People inspire us in difficult situations, they can decorate your speech, use them in correspondence, on your page on social networks. Some people choose a quote they especially like as their motto, while others get a tattoo with it. One of the favorite phrases of many is “What does not kill us makes us stronger.” Let's get acquainted with its author, original, meaning and other interesting details.

Who said: “What doesn’t kill us makes us stronger?” Meaning

The author of the catchphrase was the highly controversial thinker Friedrich Nietzsche. The quote is understood in different meanings, but the essence of the interpretation is the same: only by overcoming significant difficulties, and even troubles, and experiencing grief, will a person become a truly spiritually strong person.

The phrase, however, was taken out of context. Nietzsche did not want to put a romantic, motivational meaning into it and somehow urge his followers not to be afraid of life’s adversities. These words are connected with his doctrine of the superman.

Quote in original

Friedrich Nietzsche, as we know, was German. Therefore, it will be interesting to determine how “What does not kill us makes us stronger” sounds in the author’s native language.

Was mich nicht umbringt, macht mich stärker - this is what this quote will look like in German.

Superman Nietzsche

Friedrich Nietzsche devoted a lot of time to exploring the limits of human capabilities. And he believed that it was the superman who could go beyond these boundaries to become who he is. Let us note that Nietzsche characterized superhumans with a rather large list of qualities, where going beyond the limits of emotional forces was just one of the points.

You can learn more about this topic by reading the work “Thus Spoke Zarathustra.” Superman (Übermensch) for Nietzsche is the image with which he denoted a being who will surpass modern people in spiritual power as much as we surpass monkeys. According to the scientist's hypothesis, Übermensch is the next evolutionary step that will follow man.

However, F. Nietzsche noted that superhumans are already among us, moreover, they were born a long time ago. He included Julius Caesar, C. Borgia, and Napoleon into this category.

about the author

Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche was a German philosopher, thinker, philologist, poet, and composer. In addition, he is known to the world as the creator of an original philosophical movement.

If we look at the leitmotif of Nietzsche’s works, we will note his new criteria for assessing the entire surrounding reality. He questioned all the principles and forms of morality, culture, art, and social relations existing in his era.

His most famous works are “Thus Spoke Zarathustra”, “Beyond Good and Evil”, “Twilight of the Idols”, “Antichrist”, Ecce Homo.

Nietzsche and aphorism

It is no secret that the thinker’s teachings are divided into quotes. The reason is that, being a philologist by training, Nietzsche paid great attention to the style of presentation of his thoughts and views. They are not presented in a coherent system, but act as aphorisms - a laconic short statement, a fully completed thought. In this phrase, the author tries to maximally concentrate the essence of his judgments and reflect the context of the expression.

Of course, Nietzsche did not choose this style of presentation in order to become famous for quoting his words. He spent a lot of time on long walks, and it was also difficult for him to sit for a long time over notes - the thinker began to experience severe pain in his eyes. This is in particular why he chose such a short and succinct form of narration and reasoning.

How to understand the phrase?

Each of us is free to look for our own meaning in the phrase “What does not kill us makes us stronger.” But still, let's see how other people understand it:

• “There is no need to be afraid of difficulties and trials, or to become sour if failure occurs. We need all this to strengthen our character.”
• “We cannot try to avoid problems, we must not be afraid to face them. Only then, having overcome them, will we gain invaluable life experience.”
• “If you feel bad now, it’s temporary. You will definitely go through the test, transformed, becoming stronger.”
• “To understand something, to achieve something, you need to overcome obstacles, disappointments, pain. Only this will make you a spiritually strong person.”
• “A person needs a negative experience in order to understand and rethink something. Only personal experience of any difficulty can leave an imprint on the personality, character, and worldview.”
• “There are difficulties and obstacles that can crush a person morally - the death of a loved one, the loss of everything he treasured, the collapse of his ideals, faith, love. But if he copes with himself, finds the strength to move on, live and rejoice, this will be his victory. He became strong."

Is Nietzsche wrong?

• “The more difficulties a person experiences, the more indifferent and callous he becomes. But, is he stronger?”
• “When a person encounters something that can kill him, spiritually or physically, he needs to become cruel in order to defeat it, not to allow himself to be overcome. So it is more correct to say: what does not kill us makes us cruel.”
• “Not all the difficulties and troubles that a person encounters will necessarily make him strong. Something will deprive him of faith in people, kindness, gullibility, faith in a happy future. And some difficulties can actually drive him crazy.”
• “Constantly repeating misfortunes lead to neuroses, fears, depression, phobias. They make a person more embittered, more desperate, but hardly stronger.”
• “The phrase is applicable only to mental trials. A person will not be made stronger by a cancerous tumor that he managed to overcome, or by a serious injury that crippled his health but did not kill him.”
• “From this phrase it follows that everyone will someday encounter a test that they cannot cope with, and it will kill them. Not a very optimistic quote.”

What doesn't kill us makes us stronger?

The authority of Friedrich Nietzsche, as well as the words of his authorship, are so convincing that many take what he says on faith. And they continue to live by the principle: the more difficulties I go through, the stronger I will be as a person. But is it?

Surely you will be interested in an interesting study conducted by a team of scientists from the University of California (USA) led by S. Charles. Experts, of course, did not try to check exactly the relevance of the brilliant phrase “What does not kill us makes us stronger,” but decided to prove the fact that negative experience does not lead to good consequences.

In 1995, psychologist D. Almeida (USA, Pennsylvania) conducted an extensive survey in which 1,483 respondents of different ages, men and women, took part. They were asked to rate on a 5-point scale (from “never” to “always”) how often over the past month they experienced negative states: they felt unhappy, useless, nervous. People also had to note how many times they felt depressed, the feeling that nothing was working out, that the whole world was against them.

In another part of the test, the respondent noted whether he was stressed the day before participating in the survey. The last part of the questionnaire included questions about whether the participant had ever been treated for emotional disorders, prolonged depression, etc.

Ten years later, D. Almeida again tried to contact the respondents. However, some were no longer alive by that time, and some did not want to take the survey again. As a result, 711 people passed the second test. The questions in the questionnaire were the same.

A group of scientists led by S. Charles analyzed the results of D. Almeida's research. What this activity showed fundamentally negated the phrase “What doesn’t kill us makes us stronger!” It turns out that the more often a person ten years ago felt unwanted, abandoned, useless, fell into depression and was in stressful situations, the more likely it is that he currently has a serious mental disorder.

Of course, this tendency is individual. Some people are strengthened by difficulties, while others are destroyed morally. But one cannot deny the fact that life’s troubles, weak or strong, can not only strengthen the psyche, but also greatly weaken it. Therefore, Nietzsche’s phrase “What does not kill us makes us stronger” is not relevant for everyone.

Other quotes from the author

We will present to you the lesser-known aphorisms of Friedrich Nietzsche, but just as interesting, inspiring and meaningful:

• "Superficial people always lie. After all, they are devoid of any content."
• “I don’t understand why slander? If you want to annoy someone, tell some truth about him.”
• "Winners don't believe in coincidences."
• "The herd is not attractive in any way. Even if it follows you."
• “He who is poor in love will be stingy even with politeness.”
• "A good marriage is built on friendship and talent."
• "Duty is the right of others to us."
• “There is a danger of being hit by a carriage for a person who has jumped out from under another carriage.”
• "A man is what he has overcome."
• "Excessiveness is the best guarantee of success."

So we got to know both the phrase itself and its author better. Although it is not known in the deep sense that Nietzsche put into it, the quote is very widespread and causes a lot of controversy and reasoning.

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Probably, if Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche had lived to this day, he would have had to fight off an army of critics and a crowd of haters for a long time. Despite the fact that the philosopher himself had a quiet and meek disposition, his idyllic thoughts about the superman were adopted by not the most humane movements. The incorrect interpretation of Nietzsche's judgments made him a monster, although, in fact, he always completely denied aggression. Today, on the occasion of the 170th anniversary of the philosopher’s birth, Babr publishes the most striking and famous quotes from his works

What doesn't kill me makes me stronger.

God is dead: now we want the superman to live.

To be great is to give direction.

A person forgets his guilt when he confesses it to another, but the latter usually does not forget it.

