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StillnessQuote

He who has a why to live for can bear almost any how.

Friedrich Nietzsche, Twilight of the Idols, 1889

LiteraturePhilosophy

The story behind the card

This is maxim 12 of 'Maxims and Arrows', the opening section of Twilight of the Idols, which Friedrich Nietzsche wrote in just over a week in 1888 at Sils Maria in the Swiss Alps. He ends it with a jab: people do not strive for happiness; only the Englishman does. The line became famous through the Austrian psychiatrist Viktor Frankl, who survived four Nazi camps. In Man's Search for Meaning (1946) he wrote that prisoners who had a reason to live, such as someone waiting for them, held out better.

Türkçe oku
Yaşamak için bir “neden”i olan, hemen her “nasıl”a katlanabilir.
Friedrich Nietzsche, Putların Alacakaranlığı, 1889

Söz, Putların Alacakaranlığı'nı açan “Özdeyişler ve Oklar” bölümünün 12. maddesidir. Friedrich Nietzsche kitabı 1888'de, İsviçre Alpleri'ndeki Sils Maria'da bir haftayı biraz aşan bir sürede yazdı. Maddeyi bir iğnelemeyle bitirir: İnsan mutluluk peşinde koşmaz, bunu yalnızca İngilizler yapar. Sözü ünlü yapan, dört Nazi kampından sağ çıkan Avusturyalı psikiyatr Viktor Frankl oldu. Frankl, İnsanın Anlam Arayışı'nda (1946), yaşamak için bir nedeni olan mahkûmların, örneğin dışarıda kendilerini bekleyen biri olanların, kampa daha iyi dayandığını yazar.

Sources and further reading

Background reading: Friedrich Nietzsche
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