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Who really said it

Trust no one in whom the desire to punish is strong

Not Fyodor Dostoevsky — a paraphrase of Nietzsche Friedrich Nietzsche 1844–1900 · German philosopher & classical philologist
Disputed Free to reuse

Dostoevsky is not the source: Wikiquote lists this line among quotations misattributed to him ↗. The one documented origin for any variant is Nietzsche's Thus Spoke Zarathustra (Part Two, “The Tarantulas,” 1883), which in Thomas Common's translation reads “distrust all in whom the impulse to punish is powerful!” The circulating “desire to punish is strong” wording is a loose paraphrase (also pinned on Goethe), not a phrase found verbatim in Dostoevsky.

Last verified 10 Jul 2026 · how we verify · spot an error?

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Disputed credit — copy with the correction

“Trust no one in whom the desire to punish is strong” Friedrich Nietzsche, Thus Spake Zarathustra, "The Tarantulas" (1883; trans. Thomas Common, 1909): "Distrust all in whom the impulse to punish is powerful!" Often misattributed to Fyodor Dostoevsky.

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In context

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Provenance

The source

Work
Thus Spoke Zarathustra, Part Two, “The Tarantulas”
Author
Friedrich Nietzsche (1883, German)
Translation
Thomas Common, 1909 (English)
Popular wording
Later paraphrase, misattributed to Dostoevsky & Goethe

But thus do I counsel you, my friends: distrust all in whom the impulse to punish is powerful! They are people of bad race and lineage; out of their countenances peer the hangman and the sleuth-hound.

Nietzsche's original line, from the Thomas Common (1909) English translation. The widely shared “Trust no one in whom the desire to punish is strong” is a reworded paraphrase of this sentence.

Thus Spake Zarathustra, “The Tarantulas” (Standard Ebooks, Common translation)

How we verified this

Public domain

The underlying source is public domain: Nietzsche's Also sprach Zarathustra was published in 1883, and Thomas Common's English translation in 1909 — both well before 1931. The exact “desire to punish is strong” wording, however, is an anonymous later paraphrase, not a phrase drawn verbatim from any specific in-copyright edition.

Rights status is our research, not legal advice — and copyright varies by country and edition. For commercial or published use, confirm with the rightsholder. See terms.

Fact-check

Often misattributed

This is a classic “magnet-name” misquote: a striking line about the psychology of punishment gets pinned on famous moralists it doesn't belong to.

Fyodor Dostoevsky misattributed

Widely shared as Dostoevsky, but Wikiquote lists it in his Misattributed section ↗, with no work of his containing it and Nietzsche named as the real source.

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe misattributed

Also circulated as Goethe (e.g. “Distrust those in whom the desire to punish is strong”), but it appears only in unsourced Goethe lists ↗ that themselves flag Nietzsche.

The one documented origin is Nietzsche's Thus Spoke Zarathustra ↗: “distrust all in whom the impulse to punish is powerful!” — the “desire to punish is strong” version is a paraphrase.

Context

A warning about vengeance dressed as justice

In “The Tarantulas,” Nietzsche has Zarathustra rail against “preachers of equality” whose demands for justice, he argues, are really disguised revenge. The counsel to “distrust all in whom the impulse to punish is powerful” sits at the heart of that critique of ressentiment.

Stripped of its context and softened into “Trust no one in whom the desire to punish is strong,” the line reads as a tidy aphorism about human character — which is exactly why it drifted onto Dostoevsky and Goethe, names that carry moral gravity.

“Distrust all in whom the impulse to punish is powerful.”

Explore

Filed under

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

Character Wisdom

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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.

Fyodor Dostoyevsky (Misattributed)en.wikiquote.org

Lists this line as misattributed to Dostoevsky and points to Nietzsche as the only definite source.
Thus Spake Zarathustra: “The Tarantulas”standardebooks.org

Nietzsche's original passage in Thomas Common's public-domain translation.
Talk: Johann Wolfgang von Goetheen.wikiquote.org

Shows the same line circulating unsourced under Goethe, with a note pointing to Nietzsche.
The Tarantulas (full chapter)americanliterature.com

Full text of the chapter containing Nietzsche's line, for context on the “preachers of equality.”
Thus Spoke Zarathustra: Of the Tarantulas (analysis)litcharts.com

Summary and analysis of the section, explaining Nietzsche's critique of vengefulness disguised as justice.

The author

About Friedrich Nietzsche

Friedrich Nietzsche

1844–1900 · German philosopher & classical philologist

Friedrich Nietzsche was a German philosopher whose work on morality, power, and ressentiment reshaped modern thought. In Thus Spoke Zarathustra (1883–85) he warned against “preachers of equality” whose talk of justice masks a will to punish — the passage that later mutated into this widely shared, and widely misattributed, one-liner.

For writers & researchers

Cite this

The primary source (Chicago)

Friedrich Nietzsche, Thus Spake Zarathustra, Part Two, “The Tarantulas,” trans. Thomas Common (1909); orig. Also sprach Zarathustra (1883). “Distrust all in whom the impulse to punish is powerful!”

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Quotle.info. “Who really said ‘Trust no one in whom the desire to punish is strong’?” Last verified 10 Jul 2026. https://quotle.info/who-said/trust-no-one-in-whom-the-desire-to-punish-is-strong/

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