Browse Content
Life Worth Living is an initiative of the Yale Center for Faith & Culture at Yale Divinity School.
What is the role of suffering in the good life?
Nietzsche on Saying Yes to Joy
Life Worth Living Team
"Have you ever said Yes to one joy? Oh my friends, then you also said Yes to all pain..."
Listen on
Nietzsche challenges us to think about how deeply we are willing to affirm life and the world despite the great suffering it includes.
Quote + Question + Context
What is the role of suffering in a good life?
Imagine the best day of your life. What if all the pain in all of history up to that point was necessary to bring about that joyful day? Would it be worth it?
The German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900) proposes this idea through his character Zarathustra and challenges us to think about how deeply we are willing to affirm life and the world despite the great suffering it includes.
Quote
[.alt-blockquote]“Have you ever said Yes to one joy? Oh my friends, then you also said Yes to all pain. All things enchained, entwined, enamored — if you ever wanted one time two times, if you ever said ‘I like you, happiness! Whoosh! Moment!’ then you wanted everything back!”[.alt-blockquote]
[.alt-blockquote-attribution]—Friedrich Nietzsche, Thus Spoke Zarathustra, The Drunken Song, Section 10[.alt-blockquote-attribution]
Questions
- Can we appreciate suffering for the sake of suffering itself? Or does suffering, to you, only have worth because it allows us to properly express gratitude for the good?
- If suffering did not exist, would humans be able to feel joy? Does joy only exist in relation to pain?
- If you could say no to all pain, but only if you also said no to all joy, would you?
- How do you think you cope with suffering? Would remembering the potential to feel joy help you find peace?
Context
Life Worth Living: A Guide to What Matters Most, Chapter 11: ...And There's No Fixing It
Quote + Question + Context
What is the role of suffering in a good life?
Imagine the best day of your life. What if all the pain in all of history up to that point was necessary to bring about that joyful day? Would it be worth it?
The German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900) proposes this idea through his character Zarathustra and challenges us to think about how deeply we are willing to affirm life and the world despite the great suffering it includes.
Quote
[.alt-blockquote]“Have you ever said Yes to one joy? Oh my friends, then you also said Yes to all pain. All things enchained, entwined, enamored — if you ever wanted one time two times, if you ever said ‘I like you, happiness! Whoosh! Moment!’ then you wanted everything back!”[.alt-blockquote]
[.alt-blockquote-attribution]—Friedrich Nietzsche, Thus Spoke Zarathustra, The Drunken Song, Section 10[.alt-blockquote-attribution]
Questions
- Can we appreciate suffering for the sake of suffering itself? Or does suffering, to you, only have worth because it allows us to properly express gratitude for the good?
- If suffering did not exist, would humans be able to feel joy? Does joy only exist in relation to pain?
- If you could say no to all pain, but only if you also said no to all joy, would you?
- How do you think you cope with suffering? Would remembering the potential to feel joy help you find peace?
Context
Life Worth Living: A Guide to What Matters Most, Chapter 11: ...And There's No Fixing It
Pairings
Our responses to life's big questions are meant to form a coherent whole—a vision of life worth living. A response to one question will fit well with certain responses to other questions, but it will be incompatible with others. We've provided the "Pairs Well With" and "Pairs Poorly With" sections for this article to help you consider these questions of coherence.
Pairs Well With
- Determinism (the view that all things that happen could not have been otherwise)
- Radical gratitude (a la Stephen Colbert)
Pairs Poorly With
- A Pessimistic view that questions whether there really is authentic joy out there
- Ideas of suffering having value in itself
Keep browsing
Join the LWL Community
