Aus der Kriegsschule des Lebens

Maxims and arrows Go Premium A hearty collection of the JC’s pithiest adages. Index: Click ᐅ to expand: Maxim Comments? Questions? Suggestions? Requests? Insults? We’d love to 📧 hear from you. Sign up for our newsletter.

Aus der Kriegsschule des Lebens: Was mich nicht umbringt, macht mich stärker. — “From the military school of life: that which does not kill me, makes me stronger.”

—Friedrich Nietzsche, Götzen-Dämmerung

Yes, yes, knock yourselves without witty rejoinders about metal fatigue and polio, but Nietzsche’s aphorism articulates the fundamentally anti-fragile nature of the human being — and where it doesn’t apply neatly to individuals, it tends to apply to the species.

And consider the converse, neurotic coronavirus obsessives:

“Avoiding things that might hurt, but won’t kill me, makes me weaker.”

See also

• Antifragile: Things that Gain from Disorder