Walter Kaufmann Quotes

when Nietzsche's fame had begun to spread rapidly, she climbed on the bandwagon. She acquired the sole rights to all his writings, including even the letters that he had sent to others. She sued those who published material to which she could claim a right. ~ Walter Kaufmann

The great artist is the man who most obviously succeeds in turning his pains to advantage, in letting suffering deepens his understanding and sensibility, in growing through his pains. ~ 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

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

When Hegel later became a man of influence' he insisted that the Jews should be granted equal rights because civic rights belong to man because he is a man and not on account of his ethnic origins or his religion. ~ Walter Kaufmann

To try to fashion something from suffering, to relish our triumphs, and to endure defeats without resentment: all that is compatible with the faith of a heretic. ~ Walter Kaufmann

Life ceases to be so oppressive: we are free to give our own lives meaning and purpose, free to redeem our suffering by making something of it. ~ Walter Kaufmann

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

The only theism worthy of our respect believes in God not because of the way the world is made but in spite of that. The only theism that is no less profound than the Buddha's atheism is that represented in the Bible by Job and Jeremiah. ~ Walter Kaufmann

It does not follow that the meaning must be given from above; that life and suffering must come neatly labeled; that nothing is worth while if the world is not governed by a purpose. ~ Walter Kaufmann

Here an attempt is made to explain suffering: the outcaste of traditional Hinduism is held to deserve his fetched fate; it is a punishment for the wrongs he did in a previous life. ~ Walter Kaufmann

It was also Hegel who established the view that the different philosophic systems that we find in history are to be comprehended in terms of development and that they are generally one-sided because they owe their origins to a reaction against what has gone before. ~ Walter Kaufmann

The problem of suffering is: why is there the suffering we know? ~ Walter Kaufmann

we others who thirst for reason want to look our experiences as straight in the eye as if they represented a scientific experiment ~ Walter Kaufmann

The value of a human being, Nietzsche said, does not lie in his usefulness: for it would continue to exist even if there were nobody to whom he could be useful. ~ Walter Kaufmann

For atheism and polytheism there is no special problem of suffering, nor need there be for every kind of monotheism. ~ Walter Kaufmann

In all three cases, and for most human beings, the problem of suffering poses no difficult problem at all: one has a world picture in which suffering has its place, a world picture that takes suffering into account. ~ Walter Kaufmann

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

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

Job's forthright indictment of the injustice of this world is surely right. The ways of the world are weird and much more unpredictable than either scientists or theologians generally make things look. ~ 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

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

Philosophy means liberation from the - routine, soaring above the well known, seeing it in new perspectives, arousing wonder and the wish to fly. ~ Walter Kaufmann

The doctrine of original sin claims that all men sinned in Adam; but whether they did or whether it is merely a fact that all men sin does not basically affect the problem of suffering. ~ Walter Kaufmann

The refusal to belong to any school of thought, the repudiation of the adequacy of any body of beliefs whatever, and especially of systems, and a marked dissatisfaction with traditional philosophy as superficial, academic, and remote from life-that is the heart of existentialism. ~ Walter Kaufmann

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

The deepest difference between religions is not that between polytheism and monotheism. ~ 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

A system must necessarily be based on premises that by its very nature it cannot question. ~ Walter Kaufmann

Faith means intense, usually confident, belief that is not based on evidence sufficient to command assent from every reasonable person. ~ Walter Kaufmann

Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky (November 11 [O.S. October 30] 1821 – February 9 [O.S. January 28] 1881) is considered one of two greatest prose writers of Russian literature, alongside close contemporary Leo Tolstoy. Dostoevsky's works have had a profound and lasting effect on twentieth-century thought and world literature. Dostoevsky's chief ouevre, mainly novels, explore the human psychology in the disturbing political, social and spiritual context of his 19th-century Russian society. Considered by many as a founder or precursor of 20th-century existentialism, his Notes from Underground (1864), written in the anonymous, embittered voice of the Underground Man, is considered by Walter Kaufmann as the "best overture for existentialism ever written." Source: Wikipedia ~ Fyodor Dostoyevsky

