Of all that is written, I love only what a person hath written with his blood.
Friedrich Nietzsche Thus Spake Zarathustra, Part I, Reading and Writing (1883) Translated by Thomas Common
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When and why it was written
- When
- The opening of the chapter Reading and Writing in Thus Spake Zarathustra, 1883.
- Why
- Zarathustra is contrasting writing that costs the writer something with idle, borrowed words.
What it means
Writing with blood means writing what you have lived. Nietzsche has no patience for words that cost nothing.
A private journal is the one place where nobody is watching, which makes it easier to write that way.
Our reading of the passage cited above, not a quotation from a commentary.
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Thus Spake Zarathustra, 1883
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