What Friedrich Nietzsche thinks about agency
German philosopher (1844 to 1900); professor of classical philology at Basel from 1869 to 1879; author of Thus Spoke Zarathustra, Beyond Good and Evil and Twilight of the Idols.
Friedrich Nietzsche did not write this page.
We collected these quotes from things they published elsewhere, and every quote links to where it was said. They have no account here and have not endorsed this site. Quotes are word for word; the short line under each one is our own restatement, not their wording. Their own site. Is this you? Claim it or ask us to remove it. Or tell us what is wrong here.
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6 dated positions, c. 1878 to c. 1886, in their own words. Our reading of what Friedrich Nietzsche has said — not written or endorsed by them.
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Their wordsA living thing seeks above all to DISCHARGE its strength—life itself is WILL TO POWER; self-preservation is only one of the indirect and most frequent RESULTS thereof.
↗Beyond Good and Evil (1886; Helen Zimmern translation)gutenberg.org All 20 from this book
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Their wordsTHE REAL PHILOSOPHERS, HOWEVER, ARE COMMANDERS AND LAW-GIVERS; they say: "Thus SHALL it be!"
↗Beyond Good and Evil (1886; Helen Zimmern translation)gutenberg.org All 20 from this book
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Our readingLife itself is essentially appropriation, conquest of the weak and, at the mildest, exploitation
Their wordsHere one must think profoundly to the very basis and resist all sentimental weakness: life itself is ESSENTIALLY appropriation, injury, conquest of the strange and weak, suppression, severity, obtrusion of peculiar forms, incorporation, and at the least, putting it mildest, exploitation;—but why should one for ever use precisely these words on which for ages a disparaging purpose has been stamped?
↗Beyond Good and Evil (1886; Helen Zimmern translation)gutenberg.org All 20 from this book
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Their wordsTherefore: only because man deems himself free, but not because he is free, does he experience remorse and the stings of conscience.
↗Human, All Too Human (1878; Alexander Harvey translation, 1908)gutenberg.org All 18 from this book
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Their wordsNo one is responsible for his acts, no one for his nature; to judge is tantamount to being unjust.
↗Human, All Too Human (1878; Alexander Harvey translation, 1908)gutenberg.org All 18 from this book
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Our readingMany acts called bad are only stupid
Their wordsMany acts are called bad that are only stupid, because the degree of intelligence that decided for them was low.
↗Human, All Too Human (1878; Alexander Harvey translation, 1908)gutenberg.org All 18 from this book