And If You Gaze Long Enough Into An Abyss…
“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.”
Nietzsche
Friedrich Nietzsche was a German philosopher, and he is known for his influence on modern intellectual history.
Probably you have heard of his famous statement about the Death of God:
"God is dead. God remains dead. And we have killed him. How shall we comfort ourselves, the murderers of all murderers? What was holiest and mightiest of all that the world has yet owned has bled to death under our knives: who will wipe this blood off us? What water is there for us to clean ourselves? What festivals of atonement, what sacred games shall we have to invent? Is not the greatness of this deed too great for us? Must we ourselves not become gods simply to appear worthy of it?"
The philosopher’s work spans philosophical polemics, poetry, cultural criticism, and fiction, and he is known for his love to aphorisms and irony.
His ideas are known to provoke passionate reactions due to its controversial and susceptibility to varying interpretations.
Nietzsche is often critiqued as a philosopher who lost his mind, which was the case for he had a mental break down closer to the end of his life. However his work had a profound impact in 20 and 21 century thinkers, especially in schools of existentialism, postmodernism, post-structuralism, as well as art, literature, politics and popular culture.