“ We have not the power to prevent ourselves from being born ”
Friedrich Nietzsche, Twilight of the Idols (1889). copy citation
| Author | Friedrich Nietzsche |
|---|---|
| Source | Twilight of the Idols |
| Topic | power |
| Date | 1889 |
| Language | English |
| Reference | |
| Note | Translated by Anthony M. Ludovici |
| Weblink | https://www.gutenberg.org/files/52263/52263-h/52263-h.htm |
Context
“Out of the very love one bears to life, one should wish death to be different from this—that is to say, free, deliberate, and neither a matter of chance nor of surprise. Finally let me whisper a word of advice to our friends the pessimists and all other decadents. We have not the power to prevent ourselves from being born: but this error—for sometimes it is an error—can be rectified if we choose. The man who does away with himself, performs the most estimable of deeds: he almost deserves to live for having done so. Society—nay, life itself, derives more profit from such a deed than from any sort of life spent in renunciation, anæmia and other virtues,—at least the suicide frees others from the sight of him, at least he removes one objection against life.”
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