WIST Quotations https://wist.info Wish I'd Said That! Fri, 15 May 2026 22:39:56 +0000 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.9.4 hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.9.4 https://wist.info/wp/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/little-w-little-box-60x60.jpg perfidy – WIST Quotations https://wist.info 32 32 43606282 Nietzsche, Friedrich -- The Gay Science [Die fröhliche Wissenschaft], Book 3, § 191 (1882) [tr. Nauckhoff (2001)] https://wist.info/nietzsche-friedrich/5080/ https://wist.info/nietzsche-friedrich/5080/#respond Mon, 16 Jul 2007 20:10:15 +0000 Dave http://wist.info/wp/?p=5080 The most perfidious way of damaging a cause is deliberately to defend it with faulty arguments.

[Die perfideste Art, einer Sache zu schaden ist, sie absichtlich mit fehlerhaften Gründen vertheidigen.]


Friedrich Nietzsche (1844-1900) German philosopher and poet
The Gay Science [Die fröhliche Wissenschaft], Book 3, § 191 (1882) [tr. Nauckhoff (2001)]
    (Source)

Also known as La Gaya Scienza, The Joyful Wisdom, or The Joyous Science.

(Source (German)). Alternate translations:

The most perfidious manner of injuring a cause is to vindicate it intentionally with fallacious arguments.
[tr. Common (1911)]

The most perfidious way of harming a cause consists of defending it deliberately with faulty arguments.
[tr. Kaufmann (1974)]

One injures a cause in the most perfidious manner by deliberately defending it with erroneous reasons.
[tr. Hill (2018)]

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