Friedrich Nietzsche was a German philosopher who is most well known for his quote, “If you stare too long into the abyss, then it stares back at you.” But what did Nietzsche mean in this famous quote? This article will explore what he might have been trying to say with this statement…
Meaning Of The Quote “If you stare too long into the abyss, then it stares back at you”
Nietzsche once said, “If you stare too long into the abyss, then it stares back at you.” This quote comes from Nietzsche’s famous book “Beyond Good and Evil” which he wrote in 1886.
What did Nietzsche mean by this quote? This is a question that has been asked for many years. The quote can be interpreted in different ways.
- One interpretation is that Nietzsche was warning people of how dangerous deep thinking can be and that they shouldn’t think about things too deeply.
- Another interpretation is that he meant this as a metaphor for life and death. Nietzsche is telling people not to think about death, because if they do, it will come back and haunt them. Nietzsche could have meant that this quote was a metaphor for how there are two worlds in life– the world we live in now and the world without us after we die.
Because Nietzsche was a nihilist, he believed that life and reality are meaningless.
This would imply that if one is faced with a moral dilemma where they have to choose whether or not to fight for an illusion of truth (eg: ugly monster) in this case it’s just another form of fighting their own inner demons.
Many people believe that Nietzsche meant when he said “If you stare into the abyss, the abyss stares back at you” to mean if one is faced with an illusion of truth and they are fighting it.
But this quote may mean something a little different than what most people assume…
What actually happens in reality, is that sooner or later whoever faces such an illusion would find themselves complying instead because there isn’t really any monster out there after all – just illusions we create for ourselves!
What is your interpretation of this famous quote?
Let us know in the comments below.
