“Unhappiness. The distinction that lies in being unhappy is so great that when someone says, "But how happy you must be!" we usually protest.”

— Friedrich Nietzsche , book Human, All Too Human

Section IX, "Man Alone with Himself" / aphorism 534
Human, All Too Human (1878), Helen Zimmern translation

Original

Unglück. - Die Auszeichnung, welche im Unglück liegt (als ob es ein Zeichen von Flachheit, Anspruchslosigkeit, Gewöhnlichkeit sei, sich glücklich zu fühlen), ist so gross, dass wenn Jemand Einem sagt: "Aber wie glücklich Sie sind!" man gewöhnlich protestirt.

Human, All Too Human (1878), Helen Zimmern translation

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 "Unhappiness. The distinction that lies in being unhappy is so great that when someone says, "But how happy you must be!…" by Friedrich Nietzsche?

Friedrich Nietzsche 655

German philosopher, poet, composer, cultural critic, and cl… 1844–1900

Related quotes

“It is a kind of happiness to know how unhappy we must be.”

François de La Rochefoucauld (1613–1680) French author of maxims and memoirs

C’est une espèce de bonheur, de connaître jusqu’à quel point on doit être malheureux.
Maxim 8 of the Maximes supprimées.
Later Additions to the Maxims

“All happy people are grateful. Ungrateful people cannot be happy. We tend to think that being unhappy leads people to complain, but it’s truer to say that complaining leads to people becoming unhappy.”

Dennis Prager (1948) American writer, speaker, radio and TV commentator, theologian

“People exaggerate both happiness and unhappiness; we are never so fortunate nor so unfortunate as people say we are.”

Honoré de Balzac (1799–1850) French writer

On amplifie également le malheur et le bonheur, nous ne sommes jamais ni si malheureux, ni si heureux qu'on le dit.
Modeste Mignon http://fr.wikisource.org/wiki/Modeste_Mignon (1844), translated by Katharine Prescott Wormeley, ch. XXIV: The Poet Feels That He Is Loved Too Well