On the Genealogy of Morals

by

Friedrich Nietzsche

Wagner is a German operatic composer; he’s Nietzsche’s former friend but current enemy. Nietzsche thinks that Wagner used to be a good artist but became seduced by Christianity in later life, which ruined his art. To Nietzsche, Wagner’s earlier operas (like Luther’s Wedding) were bold, creative, complex, and interesting. Nietzsche thinks Wagner’s later operas (like Parsifal) become shallow vehicles for moral posturing, which makes them both bad and culturally damaging.

Richard Wagner Quotes in On the Genealogy of Morals

The On the Genealogy of Morals quotes below are all either spoken by Richard Wagner or refer to Richard Wagner . For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
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What Do Ascetic Ideals Mean? Quotes

What is the meaning of ascetic ideals?

Related Characters: Friedrich Nietzsche (speaker), Ascetic priest, Richard Wagner , Arthur Schopenhauer , Immanuel Kant
Page Number: 83
Explanation and Analysis:

At any rate, this should be the case with all mortals who are sound in mind and body, who are far from regarding their delicate balance between ‘animal’ and ‘angel’ as necessarily an objection to existence—the brightest and most insightful of them, such as Goethe and Hafiz, have even seen in this another of life's charms. Such ‘conflicts’ actually make life all the more enticing.

Related Characters: Friedrich Nietzsche (speaker), Richard Wagner , Parsifal , Johann Wolfgang von Goethe , Hafiz
Page Number: 84-85
Explanation and Analysis:

He suddenly realized that more could be effected by the novelty of the Schopenhauerian […] notion of the sovereignty of music, as Schopenhauer understood it; music set apart from and distinguished from all the other arts, music as the independent art-in-itself, not like the other arts, affording images of the phenomenal world, but rather speaking the language of the will itself, straight out of the ‘abyss,’ as its most personal, original and direct manifestation.

Related Characters: Friedrich Nietzsche (speaker), Richard Wagner , Arthur Schopenhauer , Parsifal
Page Number: 89
Explanation and Analysis:
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Richard Wagner Quotes in On the Genealogy of Morals

The On the Genealogy of Morals quotes below are all either spoken by Richard Wagner or refer to Richard Wagner . For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
Good and Evil Theme Icon
).
What Do Ascetic Ideals Mean? Quotes

What is the meaning of ascetic ideals?

Related Characters: Friedrich Nietzsche (speaker), Ascetic priest, Richard Wagner , Arthur Schopenhauer , Immanuel Kant
Page Number: 83
Explanation and Analysis:

At any rate, this should be the case with all mortals who are sound in mind and body, who are far from regarding their delicate balance between ‘animal’ and ‘angel’ as necessarily an objection to existence—the brightest and most insightful of them, such as Goethe and Hafiz, have even seen in this another of life's charms. Such ‘conflicts’ actually make life all the more enticing.

Related Characters: Friedrich Nietzsche (speaker), Richard Wagner , Parsifal , Johann Wolfgang von Goethe , Hafiz
Page Number: 84-85
Explanation and Analysis:

He suddenly realized that more could be effected by the novelty of the Schopenhauerian […] notion of the sovereignty of music, as Schopenhauer understood it; music set apart from and distinguished from all the other arts, music as the independent art-in-itself, not like the other arts, affording images of the phenomenal world, but rather speaking the language of the will itself, straight out of the ‘abyss,’ as its most personal, original and direct manifestation.

Related Characters: Friedrich Nietzsche (speaker), Richard Wagner , Arthur Schopenhauer , Parsifal
Page Number: 89
Explanation and Analysis: