That which doesn’t kill you makes you stronger. (Or not.)

NIETZSCHE’S FAMOUS MAXIM: “What does not kill me makes me stronger.” (“Was mich nicht umbringt macht mich stärker.”)        Friedrich Nietzsche (1844-1900)        German philosopher        His famous maxim in Twilight of the Idols (1888)         The sayings “That which doesn’t kill you makes you stronger,” “That which doesn’t kill me makes me stronger” and similar lines are all descendants of the aphorism above, which comes from the “Maxims and Arrows” section of Nietzsche’s book Twilight of the Idols. His original German line has been translated in several ways. Sometimes “Whatever” or “That which” is used in place of “What.” Sometimes “destroy” or some other verb is used in place of “kill” (though the German word Nietzsche used, umbringt, is derived from the verb umbringen, which is generally translated as meaning “to kill”).               Today, English translations and variations of Nietzsche’s maxim are often used for ironic effect. But they are also frequently used in a positive way, to express optimism and determination in the face of adversity.

JAX TELLER’S COUNTERQUOTE: “There’s an old saying: that which doesn’t kill you makes you stronger. I don’t believe that. I think the things that try to kill you make you angry and sad. Strength comes from the good things — your family, your friends, the satisfaction of hard work. Those are the things that keep you whole. Those are the things to hold on to when you’re broken.”        Jackson “Jax” Teller (played by actor Charlie Hunnam)         Speaking in a voiceover in the “Sovereign” episode of the TV series Sons of Anarchy. (Season 5, Episode 1. First aired September 11, 2012)

CHUCK LORRE’S COUNTERQUOTE: “What doesn’t kill us makes us bitter. I used to believe that to be both funny and true...I now have a thicker skin, I’m less likely to sweat the small stuff, and, perhaps most importantly, I have a renewed sense of humility. All in all, better. That being said, I still try to stay reasonably bitter in order to maintain my eligibility in the Writers Guild of America.”          Chuck Lorre        American TV show producer        An excerpt from one of the popular “vanity cards” shown at the end of television shows he produces. This one comes from the “Spy Gaming” episode of his sitcom Big Bang Theory. (Season 4 Episode 22, first aired on May 5, 2011.) Lorre picked What Doesn't Kill Us Makes Us Bitter as the title of a book collecting his TV vanity cards.

TAYARI’S COUNTERQUOTE: “People say, That which doesn’t kill you makes you stronger. But they are wrong. What doesn’t kill you, doesn’t kill you. That’s all you get. Sometimes, you just have to hope that’s enough.”                         Tayari Jones        American novelist        In the epilogue of her novel Silver Sparrow (2011)

CHOKO’S COUNTER-COUNTERQUOTE: “Of course, what doesn’t make you stronger, will kill you, so there’s also that.”                        Kaarli Sylvester Makela (a.k.a. Choko)        American author        In her book Pure Speculation: One Juggalo’s Strange Story (2005)

See more witty variations of “What does not kill me…” in this previous QuoteCounterquote.com post . . . 

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Related reading and viewing…

“The past is a foreign country...”

L.P. HARTLEY’S OFT-QUOTED APHORISM: “The past is a foreign country: they do things differently there.”        Leslie P. Hartley (1895-1972)        British novelist and short story writer        The first sentence in his novel The Go-Between (1953)        This is one of the most famous opening lines in modern literary history. It sets the stage for a story about class differences, sexual mores and love in England during the early Twentieth Century. The novel is written as the reminiscence of Leo Colston, a British man in his sixties. In looking through some of his old possessions, Colston comes across a diary he wrote in 1900 when he was thirteen. This sparks memories of the role he played as a fairly clueless “go-between” who carried messages back and forth for an older, upper class girl who was having a socially taboo affair with a “lower class” tenant farmer.        The opening words of the novel have essentially become a modern proverbial saying.

THE JOE BIDEN DILEMMA: “To young progressives, Biden is a voice of the past. The English novelist L.P. Hartley once wrote, ‘The past is a foreign country; they do things differently there.’ Like bipartisanship and compromise. And collaboration with outright racists. To older Democrats, however, the past is when things used to work — before Trump came along to cause chaos and disruption. They’re counting on Biden to restore that past.”         Bill Schneider         Political journalist, Professor at George Mason University and author of Standoff: How America Became Ungovernable         In an opinion piece published on The Hill website, July 7, 2019

THE NOSTALGIC VIEWPOINT: “The past may be a foreign country where they do things differently as the L. P. Hartley line has it, but it is one to which many would readily immigrate given the opportunity.”        Michael Sacasas        American writer and theologian        In a post about the Woody Allen movie Midnight in Paris (2011) on his blog “The Fairest Thing”

