“Human, All Too Human” Friedrich Nietzsche (1878) Review | Surprisingly entertaining

★★★★★  It’s Nietzsche, of course I struggled. But it doesn’t mean I regretted it, no it was interesting and actually entertaining. I picked up a few good ones, so in case you are hesitating, give it a go from here.

🔽 log 🔽
Human, All Too Human: A Book for Free Spirits
Friedrich Nietzsche, 1878
Menschliches, Allzumenschliches: Ein Buch für freie Geister
Germany
304 pages
Read in 2025.10


🔽 Book review and notes 🔽

I was too ambitious, even though I did like the shorter version of this book, it's Nietzsche, of course I struggled.
But it doesn't mean I regretted it, no it was interesting and actually entertaining.

It's a collection of aphorisms when he was younger, so it's probably not as "established", the good thing is each aphorism is short, sometimes just a line.
The bad thing is, there are 638 of them and many are deep, you try to understand it, reread it, then he's already on another topic.
When he refers to specific people, like Schopenhauer, whom he seems to be influenced greatly in this period, it's not easy because I don't know them.
But I get the general idea of his thoughts and what he is trying to say here.
A free man, a man who thinks for himself, free from religions and conservative customs.
He's misogynistic but we all know that anyway so nothing new.
There are some phrases that are strangely, awkwardly funny.

After all, the title suggests it, we're all too human




Here are some of the ones I made notes of as FYI in case you are hesitating, it's not scary, it's challenging but worth it, I'll make you laugh too.
(English translation from the version I read, by Marion Faber, Penguin Classics)

58
One can promise actions, but not feelings, for the latter is involuntary. 

61
Passion will not wait

68 
...the victory of Christianity over Greek philosophy is... that something more crude and violent has triumphed over something more spiritual and delicate. 

105
"The wise man punishes not because men have acted badly, but so they will not act badly"

120
If the belief did not make us happy, it would not be believed 

265
European's superiority, compared to Asians, in their learned ability to give reasons for what they believe, which Asians are wholly incapable of doing.
... Asian still does not know how to distinguish between truth and poetry.

303
We often contradict an opinion, while actually it is only the tone with which it was advanced that we find disagreeable. 

335
We hear the hostile mood of our neighbour because we are afraid that this mood will help him discover our secrets.

388
A few men have sighed because their women were abducted: most, because no one wanted to abduct them.

472
...when government feels itself unable to do anything directly to alleviate the private man's inner suffering... and initially unpreventable misfortunes... religion gives the masses a calm, patient and trusting bearing.

494
Many people are obstinate about the path once it is taken, few about the destination. 

499
Shared joy, not compassion, makes a friend. 

508
We like to be out in nature so much because it has no opinion about us.

523
The demand to be loved is the greatest kind of arrogance.

563
A man suffers little from unfulfilled wishes if he has trained his imagination to think of the past as hateful.

589
The best way to begin each day well is to think upon awakening whether we could not give at least one person pleasure on this day. If this practice could be accepted as a substitute for the religious habit of prayer, our fellow men would benefit by this change.

🔽 Where to buy / Summary and more info 🔽

●●● Amazon.com (US) ●●●

Human, All Too Human

●●● Amazon.co.uk (UK) ●●●
Human, All Too Human: Friedrich Nietzsche

●●● Amazon.it (Italy) ●●●
Umano, troppo umano (Vol. 1) (Italiano)