzsche]
14826 Modern man wants laws of nature in order to submit to them [Nietzsche]
14827 The Greeks saw the gods not as their masters, but as idealised versions of themselves [Nietzsche]
14828 Religion is tempting if your life is boring, but you can't therefore impose it on the busy people [Nietzsche]
14830 Intuition only recognises what is possible, not what exists or is certain [Nietzsche]
14831 No one has ever done anything that was entirely for other people [Nietzsche]
14832 The Sermon on the Mount is vanity - praying to one part of oneself, and demonising the rest [Nietzsche]
14833 Comedy is a transition from fear to exuberance [Nietzsche]
14834 Teachers only gather knowledge for their pupils, and can't be serious about themselves [Nietzsche]
14835 Artists are not especially passionate, but they pretend to be [Nietzsche]
14836 People will enthusiastically pursue an unwanted war, once sacrifices have been made [Nietzsche]
14838 The state aims to protect individuals from one another [Nietzsche]
14837 Christ seems warm hearted, and suppressed intellect in favour of the intellectually weak [Nietzsche]
14839 Interest in education gains strength when we lose interest in God [Nietzsche]
14841 Many people are better at having good friends than being a good friend [Nietzsche]
14842 Why are the strong tastes of other people so contagious? [Nietzsche]
14843 Women can be friends with men, but only some physical antipathy will maintain it [Nietzsche]
14844 People do not experience boredom if they have never learned to work properly [Nietzsche]
14845 Don't crush girls with dull Gymnasium education, the way we have crushed boys! [Nietzsche]
14846 If we want the good life for the greatest number, we must let them decide on the good life [Nietzsche]
14847 Laws that are well thought out, or laws that are easy to understand? [Nietzsche]
14848 Education in large states is mediocre, like cooking in large kitchens [Nietzsche]
14849 We can only achieve happy moments, not happy eras [Nietzsche]
14850 Christ was the noblest human being [Nietzsche]
14852 Culture cannot do without passions and vices [Nietzsche]
24075 Convictions, more than lies, are the great enemy of truth [Nietzsche]
14853 Truth finds fewest champions not when it is dangerous, but when it is boring [Nietzsche]
14854 Deep thinkers know that they are always wrong [Nietzsche]
14855 Simultaneous love and respect are impossible; love has no separation or rank, but respect admits power [Nietzsche]
14856 Our judgment seems to cause our nature, but actually judgment arises from our nature [Nietzsche]
14857 The highest wisdom has the guise of simplicity [Nietzsche]
14858 Being certain presumes that there are absolute truths, and means of arriving at them [Nietzsche]
7149 Comprehending everything is impossible, because it abolishes perspectives [Nietzsche]
7147 Values are innate and inherited [Nietzsche]
7148 The 'I' is a conceptual synthesis, not the governor of our being [Nietzsche]
7157 We think each thought causes the next, unaware of the hidden struggle beneath [Nietzsche]
7158 Morality kills religion, because a Christian-moral God is unbelievable [Nietzsche]
7159 The only happiness is happiness with illusion [Nietzsche]
7151 Courage, compassion, insight, solitude are the virtues, with courtesy a necessary vice [Nietzsche]
7150 By developing herd virtues man fixes what has up to now been the 'unfixed animal' [Nietzsche]
7160 Christian belief is kept alive because it is soothing - the proof based on pleasure [Nietzsche]
7161 The essence of a thing is only an opinion about the 'thing' [Nietzsche]
7163 Morality is merely interpretations, which are extra-moral in origin [Nietzsche]
7162 Morality can only be upheld by belief in God and a 'hereafter' [Nietzsche]
7164 Not feeling harnessed to a system of 'ends' is a wonderful feeling of freedom [Nietzsche]
7152 With protoplasm ½+½=2, so the soul is not an indivisible monad [Nietzsche]
7153 We can't be realists, because we don't know what being is [Nietzsche]
7154 We can't use our own self to criticise our own capacity for knowledge! [Nietzsche]