ANTI-NOSTALGIA VIEWPOINT #1: “It’s easy to get washed along in nostalgia, to end up overshadowed by the past, because the past is a perfect country, a place we’ve made better in our heads through selective amnesia.”                       Emily Todd VanDerWerff        American TV reviewer and critic         Reflecting on the HBO series about mobsters, The Sopranos, in a post on the AV Club website

ANTI-NOSTALGIA VIEWPOINT #2: “If the past is a foreign country, it is a shockingly violent one. It is easy to forget how dangerous life used to be, how deeply brutality was once woven into the fabric of daily existence. Cultural memory pacifies the past, leaving us with pale souvenirs whose bloody origins have been bleached away. A woman donning a cross seldom reflects that this instrument of torture was a common punishment in the ancient world; nor does a person who speaks of a whipping boy ponder the old practice of flogging an innocent child in place of a misbehaving prince. We are surrounded by signs of the depravity of our ancestors’ way of life, but we are barely aware of them. Just as travel broadens the mind, a literal-minded tour of our cultural heritage can awaken us to how differently they did things in the past.”        Steven Pinker        Canadian-born Harvard psychologist and author        From his book The Better Angels of Our Nature: Why Violence Has Declined (2013)

THE BEAT WRITER’S VIEWPOINT: “All of life is a foreign country.”        Jack Kerouac (1922–1969)        American writer and founding father of the Beat movement in literature        In a letter he wrote on June 24, 1949, cited in the book The Beat Vision: A Primary Sourcebook

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Related reading, watching and listening…

“Know thyself.” (And thy enemy.)

  

FAMOUS MAXIM OF THE GREEK SAGES: “Know thyself.” (“Gnothi seauton.”)        A saying inscribed at the Greek Temple of Apollo at Delphi (4th century BC)                     This oft-quoted advice is generally attributed to “The Seven Sages of Greece,” a group of famous Greek philosophers, statesmen and politicians. It’s one of 147 pithy sayings inscribed at Delphi.                     Some of those sayings have been attributed to specific sages. For example, “Know thyself” has been credited to the philosopher Thales, the Greek statesman Solon, and several other Greek wise men.        However, it’s likely that it and many other maxims inscribed at the Temple of Delphi are proverbial sayings that predate the Seven Sages.

THE CHINESE SAGE’S VERSION: “He who knows others is wise. He who knows himself is enlightened.”                     One of the most-cited quotes from the Tao Te Ching (a.k.a. the  Daodejing or Dao De Jing), a fundamental text of Taoism dating back to the 6th Century BC        This quote is traditionally attributed to Lao-Tzu (a.k.a.  Lao-Tze or Laozi), the legendary, possibly mythical founder of Taoism who is generally credited with authorship of the Tao Te Ching.          Modern scholars tend to believe that text is probably a compilation of ancient Chinese wisdom, rather than the creation of one man.

THE CHINESE GENERAL’S VERSION: “Know your enemy and know yourself, find naught in fear for 100 battles. Know yourself but not your enemy, find level of loss and victory. Know thy enemy but not yourself, wallow in defeat every time.”         Sun-Tzu (c. 544 BC-496 BC)         Chinese general, military strategist, and philosopher                      This is one of the most popular pieces of wisdom in his famed work The Art of War (5th century BC).         Although “Know thy enemy” and the variation “Know thine enemy” sound like and are sometimes assumed to be Biblical in origin, there is no such quote in the Bible. (Check it yourself if you don’t believe me.)

“POOR RICHARD’S” OBSERVATION: “There are three things extremely hard: steel, a diamond, and to know one’s self.”        Benjamin Franklin (1705-1790)        American author, inventor, writer, publisher and statesman        A saying recorded the 1750 edition of Poor Richard’s Almanack, a yearly almanac published by Franklin under the pseudonym of “Poor Richard” Saunders.

A BRIT WIT’S COUNTERQUOTE: “Only the shallow know themselves.”        Oscar Wilde (1854-1900)        Irish poet and playwright        From his collection of aphorisms “Phrases and Philosophies for the Use of the Young,” first published in December 1894 in the one and only issue of the Oxford student magazine The Chameleon.

A FRENCH WRITER’S COUNTERQUTE: “‘Know Thyself’ – a maxim as pernicious as it is odious. A person observing himself would arrest his own development. Any caterpillar who tried to ‘know himself’ would never become a butterfly.”        André Gide (1869-1951)        French writer and left-leaning political activist        A comment in his 1935 book Les Nouvelles Nourritures, meaning “The New Foods” in English. That rambling, part-philosophical, part-poetic, part-political work is a followup to Gide’s Les Nourritures Terrestres, or “Foods of the Earth,” (1897).

