He who fights with monsters should be careful lest he thereby become a monster. And if thou gaze long into an abyss, the abyss will also gaze into thee.
 Friedrich Nietzsche, Beyond Good and Evil (1886). copy citation

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Author Friedrich Nietzsche
Source Beyond Good and Evil
Topic struggle monsters
Date 1886
Language English
Reference
Note Translated by Helen Zimmern
Weblink http://www.gutenberg.org/files/4363/4363-h/4363-h.htm

Context

“Barrenness itself conduces to a certain virility of taste; man, indeed, if I may say so, is "the barren animal."
145. Comparing man and woman generally, one may say that woman would not have the genius for adornment, if she had not the instinct for the SECONDARY role.
146. He who fights with monsters should be careful lest he thereby become a monster. And if thou gaze long into an abyss, the abyss will also gaze into thee.
147. From old Florentine novels—moreover, from life: Buona femmina e mala femmina vuol bastone.—Sacchetti, Nov. 86.
148. To seduce their neighbour to a favourable opinion, and afterwards to believe implicitly in this opinion of their neighbour—who can do this conjuring trick so well as women?” source

Meaning and analysis

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