7156 Sense perceptions contain values (useful, so pleasant) [Nietzsche]
7155 Consciousness exists to the extent that consciousness is useful [Nietzsche]
7165 Virtue is wasteful, as it reduces us all to being one another's nurse [Nietzsche]
7166 Man is above all a judging animal [Nietzsche]
7169 Is the perspectival part of the essence, or just a relation between beings? [Nietzsche]
7170 'Wisdom' attempts to get beyond perspectives, making it hostile to life [Nietzsche]
7171 Rationality is a scheme we cannot cast away [Nietzsche]
7167 Words such as 'I' and 'do' and 'done to' are placed at the point where our ignorance begins [Nietzsche]
7168 Modest people express happiness as 'Not bad' [Nietzsche]
7172 Existence without meaning or goal or end, eternally recurring, is a terrible thought [Nietzsche]
7173 Rights arise out of contracts, which need a balance of power [Nietzsche]
7174 Categories are not metaphysical truths, but inventions in the service of needs [Nietzsche]
7175 Philosophers find it particularly hard to shake off belief in necessary categories [Nietzsche]
7176 'Purpose' is like the sun, where most heat is wasted, and a tiny part has 'purpose' [Nietzsche]
7180 Darwin overestimates the influence of 'external circumstances' [Nietzsche]
7178 The utility of an organ does not explain its origin, on the contrary! [Nietzsche]
7179 Survival might undermine an individual's value, or prevent its evolution [Nietzsche]
7181 Pain shows the value of the damage, not what has been damaged [Nietzsche]
7177 Virtues from outside are dangerous, and they should come from within [Nietzsche]
7182 'Perspectivism': the world has no meaning, but various interpretations give it countless meanings [Nietzsche]
7183 'Subjectivity' is an interpretation, since subjects (and interpreters) are fictions [Nietzsche]
7189 Maybe there are only subjects, and 'objects' result from relations between subjects [Nietzsche]
7185 Replace the categorical imperative by the natural imperative [Nietzsche]
7186 There are no necessary truths, but something must be held to be true [Nietzsche]
7188 Logic tries to understand the world according to a man-made scheme [Nietzsche]
7193 Virtue for everyone removes its charm of being exceptional and aristocratic [Nietzsche]
7194 Experiencing a thing as beautiful is to experience it wrongly [Nietzsche]
7190 Our values express an earlier era's conditions for survival and growth [Nietzsche]
7191 What does not kill us makes us stronger [Nietzsche]
7192 Remove goodness and wisdom from our concept of God. Being the highest power is enough! [Nietzsche]
7201 Knowledge, wisdom and goodness only have value relative to a goal [Nietzsche]
7199 It is dishonest to invent a being containing our greatest values, thus ignoring why they exist and are valuable [Nietzsche]
7200 A combination of great power and goodness would mean the disastrous abolition of evil [Nietzsche]
7203 In heaven all the interesting men are missing [Nietzsche]
7204 The upholding of the military state is needed to maintain the strong human type [Nietzsche]
7196 Pessimism is laughable, because the world cannot be evaluated [Nietzsche]
7195 If the world aimed at an end, it would have reached it by now [Nietzsche]
7197 Pleasure needs dissatisfaction, boundaries and resistances [Nietzsche]
7198 Nihilism results from measuring the world by our categories which are purely invented [Nietzsche]
7209 There is no will; weakness of will is splitting of impulses, strong will is coordination under one impulse [Nietzsche]
7205 Altruism is praised by the egoism of the weak, who want everyone to be looked after [Nietzsche]
7207 Counting needs unities, but that doesn't mean they exist; we borrowed it from the concept of 'I' [Nietzsche]
7206 Things are strong or weak, and do not behave regularly or according to rules or compulsions [Nietzsche]
7208 Paganism is a form of thanking and affirming life? [Nietzsche]
7132 Philosophers should create and fight for their concepts, not just clean and clarify them [Nietzsche]
7133 There are different eyes, so different 'truths', so there is no truth [Nietzsche]