A free mind requires foundations, while others require only faith.

Man is a dirty stream.

One must still carry chaos within oneself in order to be able to give birth to a dancing star.

The same thing happens to a person as to a tree. The more he strives upward, towards the light, the deeper his roots dig into the ground, downwards, into darkness and depth - towards evil.

You must learn to love yourself - this is what I teach - with a whole and healthy love: in order to bear with yourself and not wander everywhere.

Long and great suffering brings up a tyrant in a person.

I hate people who don't know how to forgive.

The danger of the wise is that he is most susceptible to the temptation of falling in love with the foolish.

Heroism is the good will to absolute self-destruction.

The desire for greatness is clear: whoever has greatness strives for kindness.

Whoever wants to become a leader of people must, for a good period of time, be known among them as their most dangerous enemy.

“Love your neighbor” means first of all: “Leave your neighbor alone!” “And it is precisely this detail of virtue that is associated with the greatest difficulties.

Conventional books are always stinking books: the smell of little people sticks to them. Where the crowd eats and drinks, even where they worship, it usually stinks. You don't need to go to church if you want to breathe clean air.

Every deep mind needs a mask - moreover, a mask gradually grows around every deep mind, thanks to the always false, namely, flat interpretation of its every word, every step, every sign of life it gives.

The Christian faith is, from the very beginning, a sacrifice: the sacrifice of all freedom, all pride, all self-confidence of the spirit and at the same time giving oneself into slavery, self-reproach, self-mutilation.

The dominance of virtue can be achieved only with the help of the same means by which dominance is generally achieved, and, in any case, not through virtue.

I do not trust all taxonomists and avoid them. The will to the system is a lack of honesty.

Without music, life would be a delusion.

When you give up war, you give up a great life.

Humanity does not represent a development for the better, or for the stronger, or for the highest, as is still believed. “Progress” is only a modern idea, in other words, a false idea. The value of the modern European is deeply inferior to that of the European of the Renaissance...

The woman was God's second failure.

The whole world believes in it; but what the whole world doesn’t believe!

Let us not value a Christian too low; false to the point of innocence, rising high above the ape; in relation to the Christian, the famous theory of origin is only polite.

This note continues the blog series “Truths as Old as Time...”, the first part of which is " Truth is born in dispute" - was published on December 3.

What doesn't kill me makes me stronger

A year ago, the hit of American singer Kelly Clarkson was heard on many of our radio stations. What Doesn't Kill You (Stronger), the name of which, as you might guess, is a shortened form of the expression so beloved by Internet users What doesn't kill you makes you stronger(What doesn't kill you makes you stronger). This is what I would like to talk about...

In September 1888, 44-year-old Friedrich Nietzsche completed writing the book “Twilight of the Idols, or How One Philosophizes with a Hammer” (original title: Götzen-Dämmerung oder Wie man mit dem Hammer philosophiert). In just a few months, the philosopher’s mind will leave him, and he will spend the last 11 years of his life in a hospital for the mentally ill...

But that will come later, and immediately after the book was published, it was disassembled into quotes and is still being quoted, since it is a collection of short essays and aphoristic phrases. Like, for example, the phrase number 8 in the opening chapter of the book “Parables and Arrows” (Sprüche und Pfeile), which completely sounds like this: " From the military school of life.– What doesn’t kill me makes me stronger) ( Aus der Kriegsschule des Lebens.– Was mich nicht umbringt, macht mich stärker).

Frankly, I don’t understand why this phrase is treated with such reverence! Think for yourself, if every life test made us stronger, would there be so many weak people in life? so many broken by life? just those who are afraid of her? Of course not! I will say more, for the most part people are weak, problems and suffering break them, and only a few become stronger after everything they have experienced! Maybe they, supermen, in the interpretation of Nietzsche himself, were meant in “Twilight of the Idols”? Is it nice for those who quote this phrase to at least verbally feel like superhumans? ;-)

Our famous writer and translator Gerold Belger looked at this issue from a different angle in his book “Weaving Nonsense”:

L.N. Tolstoy in “The Reading Circle” writes: “A person must be happy, if he is unhappy, then he is to blame.” Sharp, wise, but very dubious maxim. The darkness of examples from life denies it.