HENRY MILLER’S DARK VIEW: “The study of crime begins with the knowledge of oneself.”        Henry Miller (1891-1980)        American writer best known for his boundary-pushing, semi-autobiographical novels                     A line from his memoir The Air-Conditioned Nightmare (1945), an account of a year-long trip he took across the United States in 1939 after living in Paris for nearly a decade.         After the quote above, Miller goes on to say: “All that you despise, all that you loathe, all that you reject, all that you condemn and seek to convert by punishment springs from you. The source of it is God whom you place outside, above and beyond. Crime is identification, first with God, then with your own image.” For fun, also see the video riff on “Know thyself” that I posted on YouTube.

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Related reading…

“What does not kill me makes me stronger” – from Nietzsche and The Donald to Miley and Conan…

NIETZSCHE’S FAMOUS MAXIM: “What does not kill me makes me stronger.” (“Was mich nicht umbringt macht mich stärker.”)        Friedrich Nietzsche (1844-1900)        German philosopher and poet        In the “Maxims and Arrows” section of his book Twilight of the Idols (1888)        This famous line by Nietzsche has been translated and paraphrased in various ways, often with Whatever or That which in place of the word What, doesn’t instead of does not, and destroy or some other verb in place of kill. Nietzsche used a similar line in Ecce Homo (written 1888, published 1908), the last book he wrote before going completely insane. In the chapter of Ecce Homo titled “Why I Am So Wise,” he wrote that a person who has “turned out well” could be recognized by certain attributes, such as a knack for exploiting bad accidents to his advantage. Regarding such a man, Nietzsche said: “What does not kill him makes him stronger.” (“Was ihn nicht umbringt, macht ihn stärker.”)

THE DONALD TRUMP MAXIM: “What doesn’t kill Trump makes him stronger. And louder.”        Sarah Rense        Assistant Editor at Esquire magazine        In a post about FOX News anchor Megyn Kelly's feud with Donald Trump on the Esquire.com website. (Cartoon by Tom Stiglich, TomStiglich.com.)

THE MILEY CYRUS MAXIM: “In our celebrity-obsessed culture, whatever outrageous act doesn’t manage to kill a celebrity’s career simply makes them a bigger celebrity.”         Comment posted by “JohnnyYuma” on the ABC News story about Miley Cyrus and her “twerking” performance on the August 2013 MTV Video Music Awards show

MEL’S STRENGTH-THROUGH-HUMILIATION SYSTEM: “You ask anybody what their number one fear is and it’s public humiliation. Multiply that on a global scale and that’s what I've been through. It changes you and makes you one tough motherf**ker. What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger. It’s really that simple.”        Mel Gibson         In a January 2010 interview in The Telegraph         Commenting on what he learned after the publicity flap over his 2006 arrest for DUI and the anti-Semitic remarks he made to the cops who arrested him. Mel told The Telegraph the incident had a positive effect on his life and he had learned from his mistakes. The interview came out before his highly-publicized, ranting attacks on his former girlfriend Oksana Grigorieva, which made Mel even stronger (and even less marketable as an actor).

THE JOKER’S VARIATION: “I believe whatever doesn’t kill you simply makes you stranger.”        Heath Ledger, as the Batman villain The Joker, in the movie The Dark Knight (2008)

ANGELINA’S VARIATION: “quod me nutrit   me destruit.”        Latin saying tattooed on Angelina Jolie’s lower abdomen        In English, it means “What nourishes me also destroys me.”

THE SCREW YOU VERSION: “Whatever hurts you makes me stronger.”          Leslie Stefanson, as the character Capt. Elisabeth Campbell, in the movie The General’s Daughter (1999)

THE SHARED PHILOSPHY OF CONAN AND CLAIREE: “That which does not kill us makes us stronger.”        Quote shown at the beginning of the Arnold Schwarzenegger movie Conan the Barbarian (1982) and also used as a quip by Clairee Belcher (actress Olympia Dukakis) in the movie Steel Magnolias (1989).

Here’s a link to another Quote/Counterquote post with variations on Nietzsche’s famous maxim.

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“I think, therefore I am” — and some variations I think are funny (therefore they are)…

FAMOUS PHILOSOPHER’S QUOTE: “Cogito ergo sum.” (“I think, therefore I am.”)        René Descartes (1596-1650)        French mathematician and philosopher          Famous axiom in his book Principia Philosophiae (Principles of Philosophy, 1644)        Descartes first recorded the axiom in French, as “Je pense, donc je suis,” in his philosophical and mathematical treatise, Le Discours de la Méthode (A Discourse on Method, 1637). However, the Latin version from Principia Philosophiae — “Cogito ergo sum” — is better known.        The French and Latin versions of the quote have traditionally been translated in English as “I think, therefore I am.”        Alternate translations include “I am thinking, therefore I am” and “I am thinking, therefore I exist.”

