Seven Quotes by Philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche That'll Rewire Your Mind (Guaranteed)
And smack you in the face.
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Friedrich Nietzsche was an 18th-century badass.
What set him apart were his controversial and contrarian thoughts about religion, and the difference between right and wrong.
His German philosophy was self-improvement advice before the genre existed.
The only part I don’t love about his life is he was often called a culture critic, and they’re typically knobheads of the highest degree that think their sh*t doesn’t stink.
Spoiler alert: it does.
That aside, these curated quotes from Friedrich Nietzsche will rewire your mind.
1. “And those who were seen dancing were thought to be insane by those who could not hear the music.”
I originally thought this quote came from Holocaust survivor and Austrian psychiatrist Viktor Frankl.
I thought the quote described the Jewish prisoners who had no faith they would survive, compared to the internal optimist like Viktor who believed they would.
Turns out this quote isn’t from Viktor at all. It was Friedrich Nietzsche.
The principle is the same. Some of what you believe seems crazy to others. The life I live that’s built around the power of meaning, freedom, flow states, and obsession seems bat sh*t crazy to many.
They think I’m insane.
They can’t see the creative music that runs in my head and tells a different story that leads in a completely different direction.
Being understood is overrated. The good life looks insane.
2. “You must have chaos within you to give birth to a dancing star.”
My life is full of chaos.
Between an out of control writing habit as bad as crack, to managing a 100 day old tiny human (daughter), to trying to run a 7-figure online business – there’s never any calm.
Life is always a storm and I freaking love it. There’s no sh*t people can fling at me that I can’t wipe off, lick, and get back to work.
The chaos within comes from obsession.
Obsession is more powerful than meaning, goals, visions, a career or anything else I can think of.
Obsession occupies your entire brain. It’s all you can think about 24/7. Online writing is that obsession for me. It’s enabled by wild, out of control flow states.
Some of my flow states can last 16 hours straight.
Those around me think I’m either going mad or about to win a Nobel Prize. They don’t get it. I’m not even sure I get it.
That’s the point. Chaos leads to greatness. Chaos expands your potential and makes you achieve things you never thought you could do.
Obsession and flow states are chaos.
3. “Whoever fights monsters should see to it that in the process he does not become a monster.
And if you gaze long enough into an abyss, the abyss will gaze back into you.”
You’ve had the warm-up. It’s time to get smacked in the face by Friedrich.
Many people in society claim to be modern-day superheroes. They talk about the End of America.
They lead Doomerism tribes that put people in fear that’s cleverly disguised as realism. They’re political activists. They think they stand for equality.
In their defense, they often start out with good intentions.
But the temptation of gaining social capital is too much. The social justice model is also a great business model to make a heap of money for those who take part.
Pretty soon these so-called social justice heroes become horrible people.
They become all preachy.
They tell us what to do.
They act superior.
To reach more people they use even more brutal language. They add in more controversial thoughts. They mix in more contrarian takes.
Eventually they become unrecognizable little devils.
Quit trying to be a hero because you’re more likely to become a monster. Just treat people well and remember what Keanu Reeves said:
I’m at that stage in life where I stay out of discussions.
Even if you say 1+1=5, you’re right. Have fun.
4. “That which does not kill us makes us stronger.”
This quote is so cliche I nearly didn’t include it. But sometimes the simplest wisdom is also the best.
Modern society has become soft thanks to wokeism, safetyism that gave birth to trigger warnings, and the rebellion against hard work that renamed it hustle culture.
We’re now taught to be comfortable.
There’s the self-care movement too. And my favorite, the mental health crowd. As soon as anything gets tough, people have the right to use their mental health as an excuse to exit from whatever situation they don’t like.
“I quit my job because it was bad for my mental health.”
This has turned us into unrealistic snowflakes. No matter what all these soft movements say, there is no success without hard work. Instagram p*rn lied.
And here’s the best part: the things that nearly destroy you also rebuild you.
I suffered debilitating mental illness for most of my life. It was so bad I never thought I’d recover. Now I’ve been clean for over a decade. If it wasn’t for the mental illness, I would never have had the motivation to get off my lazy ass and do something.
