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Who really said it

He who has a why to live can bear almost any how

Written by Friedrich Nietzsche 1844–1900 · German philosopher and philologist
Verified In copyright

The aphorism is genuinely his — Götzen-Dämmerung (Twilight of the Idols), written 1888 and published January 1889, ‘Sprüche und Pfeile’ (Maxims and Arrows) No. 12: “Hat man sein warum? des Lebens, so verträgt man sich fast mit jedem wie?” The twist is the English: the wording everyone quotes is not from any translation of Nietzsche. It descends from Ilse Lasch’s 1959 translation of Viktor Frankl’s Man’s Search for Meaning, where Frankl quotes him.

Last verified 20 Jul 2026 · how we verify · spot an error?

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“He who has a why to live can bear almost any how” Hat man sein warum? des Lebens, so verträgt man sich fast mit jedem wie? —Friedrich Nietzsche, Götzen-Dämmerung, Sprüche und Pfeile 12 (1889). Public-domain English (Ludovici, 1911): "If a man knows the wherefore of his existence, then the manner of it can take care of itself."

Can you use it?

Still under copyright (rights held by Ilse Lasch translation (Beacon Press) — for the popular English wording). A short, credited quote is generally fine for talks, teaching, and internal decks; for commercial, published, or large-scale reuse, get permission.

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In context

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Provenance

The source

Work
Götzen-Dämmerung (Twilight of the Idols), ‘Sprüche und Pfeile’ No. 12
Written / published
1888; published January 1889, in German
Popular English
Ilse Lasch, 1959 — translating Viktor Frankl, not Nietzsche
Author
Friedrich Nietzsche, 1844–1900

Hat man sein warum? des Lebens, so verträgt man sich fast mit jedem wie? — Der Mensch strebt nicht nach Glück; nur der Engländer tut das. Twilight of the Idols, 1889

Maxims and Arrows No. 12 entire, in Nietzsche’s German. The famous half is the first clause; the second is a jab at English utilitarianism that quotation almost always discards.

Quote Investigator — the translation history

How we traced it

  • The German is Maxims and Arrows No. 12 of Götzen-Dämmerung — and note the second half, almost never quoted: ‘Man does not strive for happiness; only the Englishman does that.’ The aphorism is a joke at England’s expense as much as a maxim about endurance German text ↗.
  • No Nietzsche translator produced the famous sentence. Ludovici (1911, public domain) has ‘If a man knows the wherefore of his existence, then the manner of it can take care of itself’; Kaufmann (1954) ‘If we have our own why of life…’; Hollingdale (1968) ‘If we possess our why of life…’ Ludovici 1911 ↗.
  • The wording in circulation traces instead to Ilse Lasch’s 1959 English of Frankl’s Man’s Search for Meaning: ‘He who has a why to live for can bear with almost any how.’ The popular form drops Lasch’s ‘for’ and ‘with.’ The Nietzsche quote the anglophone world knows is really Frankl’s translator’s sentence Quote Investigator ↗.
In copyright

Split, and this is the part people get wrong. Nietzsche’s German is public domain worldwide — he died in 1900 — so you may quote and translate the original freely. But the English sentence you are almost certainly about to use is not his translator’s and is still in copyright: it descends from Ilse Lasch’s 1959 rendering of Frankl. Kaufmann (1954) and Hollingdale (1968) are also protected. For a genuinely free English text use Ludovici’s 1911 translation — ‘If a man knows the wherefore of his existence, then the manner of it can take care of itself’ — or translate the German yourself. This is not legal advice.

Fact-check

Right philosopher, borrowed English

The attribution is correct: Nietzsche wrote this. What almost nobody realises is that the English sentence they are quoting was written seventy years later, by a translator working on a different book.

Ilse Lasch (1959) translator of Frankl, not Nietzsche

‘He who has a why to live for can bear with almost any how’ is Lasch’s English in Man’s Search for Meaning, where Frankl quotes Nietzsche. No Nietzsche translation reads this way, and the popular form trims her ‘for’ and ‘with’ translation history ↗.