7134 Something can be irrefutable; that doesn't make it true [Nietzsche]
7135 'Freedom of will' is the feeling of having a dominating force [Nietzsche]
7129 Perception is unconscious, and we are only conscious of processed perceptions [Nietzsche]
7131 The intellect and senses are a simplifying apparatus [Nietzsche]
7130 Unity is not in the conscious 'I', but in the organism, which uses the self as a tool [Nietzsche]
7137 Is a 'philosopher' now impossible, because knowledge is too vast for an overview? [Nietzsche]
7138 The 'I' is a fiction used to make the world of becoming 'knowable' [Nietzsche]
7139 Explanation is just showing the succession of things ever more clearly [Nietzsche]
7140 Chemical 'laws' are merely the establishment of power relations between weaker and stronger [Nietzsche]
7141 A living being is totally 'egoistic' [Nietzsche]
7136 Morality is a system of values which accompanies a being's life [Nietzsche]
7142 All motions and 'laws' are symptoms of inner events, traceable to the will to power [Nietzsche]
7143 Consciousness is a 'tool' - just as the stomach is a tool [Nietzsche]
7145 Logic is not driven by truth, but desire for a simple single viewpoint [Nietzsche]
7144 Logic must falsely assume that identical cases exist [Nietzsche]
7146 Belief in the body is better established than belief in the mind [Nietzsche]
20363 Leaves are unequal, but we form the concept 'leaf' by discarding their individual differences [Nietzsche]
20130 It is absurd to think you can change your own essence, like a garment [Nietzsche]
7848 Philosophy begins in the horror and absurdity of existence [Nietzsche, by Ansell Pearson]
15606 Military idea: what does not kill me makes me stronger [Nietzsche]
2891 Only the English actually strive after happiness [Nietzsche]
2892 Wanting a system in philosophy is a lack of integrity [Nietzsche]
20101 Without music life would be a mistake [Nietzsche]
2893 In every age the wisest people have judged life to be worthless [Nietzsche]
2894 Value judgements about life can never be true [Nietzsche]
2895 The value of life cannot be estimated [Nietzsche]
18308 A philosopher fails in wisdom if he thinks the value of life is a problem [Nietzsche]
2896 I want to understand the Socratic idea that 'reason equals virtue equals happiness' [Nietzsche]
2898 Anything which must first be proved is of little value [Nietzsche]
2897 With dialectics the rabble gets on top [Nietzsche]
2899 The fanatical rationality of Greek philosophy shows that they were in a state of emergency [Nietzsche]
18309 The evidence of the senses is falsified by reason [Nietzsche]
2900 I revere Heraclitus [Nietzsche]
18310 The 'highest' concepts are the most general and empty concepts [Nietzsche]
18311 Philosophers hate values having an origin, and want values to be self-sufficient [Nietzsche]
18312 The supreme general but empty concepts must be compatible, and hence we get 'God' [Nietzsche]
18313 The big error is to think the will is a faculty producing effects; in fact, it is just a word [Nietzsche]
18314 In language we treat 'ego' as a substance, and it is thus that we create the concept 'thing' [Nietzsche]
18315 We get the concept of 'being' from the concept of the 'ego' [Nietzsche]
18316 The grounds for an assertion that the world is only apparent actually establish its reality [Nietzsche]
18317 The 'real being' of things is a nothingness constructed from contradictions in the actual world [Nietzsche]
18318 People who disparage actual life avenge themselves by imagining a better one [Nietzsche]
2901 How could the Church intelligently fight against passion if it preferred poorness of spirit to intelligence? [Nietzsche]
18320 To renounce war is to renounce the grand life [Nietzsche]
18319 Love is the spiritualisation of sensuality [Nietzsche]
2902 Healthy morality is dominated by an instinct for life [Nietzsche]
18321 To evaluate life one must know it, but also be situated outside of it [Nietzsche]
18322 When we establish values, that is life itself establishing them, through us [Nietzsche]
2903 A good human will be virtuous because they are happy [Nietzsche]
