“ Whoever has seen deeply into the world has doubtless divined what wisdom there is in the fact that men are superficial. ”
Friedrich Nietzsche, Beyond Good and Evil (1886). copy citation
| Author | Friedrich Nietzsche |
|---|---|
| Source | Beyond Good and Evil |
| Topic | wisdom superficial |
| Date | 1886 |
| Language | English |
| Reference | |
| Note | Translated by Helen Zimmern |
| Weblink | http://www.gutenberg.org/files/4363/4363-h/4363-h.htm |
Context
“and how much naivete—adorable, childlike, and boundlessly foolish naivete is involved in this belief of the scholar in his superiority, in the good conscience of his tolerance, in the unsuspecting, simple certainty with which his instinct treats the religious man as a lower and less valuable type, beyond, before, and ABOVE which he himself has developed—he, the little arrogant dwarf and mob-man, the sedulously alert, head-and-hand drudge of "ideas," of "modern ideas"!
59. Whoever has seen deeply into the world has doubtless divined what wisdom there is in the fact that men are superficial. It is their preservative instinct which teaches them to be flighty, lightsome, and false. Here and there one finds a passionate and exaggerated adoration of "pure forms" in philosophers as well as in artists:”
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