Quotation
Last reviewed:
“Whoever fights monsters should see to it that in the process he does not become a monster. And if you gaze long into an abyss, the abyss also gazes into you.”
Friedrich Nietzsche · Genealogy and perspectivism · Modern · 1886
What does it mean?
Whoever fights monsters should see to it that he does not become a monster, and if you gaze long into an abyss, the abyss gazes back. Opposition takes on the shape of what it opposes. The look is not a neutral study. It forms the gazer. A rival reading says the aphorism is a counsel of withdrawal: leave the monster alone rather than risk contamination. That is not what the sentence says. It is a caution about the fight, not a ban on fighting.
Did Friedrich Nietzsche really say this?
The library’s label is Paraphrase or translation. Kaufmann's English of the published aphorism. Both sentences are in the book. People often quote only the abyss, which loses the warning about the fight.
Where it comes from
Beyond Good and Evil §146, in Walter Kaufmann's translation
Approximate date: 1886.
How to use it
A campaigner in a Glasgow group chat, deep in a cruelty they are right to oppose, starts using the opponent's contempt and calls it clarity. Check whether the methods and the tone have begun to copy the thing being fought. The aphorism is about that formation. It is not a reason to log off and call the logging off moral.
A mindset reading
The caution is about what the fight does to you. Leaving the monster unfought is a different policy, and it is not the one written here. Both sentences of the aphorism are needed. The second without the first is a poster.
Understand the philosophy
Beyond Good and Evil suspects moral habits that look noble and hide a will to power. Section 146 turns that suspicion onto the critic, including the reader. It is memorable because it will not let the critic stand outside the formation.
- self
- ethics
- mind
FAQ
What does it mean?
Whoever fights monsters should see to it that he does not become a monster, and if you gaze long into an abyss, the abyss gazes back. Opposition takes on the shape of what it opposes. The look is not a neutral study. It forms the gazer. A rival reading says the aphorism is a counsel of withdrawal: leave the monster alone rather than risk contamination. That is not what the sentence says. It is a caution about the fight, not a ban on fighting.
Did Friedrich Nietzsche really say this?
Paraphrase or translation. Kaufmann's English of the published aphorism. Both sentences are in the book. People often quote only the abyss, which loses the warning about the fight.
Which work is it in?
Beyond Good and Evil §146, in Walter Kaufmann's translation Approximate date: 1886.