Philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche provided us with many ideas. Here are some of his quotes which might make a better 10 commandments. I find number ten to be quite motivating?
- That which does not kill us makes us stronger.
- I’m not upset that you lied to me; I’m upset that from now on I can’t believe you.
- You have your way, I have my way. As for the right way, the correct way, and the only way, it does not exist.
- Sometimes people don’t want to hear the truth because they do not want their illusions destroyed.
- There are no facts only interpretations.
- I cannot believe in a God who wants to be praised all the time.
- In individuals, insanity is rare; but in groups, parties, nations and epochs, it is the rule.
- Man is the cruellest animal.
- There are no beautiful surfaces without a terrible depth.
- To live is to suffer; to survive is to find some meaning to the suffering.
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6 comments
Feel free to reply to any comment by clicking the "Reply" button.I like Scott Adam's take on (1): That which does not kill me makes me weak and angry.
I am of the view that suffering is never ennobling and always diminishes the sufferer. That is not to suggest that we should collapse around suffering and adopt the pose of the victim; it's just to say that while you can make the best of a bad situation it always exacts a higher price than not having the bad situation to begin with. Our goal must always be to reduce human suffering as the harm that it is, not make excuses for it or argue that it's a regrettable necessity.
mordant
Level 8
June 15, 2018
2
Though I agree, I think you are missing the subtler shades of the term "suffering" that cannot be eradicated. The pains of love for instance. Unnecessary physical/mental suffering should always be opposed, addressed and dealt with, but a totally cosy life would be a suffering in itself. And there's the irony!
I have a neighbor who says there is merit in suffering...what BS.
@rcandlish I don't dilute the term "suffering" by using it to grandfather "difficulty" or "stress".
My definition for suffering is not "being inconvenienced" or "needing to extend oneself to accomplish something" or "being frustrated". Or even really being distressed necessarily, given that people are often distressed about all sorts of things out of proportion to the harm (for example, fundamentalist Christians seeing mere disagreement with their dogma as 'persecution' ).
To me, suffering is truly tragic, life-altering events involving enduring loss of ease and enjoyment such that you have to accept a new reality not of your choosing. That still covers a lot of territory, from significantly debilitating illness to death of loved ones to large financial setbacks to being mired in poverty and want with the system stacked against you (hopelessness), being denied basic human rights and freedoms, etc. But not "background noise" like stubbed toes or heavy traffic or lost car keys.
There's another angle to this which is that some claim you don't "appreciate" positives without negatives, but that's actually a question of contrasts, not positives and negatives. If you visualize what we have now like so:
Abject misery <= Unhappiness <= Neutral => Happiness => Total joy
... and then lop off the harmful stuff:
Neutral <= Happiness => Total joy
... you still have contrasts. You can appreciate the difference between a rainy day and falling in love. You don't need death, destruction and despair to see contrasts. A little contrast goes a long way.
I could not find one of the 10 to disagree with!
Freedompath
Level 9
June 14, 2018
1
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