help about Nietzsche?

Question

La Cérémonie

I've just seen this movie, accidentally. and for those who are familiar with it, if you could recall, at the birthday party of Melinda (Virginie Ledoyen), an elderly man if im not mistaken quoted Nietzsche:

"There are many things I find loathsome in men, but least of all the evil within them."

i googled it by typing only some of the words i could recall at the moment and that turned up from one site only but i remember there are many things

?there are a lot of things people find loathsome in me but least of all is the evil within me?

still i can't find from any other site that it is indeed from nietzsche. could somebody give me sites or just his/her conviction that it is from nietzsche and where it is from?

Answer 1

i've got the hollingdale translation of zarathustra, which isn't great but i don't think kaufman made one. in "of the pale criminal", it reads, " much about your good people moves me to disgust, and it is not their evil i mean." i'm reading a mediocre translation, and you're quoting the english translation of a french translation of a german, so it might be the same passage.

but nietzsche says all over the place that "evil" has been more beneficial to mankind than "good". he equates "evil" with creation, as in the creation of new values and new laws. "good" is the inability to create, and capable of greater harm than "evil". he wrote two books about the psychology of morality, so yeah... that quote sounds like his whole philosophy.

Answer 2

I believe it comes from The Superman and Eternal Return, Thus Spoke Zarathustra.
One place it can be found is in "Journeys Through Philosophy," edited by Nicholas Capaldi
It is a short read, so I'll dust it off and scan through it.
(It is the most well-known, or at least talked about, Nietzsche piece where he proclaims "God is dead.")

Okay, I lied. The book I mentioned above only contains large chunks of Zarathustra, The Anti Christ and The Gay Science. I know that I've read that quote, or something very similar, before... One problem lies within each editor's translation, so wording may vary... that might be why you can't google it.

Anyway, sorry I can't give you a concrete answer, but maybe I provided you with some direction to investigate further. Good luck! ((Yes, I believe whole-heartedly it is Nietzsche))

Answer 3

Nietzsche is pietzsche.