Now I ask a question to my beloved Lev Nikolaevich Tolstoy: “What is the fault of these people, why are they to blame for their misfortune? How can you oblige them to be happy?” And there are hundreds and thousands of such destinies - German, Kazakh, Russian - living in me. How can you blame them for personal misfortune? The postulate may be beautiful and wise, but it is absolutely wrong.
[…]
In general, I noticed: many of Leo Tolstoy’s wisdoms are the maxims of a well-fed and prosperous person.

On the other hand, how to treat such a phrase?

You can be happy in all situations in life, and in this world only fools and brutes are unhappy.

This is also said sharply and categorically! It should be taken into account that these words do not belong to the Yasnaya Polyana landowner Tolstoy, but to the Decembrist Mikhail Lunin, who spent 14 years of his life in the most difficult conditions of prison and Siberian hard labor (from the letter from where, in fact, this phrase was taken!)

In conclusion, I will give one version of the phrase with which I began this story: “What does not kill you makes you stronger. Macrame makes you especially strong.” Well, that’s logical!

When I met Sandra ten years ago, she was full of vitality. A charming, intelligent girl, she moved through life with ease. Sandra got married, well, a tax inspector, big deal.

Two years later, she was diagnosed with type 5 breast cancer, the worst type. She was undergoing treatment, and her husband began having an affair. Sandra fell into depression, as a result, she still cannot hold a job for more than six months. Sandra today is a pale shadow of her former self. I recently met her. She is divorced and lives alone. “I was so close to death. But you know, what doesn’t kill me makes me stronger.” Never before has this saying seemed so false to me.

Martin is an entrepreneur. He produces bags for laptops. Five years after the founding of the company, all his plans were ruined by a competitor who lured away all his clients. The products were the same, but the competitor's marketing strategy was much better. Martin had to fire almost all of his employees. The bank closed the production loan. He was only able to pay the interest because it was a private debt. The company was on the verge of bankruptcy. Today Martin is again at the beginning of his entrepreneurial journey. Forged in crisis?

« What doesn't kill me makes me stronger" The statement belongs to Nietzsche. It lies. A company's crisis does not make it stronger, it weakens it: customers leave. The media publishes caustic comments. The best employees are fleeing. Cash is dwindling. Loans are becoming more expensive. The management is horrified and rushes to say goodbye. And we all continue to find positive aspects in this.

Why a crisis is not always an opportunity

Where do such illusions come from? Try to think in terms of probabilities. To the one who could survive the crisis, it was just luck. Suppose 1000 manufacturers of laptop bags found themselves in a severe economic crisis, and we decided to follow their future fate. What would the statistical distribution look like? Most have gone bankrupt, some are back to near pre-crisis levels, and only a very few have slightly prospered. From the point of view of survivors of the economic collapse, the crisis makes a person stronger. But this is an optical illusion. In general, a crisis is a crisis, and certainly there is no general strengthening component in it. Everyone easily and quickly forgets that the company might not have survived the crisis.

A friend had a motorcycle accident. Did the collision make him stronger? He learned how dangerous riding a motorcycle is and sold it. He should have just read the statistics and not rushed into the arms of death. Many people say: “The crisis helped me become a better person, I now live completely differently.” Well, good, but one could have come to the same conclusion before the incident. Gaining experience through accidents, illnesses or failures is a tragic and, excuse me, stupid way. If today's way of life has meaning, then it should have been present in pre-crisis life. Didn't the person realize this? This is just laziness of the soul or inconsistency.

Believing that scary things help us improve is an illusion. The disease - by the way, an experience of extremely dubious nature - leaves traces on the body. The body does not become healthier than it was before the disease. The same goes for an accident or burn. How many soldiers returned from the war “stronger”?

Have survivors of the Fukushima accident or Hurricane Katrina become “stronger” to face the future? They have become more experienced. But instead of being consoled that during the next hurricane this experience will be beneficial, it would be wiser to simply leave the dangerous area.