18323 Any explanation will be accepted as true if it gives pleasure and a feeling of power [Nietzsche]
2904 The doctrine of free will has been invented essentially in order to blame and punish people [Nietzsche]
2905 'Purpose' is just a human fiction [Nietzsche]
2906 By denying God we deny human accountability, and thus we redeem the world [Nietzsche]
18324 There are no moral facts, and moralists believe in realities which do not exist [Nietzsche]
20133 The 'motive' is superficial, and may even hide the antecedents of a deed [Nietzsche]
2908 There is a need for educators who are themselves educated [Nietzsche]
2909 Thinking has to be learned in the way dancing has to be learned [Nietzsche]
18325 Christians believe that only God can know what is good for man [Nietzsche]
18326 The beautiful never stands alone; it derives from man's pleasure in man [Nietzsche]
20368 There are no 'individual' persons; we are each the sum of humanity up to this moment [Nietzsche]
18327 A wholly altruistic morality, with no egoism, is a thoroughly bad thing [Nietzsche]
18328 Invalids are parasites [Nietzsche]
18329 Sometimes it is an error to have been born - but we can rectify it [Nietzsche]
18330 Judging by the positive forces, the Renaissance was the last great age [Nietzsche]
18331 Democracy is organisational power in decline [Nietzsche]
18332 The creation of institutions needs a determination which is necessarily anti-liberal [Nietzsche]
2911 True justice is equality for equals and inequality for unequals [Nietzsche]
2913 Thucydides was the perfect anti-platonist sophist [Nietzsche]
14859 If philosophy controls science, then it has to determine its scope, and its value [Nietzsche]
14860 Kant has undermined our belief in metaphysics [Nietzsche]
14861 Philosophy ennobles the world, by producing an artistic conception of our knowledge [Nietzsche]
14862 Philosophy is more valuable than much of science, because of its beauty [Nietzsche]
14863 Unlike science, true wisdom involves good taste [Nietzsche]
14864 The Greeks lack a normative theology: each person has their own poetic view of things [Nietzsche]
14865 We do not know the nature of one single causality [Nietzsche]
14866 It always remains possible that the world just is the way it appears [Nietzsche]
14867 It is just madness to think that the mind is supernatural (or even divine!) [Nietzsche]
14868 Our primary faculty is perception of structure, as when looking in a mirror [Nietzsche]
14869 If some sort of experience is at the root of matter, then human knowledge is close to its essence [Nietzsche]
14870 We experience causation between willing and acting, and thereby explain conjunctions of changes [Nietzsche]
14871 Laws of nature are merely complex networks of relations [Nietzsche]
14872 Our knowledge is illogical, because it rests on false identities between things [Nietzsche]
14873 If we find a hypothesis that explains many things, we conclude that it explains everything [Nietzsche]
14875 Belief matters more than knowledge, and only begins when knowledge ceases [Nietzsche]
14876 Philosophy is always secondary, because it cannot support a popular culture [Nietzsche]
14878 It would better if there was no thought [Nietzsche]
14880 Logic is just slavery to language [Nietzsche]
14879 The most extreme scepticism is when you even give up logic [Nietzsche]
14881 Why do people want philosophers? [Nietzsche]
14882 Protest against vivisection - living things should not become objects of scientific investigation [Nietzsche]
14883 We should evaluate the past morally [Nietzsche]
14884 The shortest path to happiness is forgetfulness, the path of animals (but of little value) [Nietzsche]
14885 The first aim of a philosopher is a life, not some works [Nietzsche]
14886 Education is contrary to human nature [Nietzsche]
14887 You should only develop a philosophy if you are willing to live by it [Nietzsche]
14888 Wisdom prevents us from being ruled by the moment [Nietzsche]
14889 Philosophy is pointless if it does not advocate, and live, a new way of life [Nietzsche]
14890 Suffering is the meaning of existence [Nietzsche]
