36 pages 1 hour read

Friedrich Nietzsche, Ed. Walter Kaufmann, Transl. R.J. Hollingdale

The Will to Power

Nonfiction | Book | Adult | Published in 1901

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Important Quotes

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“Radical nihilism is the conviction of an absolute untenability of existence when it comes to the highest values one recognizes.”


(Book 1, Part 1, Page 9)

Nietzsche gives a definition of nihilism, the problem of which underpins the entire text. He argues that the previous highest values for culture, centered on Christian morality, are no longer tenable. Thus, modern life is confronted with a profound crisis of meaning.

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“But among the forces cultivated by morality was truthfulness: this eventually turned against morality.”


(Book 1, Part 1, Page 10)

Nietzsche offers an explanation as to why Christian morality has become untenable. It encouraged the virtues of honesty and truthfulness which, over time, were directed toward Christian morality itself, resulting in the questioning of God and Christian moral values.

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“Morality guarded the underprivileged against nihilism by assigning to each an infinite value, a metaphysical value.”


(Book 1, Part 1, Page 37)

Nietzsche discusses the type of meaning morality gives to people, especially the underprivileged and oppressed—a sense that one’s life has value as a moral soul in a unified moral order. Thus, our actions and even our thoughts matter in terms of their relation to this structure.

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