- Lived:
- 1844–1900 · Röcken (Saxony), Basel, then a decade of rented rooms across the Alps and the Riviera
- Tradition:
- German; the genealogy of morals and the revaluation of all values — philosophy with a hammer
- The Big Idea:
- European civilization has quietly killed the God its values stood on; unless we learn where our morals actually came from and become strong enough to create values worth living by, nihilism — the sense that nothing matters — will swallow us.
- In their words:
- "God is dead. God remains dead. And we have killed him."
- If you remember one thing:
- The philosopher stolen by the Nazis wanted, in his own furious words, all anti-Semites shot — his real question was never about race or conquest but about health: are your values signs of a life ascending, or a life in decline?