Life ceases to be so oppressive: we are free to give our own lives meaning and purpose, free to redeem our suffering… — Walter Kaufmann Freedom Copy Share Image
Thirdly, even if we assume that the world is governed by purpose, we need only add that this purpose - or, if… — Walter Kaufmann Add Copy Share Image
Mundus vult decipi: the world wants to be deceived. The truth is too complex and frightening; the taste for the truth is… — Walter Kaufmann Acquired taste Copy Share Image
It is widely assumed, contrary to fact, that theism necessarily involves the two assumptions which cannot be squared with the existence of… — Walter Kaufmann Contrary Copy Share Image
The refusal to belong to any school of thought, the repudiation of the adequacy of any body of beliefs whatever, and especially… — Walter Kaufmann Academic Copy Share Image
“One need not believe in Pallas Athena, the virgin goddess, to be overwhelmed by the Parthenon. Similarly, a man who rejects all… — Walter Kaufmann Atheism Copy Share Image
In all three cases, and for most human beings, the problem of suffering poses no difficult problem at all: one has a… — Walter Kaufmann Account Copy Share Image
The only theism worthy of our respect believes in God not because of the way the world is made but in spite… — Walter Kaufmann Atheism Copy Share Image
The deepest difference between religions is not that between polytheism and monotheism. — Walter Kaufmann Monotheism Copy Share Image
Job's forthright indictment of the injustice of this world is surely right. The ways of the world are weird and much more… — Walter Kaufmann Indictment Copy Share Image
“Renouncing false beliefs will not usher in the millennium. Few things about the strategy of contemporary apologists are more repellent than their… — Walter Kaufmann Atheism Copy Share Image
“Not all deceptions are palatable. Untruths are too easy to come by, too quickly exploded, too cheap and ephemeral to give lasting… — Walter Kaufmann Too easy Copy Share Image
Let people who do not know what to do with themselves in this life, but fritter away their time reading magazines and… — Walter Kaufmann Creation Copy Share Image
“The Golden Rule is intolerable; if millions did to others whatever they wished others to do to them, few would be safe… — Walter Kaufmann Christianity Copy Share Image
To try to fashion something from suffering, to relish our triumphs, and to endure defeats without resentment: all that is compatible with… — Walter Kaufmann Compatible Copy Share Image
“To an even moderately sophisticated and well-read person it should come as no surprise that any religion at all has its hidden… — Walter Kaufmann Atheism Copy Share Image
No other German writer of comparable stature has been a more extreme critic of German nationalism than Nietzsche. — Walter Kaufmann Critics Copy Share Image
Here an attempt is made to explain suffering: the outcaste of traditional Hinduism is held to deserve his fetched fate; it is… — Walter Kaufmann Deserve Copy Share Image
When Hegel later became a man of influence' he insisted that the Jews should be granted equal rights because civic rights belong… — Walter Kaufmann Accounts Copy Share Image
There is thus a certain plausibility to Nietzsche's doctrine, though it is dynamite. He maintains in effect that the gulf separating Plato… — Walter Kaufmann Average Copy Share Image
Man stands alone in the universe, responsible for his condition, likely to remain in a lowly state, but free to reach above… — Walter Kaufmann Astronomy Copy Share Image
“No one system reveals the entire truth; at best, each organizes one point of view or perspective. We must consider many perspectives,… — Walter Kaufmann Perspective Copy Share Image
“The good must be clearly good but not wholly clear. If it is wholly clear it is too easy to reject. What… — Walter Kaufmann Endless opportunities Copy Share Image
“Man’s world is manifold, and his attitudes are manifold. What is manifold is often frightening because it is not neat and simple.… — Walter Kaufmann Great teachers Copy Share Image
Success is no proof of virtue. In the case of a book, quick acclaim is presumptive evidence of a lack of substance… — Walter Kaufmann Acclaim Copy Share Image