Paul substituted faith in Christ for the Christlike life. ~ Walter Kaufmann

The point is not at all that you are found interesting or fascinating instead of being seen as a fellow I. The shock is rather that you are not found interesting or fascinating at all: you are not recognized as an object any more than a subject. You are accepted, if at all, as one to be spoken at and spoken of; but when you are spoken of, the lord of every story will be I. ~ 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

Writing is thinking in slow motion. ~ Walter Kaufmann

People who were not crushed ended up being stronger. ~ Walter Isaacson

Trust few men; above all, keep your follies to yourself. ~ Walter Raleigh

There is no violent surface indication of the ecstasy which great thinkers alone enjoy. There is nothing dramatic about it, but there is some subtle light in the eye of the inspired one, or some even more subtle quiet emanation which surrounds the inspired thinker, which tells you that you are in the presence of one who has bridged the gap which separates the mundane world from the world of spirit. ~ Walter Russell

Anyone can write. Some people can write a bit better than others; they're called authors. Then there are some who can write better than authors; they're called artists. ~ Walter Moers

The painter who is so enamoured by the beauties of the parts of a landscape, that he strives to represent all, cannot succeed. His picture will be an arrangement of a series of portraits of things without unity ... There must be variety and contrast, but in measured doses. ~ Walter J. Phillips

During the day as serious opinions are being discussed, there is an opportunity to give the biblical view on issues of sin and righteousness or the purpose of life. But each time you speak, you have seen rejection of yourself with your views. Each testimony of truth makes you more unwelcome. Will you be bold for truth today? ~ Walter J. Chantry

If you want to know why some kids can wait and others can't, then you've got to think like they think, ~ Walter Mischel

On the streets of the city They have taken my Who-I-Am As well as my What-I-Was And now I am desperate for them both Again ~ Walter Dean Myers

They can't give you all that, Mr Jimson,' said Walter, who was upset. 'It wouldn't be right. What would they give you seven years for?'
'Being Gulley Jimson,' I said, 'and getting away with it. ~ Joyce Cary

If the church is to be faithful it must be formed andordered from the inside of its experience and confession and not by borrowing from sources extenal to its own life. ~ Walter Brueggemann

Try this thought experiment. Pretend you're a tyrant. Among your many liberty-destroying objectives are extermination of blacks, Jews and Catholics. Which would you prefer, a United States with political power centralized in Washington, powerful government agencies with detailed information on Americans and compliant states or power widely dispersed over 50 states, thousands of local jurisdictions and a limited federal government? ~ Walter E. Williams

Come fill up my cup, come fill up my can, Come saddle your horses, and call up your men; Come open the West Port, and let me gang free, And it's room for the bonnets of Bonny Dundee! ~ Walter Scott

We are not educated well enough to perform the necessary act of intelligently selecting our leaders. ~ Walter Cronkite

The influences that really make and mar human happiness are beyond the reach of the law. The law can keep neighbors from trespassing, but it cannot put neighborly courtesy and goodwill into their relations. ~ Walter Rauschenbusch

And there she was, sitting in the river with the water up to her neck. The ~ Walter R. Brooks

There were exceptions, a couple of families that just plain didn't want to even think about it, although forty years had passed but mostly the people were very interested in talking about it. ~ Walter Lord

Print encourages a sense of closure, a sense that what is found in a text has been finalized, has reached a state of completion. ~ Walter J. Ong

In the early summer of 2004, I got a phone call from Steve Jobs. He had been scattershot friendly to me over the years, with occasional bursts of intensity, especially when he was launching a new product that he wanted on the cover of Time or featured on CNN, places where I'd worked. But now that I was no longer at either of those places, I hadn't heard from him much. We talked a bit about the Aspen Institute, which I had recently joined, and I invited him ~ Walter Isaacson

'Tis an old tale, and often told; But did my fate and wish agree, Ne'er had been read, in story old, Of maiden true betray'd for gold, That loved, or was avenged, like me! ~ Walter Scott

