Walter Kaufmann > Quotes

“Man stands alone in the universe, responsible for his condition, likely to remain in a lowly state, but free to reach above the stars.”
― Walter Kaufmann, Existentialism from Dostoevsky to Sartre

“Let people who do not know what to do with themselves in this life, but fritter away their time reading magazines and watching television, hope for eternal life.....The life I want is a life I could not endure in eternity. It is a life of love and intensity, suffering and creation, that makes life worth while and death welcome. There is no other life I should prefer. Neither should I like not to die. ”
― Walter Kaufmann

“Success is no proof of virtue. In the case of a book, quick acclaim is presumptive evidence of a lack of substance and originality.”
― Walter Kaufmann

“Mundus vult decipi: the world wants to be deceived. The truth is too complex and frightening; the taste for the truth is an acquired taste that few acquire….
….The world winks at dishonesty. the world does not call it dishonesty”
― Walter Kaufmann

“No other German writer of comparable stature has been a more extreme critic of German nationalism than Nietzsche.”
― Walter Kaufmann, On the Genealogy of Morals / Ecce Homo

“What Pascal overlooked was the hair-raising possibility that God might out-Luther Luther. A special area in hell might be reserved for those who go to mass. Or God might punish those whose faith is prompted by prudence. Perhaps God prefers the abstinent to those who whore around with some denomination he despises. Perhaps he reserves special rewards for those who deny themselves the comfort of belief. Perhaps the intellectual ascetic will win all while those who compromised their intellectual integrity lose everything.

There are many other possibilities. There might be many gods, including one who favors people like Pascal; but the other gods might overpower or outvote him, à la Homer. Nietzsche might well have applied to Pascal his cutting remark about Kant: when he wagered on God, the great mathematician 'became an idiot.”
― Walter Kaufmann, Critique of Religion and Philosophy

“Man’s world is manifold, and his attitudes are manifold. What is manifold is often frightening because it is not neat and simple. Men prefer to forget how many possibilities are open to them.
They like to be told that there are two worlds and two ways. This is comforting because it is so tidy. Almost always one way turns out to be common and the other is celebrated as superior.
Those who tell of two ways and praise one are recognised as prophets or great teachers. They save men from confusion and hard choices. They offer a single choice that is easy to make because those who do not take the path that is commended to them live a wretched life.
To walk on this path may be difficult, but the choice is easy, and to hear the celebration of the path is pleasant. Wisdom offers simple schemes, but truth is not so simple.
”
― Walter Kaufmann

“Reason may not always tell us what to believe, but it can help us on what we shouldn't believe.”
― Walter Kaufmann

“One need not believe in Pallas Athena, the virgin goddess, to be overwhelmed by the Parthenon. Similarly, a man who rejects all dogmas, all theologies and all religious formulations of beliefs may still find Genesis the sublime book par excellence. Experiences and aspirations of which intimations may be found in Plato, Nietzsche, and Spinoza have found their most evocative expression in some sacred books. Since the Renaissance, Shakespeare, Rembrandt, Mozart, and a host of others have shown that this religious dimension can be experienced and communicated apart from any religious context. But that is no reason for closing my heart to Job's cry, or to Jeremiah's, or to the Second Isaiah. I do not read them as mere literature; rather, I read Sophocles and Shakespeare with all my being, too.”
― Walter Kaufmann

“Men love jargon. It is so palpable, tangible, visible, audible; it makes so obvious what one has learned; it satisfies the craving for results. It is impressive for the uninitiated. It makes one feel that one belongs. Jargon divides men into Us and Them….
Obscurity is fascinating. One tries to puzzle out details, is stumpred, and becomes increasingly concerned with meaning – unless one feels put off and gives up altogether.
Those who persevere and take the author seriously are led to ask about what he could possibly have meant, but rarely seem to wonder or discuss whether what he says is true.”
― Walter Kaufmann

