Friedrich Nietzsche
The 19th century philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche gives prominent focus to what he terms "the Brotherhood of Assassins", in section 24 of On the Genealogy of Morality. Nietzsche's signature work is to attempt the transvaluation of values, that is, to transcend the inherited Jewish and Christian politics, psychology and ethics of ressentiment and guilt. Nietzsche points to the Assassins as anti-ascetic 'free spirits' who no longer believe in metaphysical truth.
Importantly, Nietzsche attacks the false spirits who are the host of self-describing "unbelievers" of modern times who claim to reject religious deception as scholars and philosophers and yet retain the traditional refusal to question the value of truth. Nietzsche compares genuine free spirits with the Assassins: "When the Christian crusaders in the Orient came across that invincible order of Assassins – that order of free spirits par excellence whose lowest order received, through some channel or other, a hint about that symbol and spell reserved for the uppermost echelons alone, as their secret: "nothing is true, everything is permitted". Now that was freedom of the spirit, with that, belief in truth itself was renounced."
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Famous quotes by friedrich nietzsche:
“At one time or another, almost every politician needs an honest man so badly that, like a ravenous wolf, he breaks into a sheep-fold: not to devour the ram he has stolen, however, but rather to conceal himself behind its wooly back.”
—Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900)
“‘Obedience’ and ‘law’Mthat is what one hears in all moral sentiments. But ‘caprice’ and ‘freedom’ might yet be the last sound that morality makes in the end.”
—Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900)
“Many a man fails to become a thinker for the sole reason that his memory is too good.”
—Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900)
“Illusions are certainly expensive amusements: but the destruction of illusions is even more expensive—when looked upon as an amusement, which to many people is what it undeniably is.”
—Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900)
“Laughter means: taking a mischievous delight in someone else’s uneasiness, but with a good conscience.”
—Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900)