Friedrich Nietzsche Camel Quotes

Three metamorphoses of the spirit have I designated to you: how the spirit became a camel, the camel a lion, and the lion at last a child.

What is heavy? so asks the spirit that would bear much, and then kneels down like the camel, and wants to be well laden.

If I make up the definition of a mammal, and then, after inspecting a camel, declare "look, a mammal' I have indeed brought a truth to light in this way, but it is a truth of limited value. That is to say, it is a thoroughly anthropomorphic truth which contains not a single point which would be "true in itself" or really and universally valid apart from man. At bottom, what the investigator of such truths is seeking is only the metamorphosis of the world into man.

Three metamorphoses of the spirit do I designate to you: how the spirit becometh a camel, the camel a lion, and the lion at last a child.

All of these heaviest things the carrying spirit takes upon itself, like a loaded camel that hurries into the desert, thus it hurries into its desert.

Three metamorphoses of the spirit I named for you: how the spirit became a camel, and the camel a lion, and finally the lion a child

only by bearing the burdens of the existing law and submitting to it patiently, as the camel submits to being laden, does the free spirit acquire that ascendancy over tradition which enables him to meet and master the dragon

If someone hides a thing behind a bush, looks for it and finds it again there, then there is not much to be boasted about in this search and finding: but this is how it is with the search and finding of the "truth" within the area of reason. If I make the definition of the mammal and then, after seeing a camel, declare: See, a mammal, then indeed a truth is brought to light, but it is of limited value, I mean, it is through and through anthropomorphic and contains not a single point that is “true in itself”, really and universally valid, apart from the person. The researcher for such truths is basically only looking for the metamorphosis of the world in man; he struggles to understand the world as a human-like thing and, at best, fights for the feeling of assimilation. Just as the astrologer regards the stars in the service of men and in connection with their happiness and suffering, such a researcher regards the whole world as linked to man, as the infinitely broken echo of a primordial sound, man, as the multiplied image of the an archetype, of man. His procedure is: to hold man as a measure of all things, but he proceeds from the error of believing that he has these things immediately before him as pure objects. So he forgets the original visual metaphors as metaphors and takes them as the things themselves.

I have spoken to you of three metamorphoses of the spirit: how the spirit becomes a camel, the camel a lion and finally, the lion a child. —