THE PRESIDENT TRUMP TWEET THEORY VARIATION: “He tweets, therefore he is. Twitter gives him a platform to say whatever he wants completely unfiltered. The media can’t and won’t do that for him.”        John Feehery        Republican political consultant        Quoted in an article media writer James Warren posted on the Vanity Fair website on December 6, 2016        (Cartoon by Kim Warp.)

A FAMOUS HUNTER’S VARIATION: “We eat, therefore we hunt.”        Sarah Palin        Conservative American politician, celebrity and avid hunter         This comes from the rambling speech Palin gave on July 26, 2009, announcing her resignation as Governor of Alaska. The full quote is: “Stand strong, and remind them patriots will protect our guaranteed, individual right to bear arms, and by the way, Hollywood needs to know, we eat, therefore we hunt.”

AN AVANT-GARDE PAINTER’S VARIATION: “I Suck Therefore I Am”         Agus Suwage          Indonesian artist        This is the title of the 2004 painting by Suwage shown at left. At the time, it was estimated to be worth up to 207,000 Malaysian Ringgits (over $61,975 in U.S. currency). Other works by Suwage have sold for even more, so I guess some people don’t think he sucks.

THE SHOPAHOLIC VARIATION: “I Shop Therefore I Am”        Barbara Kruger        American multimedia artist          These words on the artwork by Kruger shown at left are seemingly a send-up of consumerism. But ironically, the image was later used on tote bags and t-shirts sold by Bloomingdale’s.

THE ALCOHOLIC TEACHER VARIATION: “I Teach Therefore I Drink”          A slogan on t-shirts sold on Amazon and other sites. They seem to be quite popular. I’m not sure what that says about the teaching profession.

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Some books with a title or subtitle based on Descartes’ quote (there are even more)…

“Life is unfair…”

JFK’S FAMED OBSERVATION: “Life is unfair.”        President John F. Kennedy (1917-1963)        American Democratic politician who served as the 35th President of the United States               This famous pithy quote comes from comments Kennedy made in a press conference on March 21, 1962. It’s one of JFK’s most widely-cited quotations, though few people today are aware of the context. It was part of his response to a question about U.S. Army reservists who had publicly objected to being called up to serve as “military advisors” in Vietnam. Kennedy had recently increased the American military presence in Vietnam to nearly 10,000 troops. Some reservists had expressed their opposition by holding public demonstrations.        When asked about those protests, Kennedy responded: “Some men are killed in a war and some men are wounded, and some men never leave the country, and some men are stationed in the Antarctic and some are stationed in San Francisco. It’s very hard in military or in personal life to assure complete equality. Life is unfair.”        For more background see the entry about this quote on my ThisDayinQuotes.com site and Garson O’Toole’s post about it on his great QuoteInvestigator.com site.

SCALZI’S CLARIFICATION: “There’s a difference between the fact that the universe is inherently unfair on a cosmic level, and the fact that life is unfair because people are actively making it so.”        John Scalzi        American science fiction author         A comment Scalzi made in a post on his blog about homophobia. As he notes in the next sentence in that post: “There’s not much one can do about the former, but the latter is fixable.”

MARABOLI’S MAXIM: “The only thing that makes life unfair is the delusion that it should be fair.”        Steve Maraboli        American behavioral scientist, motivational speaker and author         From his book Unapologetically You: Reflections on Life and the Human Experience

USTINOV’S UNCONFIRMED QUIP: “Life is unfair but remember sometimes it is unfair in your favor.”        Attributed to Peter Ustinov (1921-2004)        British actor and writer         This quip is attributed to Ustinov by hundreds of posts on the Internet, but none that I found gave any source. If you can confirm that it’s a real quote by Ustinov and know the source, please shoot me an email and let me know.

LOWE’S COUNTERQUOTE: “Nothing in life is unfair. It’s just life.”        Rob Lowe        American actor        In his autobiography Stories I Only Tell My Friends

A THOUGHT ABOUT MARILYN: “At her death the world looked for villains. It found only the troubling truths that life is unfair and cruel, that we see human despair too late, that courage is not always enough.”         From the narration for the classic 1966 documentary film The Legend of Marilyn Monroe, produced shortly after Marilyn’s death.        Script by Theodore Strauss and Terry Sanders (who also directed the film). Actor John Huston is the narrator.

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