“We are, all of us, growing volcanoes that approach the hour of their eruption; but how near or distant that is, nobody knows — not even God.”

—  Friedrich Nietzsche

Sec. 9
The Gay Science (1882)

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update Oct. 1, 2023. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "We are, all of us, growing volcanoes that approach the hour of their eruption; but how near or distant that is, nobody …" by Friedrich Nietzsche?
Friedrich Nietzsche photo
Friedrich Nietzsche 655
German philosopher, poet, composer, cultural critic, and cl… 1844–1900

Related quotes

Karel Appel photo

“Pollock... I also feel
like an erupting volcano.”

Karel Appel (1921–2006) Dutch painter, sculptor, and poet

ATV, 187; p. 167
Karel Appel, a gesture of colour' (1992/2009)

Newton Lee photo

“Humans may be on top of the food chain, but we are still at the mercy of earthquakes, tsunamis, tornadoes, volcano eruptions, and other natural disasters.”

Newton Lee American computer scientist

The Transhumanism Handbook, 2019

Confucius photo

“He knows how what is distant lies in what is near. He knows where the wind proceeds from. He knows how what is minute becomes manifested. Such a one, we may be sure, will enter into virtue.”

Confucius (-551–-479 BC) Chinese teacher, editor, politician, and philosopher

The Analects, The Doctrine of the Mean
Context: It is the way of the superior man to prefer the concealment of his virtue, while it daily becomes more illustrious, and it is the way of the mean man to seek notoriety, while he daily goes more and more to ruin. It is characteristic of the superior man, appearing insipid, yet never to produce satiety; while showing a simple negligence, yet to have his accomplishments recognized; while seemingly plain, yet to be discriminating. He knows how what is distant lies in what is near. He knows where the wind proceeds from. He knows how what is minute becomes manifested. Such a one, we may be sure, will enter into virtue.

Eugène Edine Pottier photo

“Stand up, damned of the Earth
Stand up, prisoners of starvation
Reason thunders in its volcano
This is the eruption of the end.
Of the past let us make a clean slate
Enslaved masses, stand up, stand up.
The world is about to change its foundation
We are nothing, let us be all.”

Eugène Edine Pottier (1816–1887) French politician

Debout, les damnés de la terre
Debout, les forçats de la faim
La raison tonne en son cratère
C'est l'éruption de la fin
Du passé faisons table rase
Foule esclave, debout, debout
Le monde va changer de base
Nous ne sommes rien, soyons tout
The Internationale (1864)

Miranda July photo

“We really wanted to know all the unknowable things about each other and how we were the same and how we were different, if we even were, maybe nobody is.”

Miranda July (1974) American performance artist, musician and writer

Source: No One Belongs Here More Than You

Karen Marie Moning photo

“Nobody looks good in their darkest hours. But it's those hours that make us what we are.”

Karen Marie Moning (1964) author

Source: Faefever

Stig Dagerman photo

“After a volcano has erupted our landscape is filled with silence. A moment ago it was on fire, now the rapid ashes are warming our feet. a moment ago it was dazzlingly light, now it is blessed twilight, kind to our eyes. All is at rest. The volcano is asleep, even our poor nerves are asleep. We are not happy, but we have a momentary peace. A moment ago we have seen the desert of our life in all its appalling vastness, now we see that the desert is in flower. The oases are few are afar between, but they do exist; we know that the desert is vast, but we also know that in the biggest deserts are the most oases. To gain this knowledge we must pay dearly, and an eruption is the price; it is high; but there is no lower one. That is why we should bless the volcanoes, thank them because their glare is so strong and their first so hot. Thank them for having dazzled us, for only then do we acquired our full sight; thank them, too, for having burnt us, for only as burnt children can we warm each other.But moments of peace are short. All other moments are much longer, and to know this is also wisdom. But because they are so short we must life in those moments as thought it were only then we lived. They knew this too.”

Stig Dagerman book A Burnt Child

Source: A Burnt Child (1948), p. 263

Napoleon I of France photo

“Some revolutions are inevitable. There are moral eruptions, just as the outbreak of volcanoes are physical eruptions. When the chemical combinations which produce them are complete, the volcanic eruptions burst forth, just as revolutions do when the moral factors are in the right state. In order to foresee them the trend of ideas must be understandingly observed.”

Napoleon I of France (1769–1821) French general, First Consul and later Emperor of the French

Napoleon : In His Own Words (1916)

George William Russell photo

“I saw how all the trembling ages past,
Moulded to her by deep and deeper breath,
Neared to the hour when Beauty breathes her last
And knows herself in death.”

George William Russell (1867–1935) Irish writer, editor, critic, poet, and artistic painter

The Nuts of Knowledge (1903)

Mohamed Atta photo

“When the hour of reality approaches, the zero hour, wholeheartedly welcome death for the sake of God.”

Mohamed Atta (1968–2001) Egyptian hijacker and one of the ringleaders of the September 11 attacks

The Last Night (2001) https://web.archive.org/web/20140610204712/http://college.cengage.com/history/primary_sources/world/the_last_night.htm
Context: When the hour of reality approaches, the zero hour, wholeheartedly welcome death for the sake of God. Always be remembering God. Either end your life while praying, seconds before the target, or make your last words: There is no God but God, Muhammad is his messenger.

Related topics