When you look into an abyss, the abyss also looks into you.
Friedrich Nietzsche Beyond Good and Evil, §146 (1886) Translated by R. J. Hollingdale
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When and why it was written
- When
- Published in 1886.
- Why
- Nietzsche placed it immediately after the monster warning, as its consequence.
What it means
Where the first half of the aphorism is about becoming what you fight, this half is about what sustained attention does on its own.
The abyss does nothing. It is looking that establishes the relation, and the looker who assumed they were merely observing is the one who has changed.
Our reading of the passage cited above, not a quotation from a commentary.
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Beyond Good and Evil, 1886
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