Key Ideas
Every great philosophy is the personal confession of its author.
The will to truth must itself be questioned.
§11 — Kant’s synthetic a priori explained “by means of a faculty”, like opium’s virtus dormitiva.
§146 — whoever fights monsters should see to it that he does not become one; if you gaze long into an abyss, the abyss gazes also into you.
Opening line: “Supposing truth is a woman — what then?”
Lines to Remember
1 quotationsHe who fights with monsters should look to it that he himself does not become a monster. And if you gaze long into an abyss, the abyss also gazes into you.
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.
Context & when to use it
An aphorism from “Maxims and Interludes”.
For the danger of becoming what you oppose — in war, in politics, in obsession.
Explore Next
related by shared connectionsOn the Genealogy of Morality
Nietzsche’s three essays tracing “good and evil”, guilt, and the ascetic ideal back to their hidden, all-too-human origins.
The Übermensch
Nietzsche’s “overman” — the human being who, after the death of God, creates new values and affirms life wholly.
Will to Power
Nietzsche’s idea that the basic drive of all life is not survival but growth, mastery, self-overcoming.
The Pañcatantra
The ancient Indian book of animal fables written to teach princes the art of practical wisdom (nīti) — the jackals Karaṭaka and Damanaka, the monkey and the crocodile, the lion and the hare — translated into more languages than almost any book except the Bible.
The Republic
Plato’s great dialogue on justice — in the soul and in the city — containing the philosopher-kings, the Allegory of the Cave, and the banishment of the poets.
Sophocles
The Athenian tragedian of Oedipus and Antigone — the poet of human blindness, unbending will and the collision of laws — whom Aristotle took as the model of tragedy.