I don’t really care for Nietzsche, as a philosopher. But I’ve been reading some recently. Beyond Good and Evil. He throws out objective morality and thinks ambition is the driving force in human life. He thinks reason might be useless and all philosophers have ever done is rationalize their own values.

Nietzsche is very bright. He thinks he might be brighter than any other philosopher ever, and he’s wrong about that. But he does have a few insightful, if also cynical, observations about human behavior. (I suppose one major flaw in his thinking is that he starts with human behavior and ends there. He throws out the idea that we can access truth by reason, so all he has are observations about human behavior or nature and his own interpretations of those observations.)

These few aphorisms caught my attention. I know a lot of people who can be described overly-simply but accurately as “thinkers.” Friends, these are for you.

“Once the decision has been made, to shut your ears even to the best counterarguments: a sign of a strong character. Also therefore an occasional will to stupidity.” (107)

“The will to overcome an emotion, is ultimately only the will of another, or of several other, emotions.” (117)

“Our vanity is most difficult to wound just when our pride has been wounded.” (111)

 

A friend’s status update on Facebook reads:

Be where u r when u r there.

(2 hours ago via mobile.)