The more circumspectly you delay writing down an idea, the more maturely developed it will be on surrendering itself. ~ Walter Benjamin

Mechanical reproduction emancipates the work of art from its parasitical dependence on ritual. ~ Walter Benjamin

The sincere artist is usually his own best critic, but continuous and prolonged work on one painting will sometimes dull his judgment ... The critic is in demand, but he must be competent. ~ Walter J. Phillips

I feel that everyone is good. In this way I give every game my best effort. The moment that you let up is the time that you can be hit by the sucker punch. ~ Walter Browne

In Britain, chinoiserie was eclipsed by the medievalism of Sir Walter Scott and the Gothic Revival, while in Europe japonisme would be chinoiserie's successor. Japonisme never compelled the general middle-class British taste as did the indigenous medieval style. Nonetheless, through extensive importations to Britain of Japanese art and artifacts, notably by the shop Liberty's of London, as well as through the artists James McNeill Whistler and Dante Gabriel Rossetti, the architect E.W. Godwin, and the writer Oscar Wilde, the Japanese style of decoration was known in Britain well before 1894. ~ Linda Gertner Zatlin

Earnings can change dramatically. Usually assets change slowly. ~ Walter Schloss

To all, to each, a fair good-night, And pleasing dreams, and slumbers light. ~ Walter Scott

Clearly, this is at bottom the same ancient lament that the masses seek distraction whereas art demands concentration from the spectator. ~ Walter Benjamin

Land sakes, I can't make a speech," she said. "Tell you what: I'll recite a poem I composed while in jail." And she began. "Although in jail in Centerboro, I do not fret or stew or worro. And confidently I confront The judge, because I'm innosunt. Tho I'm a cow, I am no coward I have not flinched when thunder rowered. When lightning flashed I've merely giggled Like one whose funnybone is tiggled. And I shall never give up hoping That soon the jail front door will oping And I'll once more enjoy my freedom On Bean's green fields. When last I seed 'em They were a fair and lovely vision And so for my return I'm wishun. I hope that Bismuth will get his'n And spend a good long time in prison. ~ Walter R. Brooks

The form is so malleable and can do so many things. ~ Jess Walter

To know the mechanics of the wave, is to know the entire secret of Nature. ~ Walter Russell

Not to find one's way in a city may well be uninteresting and banal. It requires ignorance - nothing more," says the twentieth-century philosopher-essayist Walter Benjamin. "But to lose oneself in a city - as one loses oneself in a forest - that calls for quite a different schooling." To lose yourself: a voluptuous surrender, lost in your arms, lost to the world, utterly immersed in what is present so that its surroundings fade away. In Benjamin's terms, to be lost is to be fully present, and to be fully present is to be capable of being in uncertainty and mystery. And one does not get lost but loses oneself, with the implication that it is a conscious choice, a chosen surrender, a psychic state achievable through geography. ~ Rebecca Solnit

The best reason why Monarchy is a strong government is, that it is an intelligible government. The mass of mankind understand it, and they hardly anywhere in the world understand any other. ~ Walter Bagehot

What kind of wife would I be if I left your father simply because he was dead? ~ Jess Walter

It's been a concern of mine for years that the mainstream media coverage of culture and politics takes place in two nodes, Washington and New York, and yet all the voting goes on somewhere else. ~ Walter Kirn

WALTER SICKERT was connected with Jack the Ripper long before I appeared on the scene. I'm not the first one to think of him. But I'm the first to investigate him the same way we would a suspect today. ~ Patricia Cornwell

A lot of fans were drawn to me because they knew that whatever the score was, I was going to run as hard as I could on every play. You don't have that now, you have guys waiting for next week or even next year. ~ Walter Payton

Proclaim the gospel from a posture of inadequacy and dependence. Don't try to impress people through technique. You will not bring people to conversion by satisfying the needs of reason. They come because the Holy Spirit has transformed their hearts. ~ Walter Henrichsen