Maddenation
Why is it necessary to know who said it?
I was listening to a Charlie Rose interview the other day (of course I’ve forgotten with whom) and he mentioned a quote from Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche.
Is not life a hundred times too short for us to bore ourselves?
I was intrigued by it, because I had never considered Nietzsche as someone worth quoting. Of course, my bias against him was set by my Catholic upbringing, during which Nietzsche was considered a considerable thorn in the side of Catholics and Christians everywhere. The quote, by the way, is from his 1886 book, Beyond Good and Evil, a “Prelude to a Philosophy of the Future.”
I found the source of the quote on The Nietzsche Channel from where I extracted this extended quote:
Every virtue tends towards stupidity, every stupidity towards virtue; “stupid to the point of saintliness” they say in Russia—let us see to it that through honesty we do not finally become saints and bores! Is life not a hundred times too short to be—bored in it? One would have to believe in eternal life to ….
Here you see Nietzsche’s real motive, to poke fun at saintliness by equating it to stupidity and boredom. I guess Nietzsche left the end of the quote hanging because he felt that further expounding on his well-known disbelief in God and eternal life would be like beating a dead horse. Which brings to mind his most well-known quote, “God is dead.” (and the rejoinder found on men’s room walls, “Nietzsche is dead,” God.) Nonetheless, his question demands consideration, does it not?
But you may be wondering about the title of this entry. I thought about changing it to a statement: “Why it is necessary to know who said it,” but I’m not sure it is necessary. This quote, for example, is worthwhile in and of itself, whether or not we know who said it. However, it becomes richer when we know its source, and richer still when we know its context. This is part of the attraction of a good quote. It can cause us to reflect on many levels.
Dad • Quotes • 02/05/05 • 3 comments
Comments
Patrick • 02/06/05 • 10:07 AM:I’ve heard lots of good aphorisms from Nietzsche. I’m not sure atheism or even antagonism toward Christians necessarily makes a person unwise. And re: the whole “God is dead” thing, two anecdotes:
Neil Peart wrote in The Masked Rider about how, as a rebellious teenager, he had written “God is dead” on his wall. His parents were outraged, so he simply changed it to “God isn’t dead.” They were relieved and he was equally satisfied in his petty rebellion.
Second is a quote read aloud by Eduardo Galeano (at a Lannan Foundation reading a few years back; it’s on his second video with them) attributed to Woody Allen, but very difficult to “prove” googlically: “God is dead. Marx is dead. And I’m not feeling so well myself.” I wonder if Woody Allen will be the Mark Twain of misattributed quotes for our times.
Dad • 02/06/05 • 2:32 PM:I sense a subtle bit of the exaggeration game in your comment (probably unconscious on your part). I didn’t say or mean to imply that being anti-Christian or atheistic necessarily makes a person unwise. Some very smart (and very wise) people are atheistic and anti-Christian (or non-Christian). I was merely saying that Nietzsche was largely eschewed by the priests, nuns, and Catholic professors who taught me. He wasn’t completely ignored, but he was never talked about without presenting counter-arguments against his views. Albert Camus, on the other hand, who’s attitude was less confrontational than Nietzsche’s, was embraced in spite of his atheism.
I was hoping for more of a discussion on the need to attribute quotes. I think the problem of misattribution is due to this basic need to know who said it. Mark Twain, Will Rodgers, Woody Allen (maybe even Woody Guthrie) collect misattributions because of their reputations as wits. They repeat a great quote, or say something similar to another quote, and right away people pounce on it as a “Twain” original. It’s always more fun to quote someone who everybody knows rather than the real source, who may be an obscure philosopher who never made it big. Happily, there is a least one important exception to this rule, namely, your dad. You can always quip, “As my daddy used to say…” and have it well received, even though your dad may be an obscure fool like me.
Patrick • 02/09/05 • 10:27 PM:Aristotle’s three-prongs of rhetoric are Logos (logic), Pathos (emotion), and Ethos (the speaker’s reputation). Even though that third term doesn’t seem to “fit” as nicely as the other two, I think it’s mighty important. This is the whole motivation behind celebrity endorsements. If Michael Jordan wears Haynes underwear, then I want to “be like Mike” and wear them too. And drink Gatorade and wear Nikes and use whatever batteries he used to endorse. So. We learn by trusting other people. Even science and math, we learn from teachers who we trust to lead us right. Our first learning comes from our parents, who we know and love and trust. People who learn early in life that they can’t trust their parents often have a hard time later in life with other authorities. This means you’re right with “As my daddy used to say…” As you know, you appear in several of my essays saying wise things.
So, when we read quotes, we automatically check to see if they come from a reliable source. If it’s someone we’ve never heard of, we might be inclined to praise the wisdom or the wording, but we don’t automatically think “that’s a great idea.” When it’s someone famous, whom we admire, then the quote is on its way to greatness. When it’s someone we don’t know, the name might as well be John Doe or Patrick Madden or Anonymous. Nobody cares what a nobody thinks. Or something.
By the way, I made a play on this recently by quoting Bruce Willis for his album “If it don’t kill you, it only makes you stronger” instead of citing Nietzsche, the real originator of the quote. Ha! I only hope readers understand that it was tongue-in-cheek. If they don’t, though, they’re revealing themselves as snoots without a sense of humor.
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