Conclusion: IfThe CEO states that the crisis has contributed to the strengthening of the company, then this is a signal to take a closer look at the situation within it. Everything may turn out to be exactly the opposite. As for Sandra, I did not deprive her of the illusion. She gives her a life that is more pleasant than the truth.

The Territory of Misconceptions: What Mistakes Smart People Make/ Rolf Dobelli;
lane with him. - M.: Mann, Ivanov and Ferber, 2014. Published with permission of the publisher

In 11 days it will be 112 years since the death of the philosopher, whose work causes ongoing controversy. Friedrich Nietzsche died on August 25, 1900. At the time of his death, Nietzsche looked like a very old man, but he was only 56 years old, 11 of which he lived in the unconsciousness of insanity.

Friedrich Nietzsche created his own original system, wrote more than three dozen works, the style of which is emphatically non-academic - aphoristic, poetic in nature. Therefore, it is read, known (loved or hated) not only by representatives of science and philosophy.

In his youth, Friedrich Nietzsche was most attracted to the poetry of the German poet Hölderlin; he wrote his first essay about him in 1861. Hölderlin sang unity of man and nature, this motive would later become one of the main ones in Nietzsche’s work.

In the same year, Nietzsche became acquainted with Arthur Schopenhauer’s work “The World as Representation and Will.” It struck Nietzsche so much that he became extremely agitated and could neither eat nor sleep. Schopenhauer's philosophy helped him establish himself in his growing opposition to traditions, religious rituals, and dominant stereotypes of family and state.

Nietzsche entered university early, graduated early and became a teacher early, thanks to his ability not only to quickly master material, but also to propose his own concepts. True, he soon sank into the boredom that teaching at the university turned out to be for him. Nietzsche realized: teaching was not his calling. Having come into close contact with science, he came to the conclusion that science destroys what unity of man with nature, which exists thanks to art. Nietzsche would later develop these thoughts in his study of the Apollonian (rational) and Dionysian (natural) principles in man. Nietzsche argued that science in its research one day stumbles upon a wall beyond which it is impossible to go. Then art arises, based on figurative knowledge of the instincts of life. In fact, Nietzsche, following Leonardo da Vinci, put art above science. And having placed it, he opposed it. In this duel, Nietzsche takes the side of art, especially the art associated with instincts: dancing, singing and laughter. He condemns the dismembering role of science, although he recognizes its importance in the knowledge of nature. At the same time, according to Nietzsche, science strengthens the state, and art destroys it. The theme of the hostility of the state system to man will subsequently become one of the reasons for his insanity...

All of Nietzsche's works were dictated love to man, or rather, to humanity. He took the development of humanity so close to his heart, he wanted so much to understand what would make humanity happy, that at times he lost peace and sleep. Nietzsche was the first to understand that a break in unity with nature changes the inner world of a person, making it a form without content. Then a person begins to be filled with ideas about good and evil imposed on him from the outside. In this regard, the appearance of a person takes on ugly forms - after all, this is not its true content. Nietzsche was confident that natural abilities such as dancing, singing and laughter liberate a person and return him to his true human appearance.

...Why the illness turned out to be a loss of reason is a separate question. Here, I think, problems of the soul intervened, but not of the body (nerves) and the psyche.

The whole question is that while caring for humanity, Nietzsche accepted responsibility for humanity - this was a mistake. Who is he? God? No. No mortal can or should shoulder such a burden...

And Nietzsche paid dearly for his mistake. His teaching was a success. But what! After him, his mistakes were repeated again and again by his followers. Among them in the twentieth century was Adolf Hitler. Ignorant due to lack of upbringing and education, Hitler accepted responsibility for the fate of the nation, guided by the philosophy of Nietzsche...

Nietzsche's teachings have special significance for humanity. It is like a test by which you can check the degree of spiritual development of a person. In undeveloped souls it awakens the desire to rise above others, and in developed souls it reveals its humanistic content: admiration for the divine perfection of man, pain for unique abilities being wasted.

...And today people experiencing the most difficult trials grow spiritually because they endure, stand, fight and win with the motto of this amazing philosopher: “ Everything that doesn't kill me makes me stronger».

From my book: Asia. "Character Code: Fate and Free Will."