Lou Andreas-Salome Quotes
Lou Andreas-Salome was a Russian-born German writer, philosopher, and psychoanalyst, whose intimate intellectual companionship with Friedrich Nietzsche, Paul Ree, Rainer Maria Rilke, and Sigmund Freud placed her at the center of late-nineteenth and early-twentieth-century European thought. Her early Friedrich Nietzsche in His Works gave the first sustained interpretation of Nietzsche by a thinker who had known him personally, while The Erotic and her late writings on female psychology in the Freud circle developed an original philosophy of love, narcissism, and the religious feeling, midway between continental philosophy and depth psychology. The quotes below are attributed to Lou Andreas-Salome, organized by topic.
Lou Andreas-Salome on Freedom
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“You also write: you had always thought that such complete devotion to purely intellectual goals was only meant to be a "transition" for me. What do you mean by "transition"? If other goals stand behind it, for which I must give up the most glorious and difficult thing on Earth, namely freedom, then I want to stay in this transition, because I won't give that up.”
Letter to her former teacher, Hendrik Gillot, March 26, 1882; translation by Frank Beck, 2022
Lou Andreas-Salome on God
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Attributed to Lou Andreas-Salome:
“Religion is the longing of the part for the whole, before any doctrine names it.”
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“A Prayer to Life" (Lebensgebet), 1880; translation by Frank Beck, 2015”
As truly as I'd love a friend, I always have loved you, riddling life, whether I've laughed with you or wept, whether you have brought me pleasure or strife. Even in your sorrow I love you, and, when you scatter me through space, I will tear myself out of your arms as a friend from a dear friend's embrace. With all my strength I cling to you! Let all your fire enkindle me. Even in the heat of batt
Lou Andreas-Salome on Happiness
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“As truly as I'd love a friend, I always have loved you, riddling life, whether I've laughed with you or wept, whether you have brought me pleasure or strife. Even in your sorrow I love you, and, when you scatter me through space, I will tear myself out of your arms as a friend from a dear friend's embrace. With all my strength I cling to you! Let all your fire enkindle me. Even in the heat of battle, let me unravel your mysteries. Thousands of years to live and think! In your arms I long to remain. And, when you have no more joy to give -- very well -- you still have your pain.”
A Prayer to Life" (Lebensgebet), 1880; translation by Frank Beck, 2015 -
“Conversing with Nietzsche is uncommonly lovely . . . The content of a conversation of ours really exists in what is not quite spoken but emerges from our each approaching the other half way. He gave me his hand and said earnestly and with feeling, "Never forget that it would be a calamity if you did not carve a memorial to your full innermost mind in the time left to you.”
Diary entry, August 14, 1882; cited in Rudolph Binion's Frau Lou (Princeton University Press, 1968) p. 79, translation by Rudolph Binion
Lou Andreas-Salome on Knowledge
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“Letter to her former teacher, Hendrik Gillot, March 26, 1882; translation by Frank Beck, 2022”
I can neither live according to models, nor shall I ever be able to provide a model for anyone else. On the contrary, what I shall quite certainly do is to shape my own life according to myself, whatever may come of it. In this I have no principle to put forth, but something much more wonderful -- something that is within oneself and is hot with sheer life, and rejoices and wants to come out. -
“Letter to her former teacher, Hendrik Gillot, March 26, 1882; translation by Frank Beck, 2022”
You also write: you had always thought that such complete devotion to purely intellectual goals was only meant to be a "transition" for me. What do you mean by "transition"? If other goals stand behind it, for which I must give up the most glorious and difficult thing on Earth, namely freedom, then I want to stay in this transition, because I won't give that up. -
“Letter to her former teacher, Hendrik Gillot, March 26, 1882; cited in Lou Andreas-Salome's Anneliese's House (Boydell and Brewer, 2021) p. 216, translation by Frank Beck and Raleigh Whitinger”
Let us see whether the vast majority of the so-called "insurmountable barriers" that the world draws are not harmless chalk lines! -
“Diary entry, August 14, 1882; cited in Rudolph Binion's Frau Lou (Princeton University Press, 1968) p. 79, translation by Rudolph Binion”
Conversing with Nietzsche is uncommonly lovely . . . The content of a conversation of ours really exists in what is not quite spoken but emerges from our each approaching the other half way. He gave me his hand and said earnestly and with feeling, "Never forget that it would be a calamity if you did not carve a memorial to your full innermost mind in the time left to you.
Lou Andreas-Salome on Life
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Attributed to Lou Andreas-Salome:
“Health and illness are not opposites; they are the two faces of every life.”
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Attributed to Lou Andreas-Salome:
“A philosophy that has not first been lived has not yet been thought.”
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“I can neither live according to models, nor shall I ever be able to provide a model for anyone else. On the contrary, what I shall quite certainly do is to shape my own life according to myself, whatever may come of it. In this I have no principle to put forth, but something much more wonderful -- something that is within oneself and is hot with sheer life, and rejoices and wants to come out.”
Letter to her former teacher, Hendrik Gillot, March 26, 1882; translation by Frank Beck, 2022
Lou Andreas-Salome on Love
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Attributed to Lou Andreas-Salome:
“We are not the masters of our love; love is the master of us.”
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Attributed to Lou Andreas-Salome:
“The narcissism of the soul is the original form of its love of life.”
Lou Andreas-Salome on Nature
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“Let us see whether the vast majority of the so-called "insurmountable barriers" that the world draws are not harmless chalk lines!”
Letter to her former teacher, Hendrik Gillot, March 26, 1882; cited in Lou Andreas-Salome's Anneliese's House (Boydell and Brewer, 2021) p. 216, translation by Frank Beck and Raleigh Whitinger