[Ads-l] Quote Origin: The Labyrinthine Man Never Seeks the Truth but Always and Only His Ariadne

[ADSGarson O'Toole]

I received an inquiry about the statement in the subject line which
has been attributed to Friedrich Nietzsche. The inquirer was confused
because the statement does not appear in any of Nietzsche's famous
philosophical works.

Here is a link to the Quote Investigator article:
https://quoteinvestigator.com/2026/01/30/labyrinth-seek/

In Greek mythology, the Cretan princess Ariadne helped the hero
Theseus slay the Minotaur and escape from the labyrinth. Ariadne gave
Daedalus a ball of thread so he could successfully navigate through
the deadly maze.

Nietzsche recorded some of his ideas and impressions in a group of
notebooks which were not published while he was alive. The Musarion
edition of the "Gesammelte Werke" ("Collected Works") of Nietzsche
included material from these notebooks. The fourteenth volume included
a pertinent remark written by Nietzsche while he was working on the
important opus "Also sprach Zarathustra" ("Thus Spoke Zarathustra").
This note did not appear directly in "Also sprach Zarathustra". It was
published posthumously:

[ref] 1925, Gesammelte Werke (Collected Works) by Friedrich Nietzsche,
Musarionausgabe (Musarion edition), Vierzehnter Band (Fourteenth
Volume), Aus der Zeit des Zarathustra (From the time of Zarathustra)
1882-1886, Section: Einzelbemerkungen (Individual remarks) 1881-1884,
Quote Page 22, Musarion Verlag München. (Verified with scans) link
{/ref]

https://archive.org/details/gesammeltewerke14niet/page/22/mode/2up

[Begin excerpt]
Ein labyrinthischer Mensch sucht niemals die Wahrheit, sondern immer
nur seine Ariadne, -- was er uns auch sagen möge.
[End excerpt]

Here is one possible translation into English:

[Begin translation]
A labyrinthine person never seeks the truth, but always only his
Ariadne -- whatever he may tell us.
[End translation]

Feedback welcome
Garson O'Toole

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