“To an even moderately sophisticated and well-read person it should come as no surprise that any religion at all has its hidden as well as its obvious beauties and is capable of profound and impressive interpretations. What is deeply objectionable about most of these interpretations is that they allow the believer to say Yes while evading any No.”
― Walter Kaufmann

“Not all deceptions are palatable. Untruths are too easy to come by, too quickly exploded, too cheap and ephemeral to give lasting comfort. Mundus vult decipi, but there is a hierarchy of deceptions.
Near the bottom of the ladder is journalism: a steady stream of irresponsible distortions that most people find refreshing although on the morning after, or at least within a week, it will be stale and flat.
On a higher level we find fictions that men eagerly believe, regardless of the evidence, because they gratify some wish.
Near the top of the ladder we encounter curious mixtures of untruth and truth that exert a lasting fascination on the intellectual community.”
― Walter Kaufmann

“The Golden Rule is intolerable; if millions did to others whatever they wished others to do to them, few would be safe from molestation. The Golden Rule shows anything but moral genius, and the claim by which it is followed in the Sermon on the Mount -- 'this is the Law and the Prophets' -- makes little sense.”
― Walter Kaufmann, Without Guilt and Justice: From Decidophobia to Autonomy

“Perfection lies in intensity, and what is most intense cannot be endured long.”
― Walter Kaufmann

“Renouncing false beliefs will not usher in the millennium. Few things about the strategy of contemporary apologists are more repellent than their frequent recourse to spurious alternatives. The lesser lights inform us that the alternative to Christianity is materialism, thus showing how little they have read, while the greater lights talk as if the alternative were bound to be a shallow and inane optimism. I don't believe that man will turn this earth into a bed of roses either with the aid of God or without it. Nor does life among the roses strike me as a dream from which one would not care to wake up after a very short time.”
― Walter Kaufmann

“Rabbi Zusya said that on the Day of Judgment, God would ask him not why he had not been Moses, but why he had not been Zusya.”
― Walter Kaufmann

“Those who loved with all their heart and mind and might have always thought of death, and those who knew the endless nights of harrowing concern for others have longed for it. The life I want is a life I could not endure in eternity. It is a life of love and intensity, suffering and creation, that makes life worthwhile and death welcome. There is no other life I should prefer. Neither should I like not to die." (The Faith of a Heretic)”
― Walter Kaufmann

“The self is essentially intangible and must be understood in terms of possibilities, dread, and decisions. When I behold my possibilities, I experience that dread which is "the dizziness of freedom," and my choice is made in fear and trembling.”
― Walter Kaufmann, Existentialism from Dostoevsky to Sartre

“The good must be clearly good but not wholly clear. If it is wholly clear it is too easy to reject.
What is wanted is an oversimplification, a reduction of a multitude of possibilities to only two. But if the recommended path were utterly devoid of mystery, it would cease to fascinate men….There would be nothing left to discuss and interpret, to lecture and write about, to admire and merely think about.
The world exacts a price for calling teachers wise: it keeps discussing the paths they recommend, but few men follow them. The wise give men endless opportunities to discuss what is good.”
― Walter Kaufmann

“A system must necessarily be based on premises that by its very nature it cannot question.”
― Walter Kaufmann, Nietzsche: Philosopher, Psychologist, Antichrist

“Since the Renaissance, Shakespeare, Rembrandt, Mozart, and a host of others have shown that this religious dimension can be experienced and communicated apart from any religious context. But that is no reason for closing my heart to Job's cry, or to Jeremiah's, or to the Second Isaiah. I do not read them as mere literature; rather, I read Sophocles and Shakespeare with all my being, too.”
― Walter Kaufmann, The Faith of a Heretic

“Commonly, people think of philosophy as a quest, however ill advised, for truth. John Dewey called it the quest for certainty. But it is more illuminating to say that, at its best, philosophy is the quest for honesty.”
― Walter Kaufmann, The Faith of a Heretic