‘only the Englishman does that’ truncated

The aphorism continues: ‘Man does not strive for happiness; only the Englishman does that.’ The quotation always stops before the joke, which changes a barbed aside into a piece of pure uplift German original ↗.

‘Nietzsche died in 1900’ rights error

True of the German, false of the sentence being reproduced. The popular English descends from a 1959 translation still in copyright; the free alternative, Ludovici’s 1911, reads quite differently public-domain text ↗.

Genuinely Nietzsche, Twilight of the Idols (1889), Maxims and Arrows 12 — but the famous English is Frankl’s translator’s, and is in copyright. Use the German, or Ludovici’s 1911 rendering, to reuse it freely translation history ↗.

Context

Why it resonates

Frankl is the reason it matters to most people. He used it in Man’s Search for Meaning to describe what distinguished those who survived the camps — not strength or optimism, but having something specific left to live for. In that setting the line stops being an aphorism and becomes a clinical observation.

Nietzsche’s own use was lighter and more sardonic, sitting in a run of one-line provocations and turning immediately into a joke about the English. The sentence acquired its gravity from the man who borrowed it.

The Nietzsche quote everyone knows is really Frankl's translator's sentence.

Five English versions of the same sentence

German (1889): ‘Hat man sein warum? des Lebens, so verträgt man sich fast mit jedem wie?’

Thomas Common (1896): ‘When one has one’s wherefore of life, one gets along with almost every how.’

Ludovici (1911, public domain): ‘If a man knows the wherefore of his existence, then the manner of it can take care of itself.’

Kaufmann (1954): ‘If we have our own why of life, we shall get along with almost any how.’

Ilse Lasch, translating Frankl (1959): ‘He who has a why to live for can bear with almost any how’ — the ancestor of the popular form.

Explore

Filed under

More provenance-checked quotes on the same theme, each with its reuse status.

Purpose Resilience

Go further

Dig deeper

Trusted places to keep pulling the thread — primary archives, fact-checks, and scholarship. We show how we used each one before you leave.

He Who Has a Why to Live Can Bear Almost Any Howquoteinvestigator.com

The translation history — Common, Ludovici, Kaufmann, Hollingdale, and the Lasch/Frankl line that produced the popular wording.
The Twilight of the Idols (Ludovici translation, 1911)www.gutenberg.org

The public-domain English text of Maxims and Arrows — free to reuse, and notably different from the popular wording.
Götzen-Dämmerung — Sprüche und Pfeile (German)www.textlog.de

Nietzsche’s original German, public domain, including the discarded second half of the aphorism.

The true author

About Friedrich Nietzsche

Friedrich Nietzsche

1844–1900 · German philosopher & philologist

Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900) wrote Twilight of the Idols in a few weeks in 1888, months before the collapse that ended his working life. Its opening section, ‘Maxims and Arrows,’ is a run of single-sentence provocations, of which this is the twelfth. Its modern fame is largely secondhand: Viktor Frankl quoted it in Man’s Search for Meaning, and it is Frankl’s translator’s English, not Nietzsche’s translators’, that the world memorised.

For writers & researchers

Cite this

Primary source — Chicago

Nietzsche, Friedrich. Götzen-Dämmerung (Twilight of the Idols), ‘Sprüche und Pfeile’ No. 12. Leipzig, 1889.

MLA (9th ed.)

Nietzsche, Friedrich. Twilight of the Idols. 1889, “Maxims and Arrows,” no. 12.

APA (7th ed.)

Nietzsche, F. (1889). Maxims and arrows, no. 12. In Twilight of the idols.

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Quotle.info. “Who really said ‘He who has a why to live can bear almost any how’?” Last verified 20 Jul 2026. https://quotle.info/who-said/he-who-has-a-why-to-live-can-bear-almost-any-how

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