Week 32 · western

Friedrich Nietzsche

Friedrich Nietzsche is the most misunderstood philosopher in history. He's been claimed by fascists, nihilists, and self-help gurus, and he would have despised all three. He was a sickly, lonely former professor who wrote some of the most explosive philosophy ever committed to paper, went insane at 44, and spent his last eleven years in silent collapse. His ideas about God, power, and values were a diagnosis, not a celebration.

“"He who has a why to live can bear almost any how." Nietzsche wrote that before Viktor Frankl quoted it in the concentration camps. It started as philosophy. It ended as survival.”