Quotation
Last reviewed:
“If we have our own why of life, we shall get along with almost any how.”
Friedrich Nietzsche · Genealogy and perspectivism · Modern · 1888
What does it mean?
If we have our own why of life, he says, we shall get along with almost any how. The maxim is about an orienting purpose, not a technique for ignoring conditions. A rival reading, including the one Viktor Frankl later made famous by quoting him, turns the line into a therapy of meaning: find a why and the how becomes bearable. That use can help, and it can also bless a fanatical why. Nietzsche does not, in the maxim, give a test for whether the why is any good. The gap is not a licence.
Did Friedrich Nietzsche really say this?
The library’s label is Paraphrase or translation. Kaufmann's English of the published maxim. The popular 'he who has a why can bear almost any how' is this sentence, slightly smoothed. Viktor Frankl later quoted it; that did not make it his.
Where it comes from
Twilight of the Idols, Maxims and Arrows §12, in Walter Kaufmann's translation
Approximate date: 1888.
How to use it
Write, on a bad evening in a rented flat in Nottingham, the why you would still accept when the how is a late shift and an empty fridge. If you cannot write it, the how will keep feeling arbitrary. That is his point. It is not yet a judgement that your why is worth what it costs other people.
A mindset reading
A why can be cruel and still be effective. The maxim describes a necessity he thinks human beings have. It does not rank the necessities. Elsewhere he attacks counterfeit meanings precisely because a why is so powerful.
Understand the philosophy
The maxim is kin to his claim that we would rather will nothingness than not will. Meaning is a need he describes, and then spends books attacking the meanings that answer the need cheaply. Keep those two movements together.
- meaning
- resilience
FAQ
What does it mean?
If we have our own why of life, he says, we shall get along with almost any how. The maxim is about an orienting purpose, not a technique for ignoring conditions. A rival reading, including the one Viktor Frankl later made famous by quoting him, turns the line into a therapy of meaning: find a why and the how becomes bearable. That use can help, and it can also bless a fanatical why. Nietzsche does not, in the maxim, give a test for whether the why is any good. The gap is not a licence.
Did Friedrich Nietzsche really say this?
Paraphrase or translation. Kaufmann's English of the published maxim. The popular 'he who has a why can bear almost any how' is this sentence, slightly smoothed. Viktor Frankl later quoted it; that did not make it his.
Which work is it in?
Twilight of the Idols, Maxims and Arrows §12, in Walter Kaufmann's translation Approximate date: 1888.