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About this quote

What does it mean?
Proving a point isn’t enough; you must also persuade or inspire people, sometimes by presenting ideas as simple or even foolish.
In plain terms
Knowledge must be communicated persuasively.
What can you take from it?
Learn to present ideas in an appealing, humble way.

Where it applies

  • teaching
  • leadership

Putting it to work

  • use stories to illustrate concepts
  • adopt a modest tone

Questions to consider

  • When is simplicity deceptive?
  • How can folly be a tool without compromising truth?

Another view

Oversimplification can mislead or diminish complex ideas.

More from Friedrich Nietzsche

  1. He who lives as children live - who does not struggle for his bread and does not believe that his actions possess any ultimate significance - remains childlike.

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  2. For those who need consolation no means of consolation is so effective as the assertion that in their case no consolation is possible: it implies so great a de…

    Permalink to quote #56
  3. He who is punished is never he who performed the deed. He is always the scapegoat.

    Permalink to quote #53

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