Walter Kaufmann Quotes
Walter Arnold Kaufmann was a German-American philosopher, translator, and poet and the principal English-language interpreter of Nietzsche in the second half of the twentieth century. Forced into exile from Nazi Germany in 1939 as a teenager of Jewish descent, he settled in the United States, served in army intelligence during the Second World War, and after the war took a long professorship at Princeton. The quotes below are attributed to Walter Kaufmann, organized by topic.
Walter Kaufmann on Freedom
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Attributed to Walter Kaufmann:
“Existentialism is the philosophy of authentic individuality.”
Walter Kaufmann on God
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Attributed to Walter Kaufmann:
“Religion at its best is a way of asking questions, not of refusing them.”
Walter Kaufmann on Knowledge
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Attributed to Walter Kaufmann:
“To translate is to read with double care.”
Walter Kaufmann on Truth
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Attributed to Walter Kaufmann:
“Nietzsche was no proto-Nazi; his thought is the most resolute opposition to mass conformism.”
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Attributed to Walter Kaufmann:
“Tragedy is the noblest answer to the absurd.”