“I know of no better life purpose than to perish in attempting the great and the impossible.”
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Friedrich Nietzsche 655
German philosopher, poet, composer, cultural critic, and cl… 1844–1900Related quotes
Source: The Perks of Being a Wallflower
As quoted in An Apple for the Teacher: Fundamentals for Instructional Computing (1983) by George H. Culp and Herbert N. Nickles, p. 190; also in Youth Quake: A Manifesto (2002) by Cousin Sam, p. 31
“I know, indeed, the evil of that I purpose; but my inclination gets the better of my judgment.”
Source: Medea (431 BC), Line 1078
“Surely something resides in this heart that is not perishable, and life is more than a dream.”
Letters Written in Sweden (1796)
Context: It appears to me impossible that I should cease to exist, or that this active, restless spirit, equally alive to joy and sorrow, should only be organised dust — ready to fly abroad the moment the spring snaps, or the spark goes out which kept it together. Surely something resides in this heart that is not perishable, and life is more than a dream.
“What do I know about God and the purpose of life?
I know that this world exists.”
Journal entry (11 June 1916), p. 72e and 73e
1910s, Notebooks 1914-1916
Context: What do I know about God and the purpose of life?
I know that this world exists.
That I am placed in it like my eye in its visual field.
That something about it is problematic, which we call its meaning.
This meaning does not lie in it but outside of it.
That life is the world.
That my will penetrates the world.
That my will is good or evil.
Therefore that good and evil are somehow connected with the meaning of the world.
The meaning of life, i. e. the meaning of the world, we can call God.
And connect with this the comparison of God to a father.
To pray is to think about the meaning of life.
“The purpose of life is to contribute in some way to making things better.”
Introduction
1920s, An Autobiography (1927)