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About this quote

What does it mean?
Nietzsche plays with language, saying 'nihilist and Christ' rhyme, but also that they do not, hinting at a paradox.
In plain terms
He notes a wordplay that both works and fails.
What can you take from it?
Language can expose contradictions in concepts.

Where it applies

  • analyzing wordplay
  • discussing contradictions

Putting it to work

  • use poetic irony to critique ideas

Questions to consider

  • What does the rhyme suggest about the two ideas?
  • Why highlight the failure to rhyme?

Another view

The line is more a linguistic joke than a substantive argument.

More from Friedrich Nietzsche

  1. 'Faith' means not wanting to know what is true.

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  2. Christianity destroyed for us the whole harvest of ancient civilization, and later it also destroyed for us the whole harvest of Mohammedan civilization. The w…

    Permalink to quote #185
  3. That faith makes blessed under certain circumstances, that blessedness does not make of a fixed idea a true idea, that faith moves no mountains but puts mounta…

    Permalink to quote #182

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