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Who really said it

When you gaze long into an abyss the abyss also gazes into you

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

Jenseits von Gut und Böse (Beyond Good and Evil), 1886, aphorism 146 — and it is only the second half of the thought. The first half is the one about monsters: “Wer mit Ungeheuern kämpft, mag zusehn, dass er nicht dabei zum Ungeheuer wird.” The English wording in circulation is not the public-domain translation; it tracks R. J. Hollingdale’s of 1973.

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

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“When you gaze long into an abyss the abyss also gazes into you” Wer mit Ungeheuern kämpft, mag zusehn, dass er nicht dabei zum Ungeheuer wird. Und wenn du lange in einen Abgrund blickst, blickt der Abgrund auch in dich hinein. —Friedrich Nietzsche, Jenseits von Gut und Böse §146 (1886). Public-domain English (Zimmern, 1906): "He who fights with monsters should be careful lest he thereby become a monster. And if thou gaze long into an abyss, the abyss will also gaze into thee."

Can you use it?

Still under copyright (rights held by R. J. Hollingdale translation — 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
Jenseits von Gut und Böse (Beyond Good and Evil), aphorism 146
Published
1886, in German
Free English
Helen Zimmern, 1906 (public domain)
Popular English
Tracks R. J. Hollingdale, 1973 (in copyright)

Wer mit Ungeheuern kämpft, mag zusehn, dass er nicht dabei zum Ungeheuer wird. Und wenn du lange in einen Abgrund blickst, blickt der Abgrund auch in dich hinein. Beyond Good and Evil §146

Aphorism 146 entire, in Nietzsche’s German. The famous line is the second sentence; the first is the one that explains why he is talking about abysses at all.

Beyond Good and Evil — aphorism 146 (Wikiquote)

How we traced it

  • The German is aphorism 146 of Beyond Good and Evil (1886), in the chapter of ‘Maxims and Interludes.’ The abyss sentence is the second of two — it answers the warning about fighting monsters, and quoting it alone removes the thing it is about German and English ↗.
  • The public-domain English is Helen Zimmern’s 1906 translation: ‘He who fights with monsters should be careful lest he thereby become a monster. And if thou gaze long into an abyss, the abyss will also gaze into thee’ — archaic pronouns and ‘will also gaze’ Zimmern 1906, Project Gutenberg ↗.
  • The modern popular wording matches neither Zimmern nor Kaufmann (who has ‘look,’ not ‘gaze’). It is best described as Hollingdale’s 1973 verb choice with the pronouns modernised — which matters, because Hollingdale is still in copyright and Zimmern is not translations compared ↗.
In copyright

Split. Nietzsche’s German is public domain worldwide (he died in 1900), so the original is free to quote, translate and reproduce. The English sentence in general circulation is a different matter: it tracks Hollingdale’s 1973 translation, which remains in copyright, as does Kaufmann’s 1966. If you want a free English text, use Helen Zimmern’s 1906 version — ‘And if thou gaze long into an abyss, the abyss will also gaze into thee’ — or make your own translation from the German. This is not legal advice.

Fact-check

Correctly credited — check the translation and the missing half

Nobody doubts this is Nietzsche, and the citation is exact. The two things that go wrong are which English you are quoting, and the sentence that has been amputated from the front of it.

The monsters truncated

Aphorism 146 opens ‘He who fights with monsters should be careful lest he thereby become a monster.’ The abyss is the second half of that warning — about what happens to people who spend their lives fighting something. Quoted alone it becomes a vague remark about staring into darkness full aphorism ↗.

Hollingdale (1973), uncredited in copyright

The circulating English is not the public-domain Zimmern (‘if thou gaze… will also gaze into thee’) and not Kaufmann (‘look… looks’). It tracks Hollingdale’s 1973 wording with modernised pronouns, and it is quoted with no translator named compared ↗.

‘Battle not with monsters…’ unsourced rewrite

A pseudo-archaic version beginning ‘Battle not with monsters, lest ye become a monster’ circulates widely. It corresponds to no published translation and should not be presented as one.

Genuinely Nietzsche, Beyond Good and Evil (1886), aphorism 146 — the German is free to reuse, but the English wording most people quote is a translation still in copyright public-domain alternative ↗.

Context

Why it resonates

Read whole, it is a warning to people who have made an enemy their life’s work: the fight shapes the fighter, and prolonged attention to something changes the person paying attention. It is about moral contamination, not mystique.

Detached from the monsters, it has drifted into something closer to a horror-film epigraph — which is how most people now meet it, and why the abyss reads as a place rather than a habit.

He who fights with monsters should be careful lest he thereby become a monster.

Aphorism 146 in four Englishes

German (1886): ‘Und wenn du lange in einen Abgrund blickst, blickt der Abgrund auch in dich hinein.’

Zimmern (1906, public domain): ‘And if thou gaze long into an abyss, the abyss will also gaze into thee.’

Kaufmann (1966): ‘And when you look long into an abyss, the abyss also looks into you.’

Hollingdale (1973): ‘And when you gaze long into an abyss, the abyss gazes also into you.’

Popular form: Hollingdale’s verbs, modernised pronouns, no translator credited.

Explore

Filed under

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

Character Doubt

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.

Beyond Good and Evil — aphorism 146en.wikiquote.org

The German original beside English renderings, with the monsters sentence that precedes the famous line.
Beyond Good and Evil (Zimmern translation, 1906)www.gutenberg.org

The public-domain English text — the version you can reuse freely.
Translations of aphorism 146 comparedwist.info

Zimmern, Kaufmann and Hollingdale side by side, showing where the popular wording comes from.

The true author

About Friedrich Nietzsche

Friedrich Nietzsche

1844–1900 · German philosopher & philologist

Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900) published Beyond Good and Evil at his own expense in 1886; it sold poorly. Its fourth chapter is a sequence of free-standing epigrams, of which this is one. The abyss line has since escaped the book entirely — it turns up in films, songs and titles, usually detached from the monsters it was warning about, and usually in a translation nobody names.

For writers & researchers

Cite this

Primary source — Chicago

Nietzsche, Friedrich. Jenseits von Gut und Böse (Beyond Good and Evil), aphorism 146. Leipzig, 1886.

MLA (9th ed.)

Nietzsche, Friedrich. Beyond Good and Evil. 1886, aphorism 146.

APA (7th ed.)

Nietzsche, F. (1886). Aphorism 146. In Beyond good and evil.

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Quotle.info. “Who really said ‘When you gaze long into an abyss…’?” Last verified 20 Jul 2026. https://quotle.info/who-said/when-you-gaze-long-into-an-abyss-the-abyss-also-gazes

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