Unquotable: Nietzsche

For my second post on this subject, I've chosen a well-known, and apparently hated, quote from Nietzsche: "That which does not kill us makes us stronger."

First, let me say this: I've never read anything at all by Nietzsche, so it's entirely possible that I've got it all wrong.  I did download Thus Spake Zarathustra: A Book for All and None by Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche, but haven't managed to get past the Introduction.  Some things are too dry even for me.

I'm not sure why, but this quote appears to be hated, maybe even loathed, by a lot of people on the internet.  In looking around, I didn't see anyone who quoted it for it's intended purpose, which I take to be some kind of motivational thing to get people to do something they don't really want to do, but which will somehow make them stronger.  Something like doing homework, or going to the gym, that sort of thing.  And, of course, most of the time doing that stuff doesn't make one feel particularly strong, and so we get resentful of the fool that first uttered those words.  I actually like it though, as it gives me an excuse to eat another Twinkie.  I guess in that regard, it might actually be making me stronger, as in, it is empowering me to do something I want to do, but think I shouldn't.

So, if your intent is to actually motivate someone, this is probably not a good choice.  It seems that everyone has already heard it, and will either: 1) argue the senselessness of the quote, or 2) twist the meaning to empower themselves to do what they really want to do.  

So, I was thinking about making this into a much more intellectual discourse, but while searching the internets, I found these two articles:

So Nietzsche WAS right: What doesn't kill you makes you stronger, scientists find

What Doesn't Kill You Makes You Weaker

Strangely, both of these articles say similar things, but according to the titles, arrive a opposite conclusions, which convinced me that there really wasn't much point in trying to intellectualize this at all.  And then, I happened on another Nietzsche quote that pretty much made any discussion of this quote moot: "There are no facts, only interpretations."  I really got the impression that the first quote was supposed to be, in some way, a fact, and yet Nietzsche himself said there are none.  But wait, if there are no facts then isn't that in itself a fact?

Okay, so I don't really buy the whole "There are no facts" thing.  I think there is at least one fact, and possibly around four or five.  The other millions of "facts" that you think you know are not really facts at all.  But what I do like about "no facts" is that it validates my own twisted interpretation of the original quote.  And so, feeling thus empowered, I think I'll end this and have another Twinkie.  Thanks, Mr. Nietzsche!