4422 The end need not be the goal, as in the playing of a melody (and yet it must be completed) [Nietzsche]
5652 True beliefs are those which augment one's power [Nietzsche, by Scruton]
4485 Every belief is a considering-something-true [Nietzsche]
4486 The extreme view is there are only perspectives, no true beliefs, because there is no true world [Nietzsche]
4487 A note for asses: What convinces is not necessarily true - it is merely convincing [Nietzsche]
4488 Those who have abandoned God cling that much more firmly to the faith in morality [Nietzsche]
4489 If faith is lost, people seek other authorities, in order to avoid the risk of willing personal goals [Nietzsche]
4491 In modern society virtue is 'equal rights', but only because everyone is zero, so it is a sum of zeroes [Nietzsche]
4493 Be natural! But how, if one happens to be "unnatural"? [Nietzsche]
20357 Truth was given value by morality, but eventually turned against its own source [Nietzsche]
4494 Not "return to nature", for there has never yet been a natural humanity [Nietzsche]
4495 The high points of culture and civilization do not coincide [Nietzsche]
4484 Nihilism results from valuing the world by the 'categories of reason', because that is fiction [Nietzsche]
4496 'Conscience' is invented to value actions by intention and conformity to 'law', rather than consequences [Nietzsche]
4497 The concept of 'God' represents a turning away from life, and a critique of life [Nietzsche]
4498 'Love your enemy' is unnatural, for the natural law says 'love your neighbour and hate your enemy' [Nietzsche]
4499 Primitive Christianity is abolition of the state; it is opposed to defence, justice, patriotism and class [Nietzsche]
4500 It is a sign of degeneration when eudaimonistic values begin to prevail [Nietzsche]
20359 The nature of being, of things, is much easier to understand than is becoming [Nietzsche]
4501 Utilitarianism criticises the origins of morality, but still believes in it as much as Christians [Nietzsche]
4502 Morality cannot survive when the God who sanctions it is missing [Nietzsche]
20370 All evaluation is from some perspective, and aims at survival [Nietzsche]
20383 The wisest man is full of contradictions, and attuned to other people, with occasional harmony [Nietzsche]
4504 Morality used to be for preservation, but now we can only experiment, giving ourselves moral goals [Nietzsche]
4505 How can it be that I should prefer my neighbour to myself, but he should prefer me to himself? [Nietzsche]
4506 There is a conspiracy (a will to power) to make morality dominate other values, like knowledge and art [Nietzsche]
4507 The categorical imperative needs either God behind it, or a metaphysic of the unity of reason [Nietzsche]
4508 The truth is what gives us the minimum of spiritual effort, and avoids the exhaustion of lying [Nietzsche]
20372 The instinct of the herd, the majority, aims for the mean, in the middle [Nietzsche]
4509 Utilitarians prefer consequences because intentions are unknowable - but so are consequences! [Nietzsche]
4510 A path to power: to introduce a new virtue under the name of an old one [Nietzsche]
4511 We would avoid a person who always needed reasons for remaining decent [Nietzsche]
4512 Virtue is pursued from self-interest and prudence, and reduces people to non-entities [Nietzsche]
4513 Virtuous people are inferior because they are not 'persons', but conform to a fixed pattern [Nietzsche]
4514 The basic tendency of the weak has always been to pull down the strong, using morality [Nietzsche]
4515 Modesty, industriousness, benevolence and temperance are the virtues of a good slave [Nietzsche]
4516 Many virtues are merely restraints on the most creative qualities of a human being [Nietzsche]
4517 Egoism is inescapable, and when it grows weak, the power of love also grows weak [Nietzsche]
4518 The question about egoism is: what kind of ego? since not all egos are equal [Nietzsche]
4519 The ego is only a fiction, and doesn't exist at all [Nietzsche]
23938 Passions are ranked, as if they are non-rational and animal pleasure seeking [Nietzsche]
23939 We fail to see that reason is a network of passions, and every passion contains some reason [Nietzsche]