“Few words in world literature equal the impact of this saying. All man’s alibis are unacceptable: no gods are responsible for his condition; no original sin; no heredity and no environment; no race, no caste, no father, and no mother; no wrong-headed education, no governess, no teacher; not even an impulse or a disposition, a complex or a childhood trauma. Man is free; but his freedom does not look like the glorious liberty of the Enlightenment; it is no longer the gift of God. Once again, man stands alone in the universe, responsible for his condition, likely to remain in a lowly state, but free to reach above the stars.”
― Walter Kaufmann, Existentialism From Dostoevsky To Sartre

“All that we are is the result of what we have thought.”
― Walter Kaufmann, Existentialism From Dostoevsky To Sartre

“No one system reveals the entire truth; at best, each organizes one point of view or perspective. We must consider many perspectives, and a philosopher should not imprison his thought in one system.”
― Walter Kaufmann, Nietzsche: Philosopher, Psychologist, Antichrist

“Gözönünde tutulacak ilk nokta, varoluşçuluğun herhangi bir özel politik programı gerektirmediği, üç önemli varolşçunun Hitler yıllarında birbirinden apayrı yollar tutmalarının hiç de şaşırtıcı olmadğıdır. Ama bu, üçünün de yazdıklarına aynı ölçüde bağlı kaldıkları anlamına gelmez. Sein und Zeit'de durmadan ölümü yiğitçe karşılamaktan söz eden Heidegger, Hitler'in yetkiyi ele geçirişinden sonra Nazilerle birleşerek, üniversitenin rektörü olarak öyle bir açılış konuşması yapmıştır ki, bu konuşmanın herkesce okunmadığına ne denli sevinse yeridir. Şimdi, o zaman Nazilerden hemen yüz çevirmiş olduğunu söylüyorsa da, bu kararını o günlerde hiç belli etmemiş olması yüzünden, bugün bile birçoklarınca şüphe ile karşılanır. Yahudi bir kadınla evli olan Jaspers de o zaman sesini çıkarmamayı yeğ görmüştür, ama 1945'te yine suçtan, batmış gemiden, korkudan, ölümden söz etmeye hazırdır. Onlar için söyleyeceğimiz şu söz büyük bir incelik olur yine de: sesleri Nietzsche ile Kierkegaard'ın sesi olmakla birlikte yaşamları Kant ile Hegel'in yaşamlarıdır.”
― Walter Kaufmann, Existentialism from Dostoevsky to Sartre

“Being read is a fringe benefit, and being
read with understanding is a form of grace.”
― Walter Kaufmann

“Instead of proving himself in his first book as an unswerving follower of Schopenhauer – as has so often been taken for granted – Nietzsche discovers in Greek art a bulwark against Schopenhauer’s pessimism. One can oppose the shallow optimism of so many Western thinkers and yet refuse to negate life. Schopenhauer’s negativistic pessimism is rejected along with the superficial optimism of the popular Hegelians and Darwinists: one can face the terrors of history and nature with unbroken courage and say Yes to life.”
― Walter Kaufmann, Nietzsche: Philosopher, Psychologist, Antichrist

“Use all the stars we have in stock;
Of water, fire,walls of rock,
And beasts and birds there is no lack.
In our narrow house of boards, bestride
The whole creation, far and wide;
Move thoughtfully, but fast as well,
From heaven through the world to hell”
― Walter Kaufmann, Faust

“The powerful, as Nietzsche points out expressly, have no need to prove their might either to themselves or to others by oppressing or hurting others; if they do hurt others, they do so incidentally in the process of using their power creatively; they hurt others 'without thinking of it'.

A good illustration of the manner in which the person who has power may hurt another person incidentally without without the express wish of doing so would be Goethe, whose loves Nietzsche probably had to learn by heart, like most other students Goethe — as German teachers like to point out — broke Friederike's heart by lavishing his love upon her and then not marrying her. Goethe, however, had no thought of seeing the poor girl suffer. Only the weak need to convince themselves and others of their might by inflicting hurt; the truly powerful are not concerned with others but act out of a fullness and overflow.”
― Walter Kaufmann, Nietzsche: Philosopher, Psychologist, Antichrist