I never would’ve gone to a Tony Robbins event or read crazy books like “Think and Grow Rich” and “Man’s Search For Meaning.” No.
I would have just stayed in a comfort bubble until an early death.
Being broken is the start of a new beginning. You only get there through discomfort, failure, and rejection – all things the snowflake movement wants us to avoid.
Let what you love kill you so you can be reborn.
5. “All I need is a sheet of paper and something to write with, and then I can turn the world upside down.”
This is one of the quotes that led me to write on the internet. The average person misunderstands the power of writing.
Writing helps you collect ideas.
It helps you learn.
It helps you simplify the complex.
And most of all, writing online helps you attract the right humans into your life.
Writing is the #1 way to find new, hidden opportunities.
And 98% of people don’t do it.
The few that do often fall into the selfishness and ego traps, and forget their job is to serve an audience that can never repay them.
If you want to join the creative dots inside your head, write online. Your mind will never function the same way again. Opportunities will come from everywhere.
6. “I'm not upset that you lied to me, I'm upset that from now on I can't believe you.”
There are bear traps all around my inner circle.
I value the truth more than any other trait in a human, because an honest human can go far. A slightly dishonest person will slowly become a liar that double crosses me.
I use honesty as a friendship test.
Once someone lies to me I don’t make a big deal about it. I just distance myself.
The thing about dishonesty is the negative effects are often not realized. When you lie, a bunch of future opportunities are destroyed but it happens behind closed doors.
“Is he a good guy? Should we hire him for this project?”
That’s the sort of conversation that happens offline. But a liar can’t see those conversations so they assume there aren’t any consequences.
Over a long enough time period they get frustrated at their lack of progress in life. They start to blame random factors. What they’re unaware of is it’s their dishonesty that kills anything good that could have happened.
Be obsessed with telling the truth. It’s so rare and puts you in the top 1%.
7. “Sometimes people don't want to hear the truth because they don't want their illusions destroyed.”
Many common fantasies drive society.
One I hate the most is that if you work hard, go to college, and get a good job, you’ll have a great life. Bullsh*t. I often share the truth about 9-5 jobs and salaries.
It upsets people because they don’t want their illusion destroyed.
They want to believe the best they can ever do is to build someone else’s dream while stuck in a cubicle prison with white walls and no fun.
What they forget is this quote from Friedrich:
“Without music, life would be a mistake.”
The typical job has zero creativity, so it makes life boring as hell. Layer in the tiny amount of autonomy most jobs have and what you get is a modern nightmare.
Once you escape the rat race and get out of open-plan office hell, you start to hear the music again.
Creativity returns.
Work that has meaning finds you.
Don’t let your life be ruined by convenient illusions. Dare to see beyond the veil and go deep into whatever you think is normal.
By challenging your thinking you expand your mind and discover new possibilities most could only ever dream of.
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Unfortunately, Nietzsche also had some truly destructive and nonsensical ideas which would have driven anyone to utter despair - and they did, and eventually he killed himself as a result of them. I am therefore very wary around what he says, even if there are a few things that seem helpful.
That said, he seems to have been a humane person, but driven mad - which appears to have arisen out of his attempted response to some truly horrible religious ideas foisted on him when young.
Thank you for the great article! Nietzsche, unfortunately for him, seemed to be reflecting on many of his own issues and experiences when writing some of these extremely insightful "sayings". We need to listen and learn from Nietzsche (and Denning) before living the pain, disappointment, setbacks, or bedevilment in our own lives. Will we -- or do we have to learn by experience? So, writing this largely for myself: 1. Can we hear the music and dance in our own lives before we run out of time -- or do we just read this comment as criticism of the "hard-of-hearing"? 2. Can we embrace the chaos as a blessing and make the most of it as an opportunity to create or serve? 3. Can we make sure we don't become monsters when fighting those we consider to be monsters? 4. Can we embrace setbacks as character-building blessings? 5. Will we use our writing (including Tweets) and what we say to make the world a better place? 6. Will we learn why we are upset (the quote didn't just apply to lying) vs just suppressing or reacting? 7. Will we be open to considering ideas that don't fit our narrative or politics -- or have we become the dogmatic closed-minded person we have always criticised?