4520 I don't want to persuade anyone to be a philosopher; they should be rare plants [Nietzsche]
4521 None of the ancients had the courage to deny morality by denying free will [Nietzsche]
4523 What can be 'demonstrated' is of little worth [Nietzsche]
20374 Consciousness is a terminal phenomenon, and causes nothing [Nietzsche]
4525 There are no facts in themselves, only interpretations [Nietzsche]
4527 Perhaps we are not single subjects, but a multiplicity of 'cells', interacting to create thought [Nietzsche]
4528 For me, a priori 'truths' are just provisional assumptions [Nietzsche]
4529 All sense perceptions are permeated with value judgements (useful or harmful) [Nietzsche]
4530 Reason is a mere idiosyncrasy of a certain species of animal [Nietzsche]
4531 Our inability to both affirm and deny a single thing is merely an inability, not a 'necessity' [Nietzsche]
4532 We can have two opposite sensations, like hard and soft, at the same time [Nietzsche]
4533 Logic and maths refer to fictitious entities which we have created [Nietzsche]
4534 'Truth' is the will to be master over the multiplicity of sensations [Nietzsche]
4535 A 'species' is a stable phase of evolution, implying the false notion that evolution has a goal [Nietzsche]
4536 It is a major blunder to think of consciousness as a unity, and hence as an entity, a thing [Nietzsche]
4538 Judgements can't be true and known in isolation; the only surety is in connections and relations [Nietzsche]
4539 The forms of 'knowledge' about logic which precede experience are actually regulations of belief [Nietzsche]
4537 We can't know whether there is knowledge if we don't know what it is [Nietzsche]
4541 Everything simple is merely imaginary [Nietzsche]
4542 Science has taken the meaning out of causation; cause and effect are two equal sides of an equation [Nietzsche]
4543 There are no 'facts-in-themselves', since a sense must be projected into them to make them 'facts' [Nietzsche]
4544 A thing has no properties if it has no effect on other 'things' [Nietzsche]
4545 Could not the objective character of things be merely a difference of degree within the subjective? [Nietzsche]
4546 We realise that properties are sensations of the feeling subject, not part of the thing [Nietzsche]
4548 Only because there is thought is there untruth [Nietzsche]
4551 Great self-examination is to become conscious of oneself not as an individual, but as mankind [Nietzsche]
4550 Pleasure and pain are mere epiphenomena, and achievement requires that one desire both [Nietzsche]
20361 We need 'unities' for reckoning, but that does not mean they exist [Nietzsche]
20362 We saw unity in things because our ego seemed unified (but now we doubt the ego!) [Nietzsche]
4553 We derive the popular belief in cause and effect from our belief that our free will causes things [Nietzsche]
4552 There is no such things a pure 'willing' on its own; the aim must always be part of it [Nietzsche]
4554 The concept of the 'will' is just a false simplification by our understanding [Nietzsche]
20354 The ruling drives of our culture all want to be the highest court of our values [Nietzsche]
4555 The great error is to think that happiness derives from virtue, which in turn derives from free will [Nietzsche]
4557 The supposed great lovers of honour (Alexander etc) were actually great despisers of honour [Nietzsche]
4558 We have no more right to 'happiness' than worms [Nietzsche]
4559 When powerless one desires freedom; if power is too weak, one desires equal power ('justice') [Nietzsche]
4560 The Golden Rule prohibits harmful actions, with the premise that actions will be requited [Nietzsche]
20136 There is an extended logic to a great man's life, achieved by a sustained will [Nietzsche]
20358 The highest man can endure and control the greatest combination of powerful drives [Nietzsche]
20369 The highest man directs the values of the highest natures over millenia [Nietzsche]
8041 The superman is a monstrous oddity, not a serious idea [MacIntyre on Nietzsche]
20135 Nietzsche's higher type of man is much more important than the idealised 'superman' [Nietzsche, by Leiter]
20128 Each person has a fixed constitution, which makes them a particular type of person [Nietzsche, by Leiter]
22503 Nietzsche could only revalue human values for a different species [Nietzsche, by Foot]
20352 Nietzsche has a metaphysics, as well as perspectives - the ontology is the perspectives [Nietzsche, by Richardson]
20107 How many mediocre thinkers are occupied with influential problems! [Nietzsche]
22475 Moral generalisation is wrong, because we should evaluate individual acts [Nietzsche, by Foot]
22476 Nietzsche thought our psychology means there can't be universal human virtues [Nietzsche, by Foot]
7847 Initially nihilism was cosmic, but later Nietzsche saw it as a cultural matter [Nietzsche, by Ansell Pearson]
9782 Nietzsche urges that nihilism be active, and will nothing itself [Nietzsche, by Zizek]
20106 Nietzsche was fascinated by a will that can turn against itself [Nietzsche, by Safranski]
20371 Nietzsche thinks we should join a society, in order to criticise, heal and renew it [Nietzsche, by Richardson]
7846 Nietzsche thinks philosophy makes us more profound, but not better [Nietzsche, by Ansell Pearson]
20104 Nietzsche tried to lead a thought-provoking life [Safranski on Nietzsche]
20353 The 'will to power' is basically applied to drives and forces, not to people [Nietzsche, by Richardson]
20108 Every culture loses its identity and power if it lacks a major myth [Nietzsche]
20367 Individual development is more important than the state, but a community is necessary [Nietzsche]
20105 Storms are wonderful expressions of free powers! [Nietzsche]
20113 Friendly chats undermine my philosophy; wanting to be right at the expense of love is folly [Nietzsche]
22500 Nietzsche failed to see that moral actions can be voluntary without free will [Foot on Nietzsche]
22501 Nietzsche classified actions by the nature of the agent, not the nature of the act [Nietzsche, by Foot]
20102 Flight from boredom leads to art [Nietzsche]
20124 Reliving life countless times - this gives the value back to life which religion took away [Nietzsche]
20123 First see nature as non-human, then fit ourselves into this view of nature [Nietzsche]
20379 Reason is just another organic drive, developing late, and fighting for equality [Nietzsche]
20376 We begin with concepts of kinds, from individuals; but that is not the essence of individuals [Nietzsche]
18286 The greatest experience possible is contempt for your own happiness, reason and virtue [Nietzsche]
18287 People now find both wealth and poverty too much of a burden [Nietzsche]
18288 Heaven was invented by the sick and the dying [Nietzsche]
18289 Forget the word 'I'; 'I' is performed by the intelligence of your body [Nietzsche]
18290 But what is the reasoning of the body, that it requires the wisdom you seek? [Nietzsche]
18291 Virtues can destroy one another, through jealousy [Nietzsche]
18292 I can only believe in a God who can dance [Nietzsche]
18293 The noble man wants new virtues; the good man preserves what is old [Nietzsche]
18294 The state coldly claims that it is the people, but that is a lie [Nietzsche]
18295 If you want friends, you must be a fighter [Nietzsche]
18297 We created meanings, to maintain ourselves [Nietzsche]
18296 An enduring people needs its own individual values [Nietzsche]
18298 Not being a god is insupportable, so there are no gods! [Nietzsche]
18299 The will is constantly frustrated by the past [Nietzsche]
18300 Whenever we have seen suffering, we have wanted the revenge of punishment [Nietzsche]
18301 We only really love children and work [Nietzsche]
18302 Man and woman are deeply strange to one another! [Nietzsche]
18303 Reject wisdom that lacks laughter [Nietzsche]
18304 Saints want to live as they desire, or not to live at all [Nietzsche]
18305 To love truth, you must know how to lie [Nietzsche]
18306 We don't want heaven; now that we are men, we want the kingdom of earth [Nietzsche]
18307 I want my work, not happiness! [Nietzsche]
20757 The powerful self behind your thoughts and feelings is your body [Nietzsche]