“It doesn’t matter that this road goes nowhere. What matters is that we’re on it.”
- Bret Easton Ellis, Less than Zero
“May all your choices be so clear.”
- Wednesday, American Gods, Neil Gaiman
“Quite an experience to live in fear isn’t it? That’s what it’s like to be a slave.”
- Roy Batty, Blade Runner
“…make up your own rules. Why be a servant to the law when you can be its master?”
- Bodhi, Point Break
Nietzsche - Create Yourself or Be Yourself
“Morality is for the masses. Follow your own inner law. Become what you are.”
- Nietzsche
This quote is originally attributed to Pindar, but Nietzsche used it to explain his concept of amor fati, or the love of your own fate. It is the individual’s ability to create a masterpiece out of their life and become who they truly are.
However, according to some scholars, Nietzsche mistranslated Pindar. Taken in context, Pindar was saying “be who you are.” ‘Becoming’ connotes the molding of some inner being, but Pindar meant “unveil” your true self.
Under either interpretation, people must make a conscious decision to be themselves even when doing so clashes with society’s morals and laws.
Resist a Shallow Existence
“…there are moments where one has to choose between living one’s own life, fully, entirely, completely—or dragging out some false, shallow, degrading existence that the world and its hypocrisy demands.”
- Oscar Wilde, Lady Windermere’s Fan
“If you wake up at a different time in a different place, could you wake up as a different person?”
- Tyler Durden, Fight Club
We often daydream of ourselves as we wish to be, things that we could’ve and should’ve done differently. We replay scenarios in our head, regretting our inaction, thinking of the infinite different ways things could have played out. Wake up from that dream.
Stop thinking about what you would have done, and start looking back at what you actually did. If you’re not impressed, then it’s time to make some changes.
Don’t bend; don’t water it down; don’t try to make it logical; don’t edit your soul according to the fashion. Rather, follow your most intense obsessions mercilessly.”
- Franz Kafka
Nietzsche - The Wicked Have More Fun
“The wicked enjoy a hundred kinds of happiness of which the virtuous have no inkling…”
- Nietzsche, Daybreak
