title: The Twilight of the Idols
author: Friedrich Nietzsche
description: Friedrich Nietzsche was a nihilist philosopher, critic and poet who wrote several works of philosophy which have proven strongly influential since their initial publication in the late 19th century. After beginning his academic career as an expert in ancient Greek and Latin, Nietzsche would steadily advance into philosophy, becoming more convinced and sure of his arguments as time went by. Gradually, his writings became more polemical and provocative, criticising earlier philosophers, established institutions such as the Christian church, and its moral tenets in a series of vehement and swiftly paced writings which at times veer into humorous sarcasm. Nietzsche's final work was The Antichrist, which was completed a short time before a mental breakdown which rendered the scholar incapacitated for the final decade of his life. By the time of his death in 1900 at the age of 55, Nietzsche had assembled a large and devoted following, particularly within academic and scholarly circles, which continues to this day.
zlib_text: ALSO BY VÍCTOR DEL ÁRBOL
  
  THE SADNESS OF THE SAMURAI
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  Copyright © Víctor del Árbol, 2014
  
  Copyright © Ediciones Destino, S.A., 2014
  
  Originally published in Spanish as Un millón de gotas by Ediciones Destino,
  S.A., in Barcelona, Spain, in 2014.
  
  English translation copyright © 2017 by Lisa Dillman
  
  Friedrich Nietzsche epigraph on [here](index_split_003.html#filepos4806) from
  Twilight of the Idols, or How to Philosophize with a Hammer, in Twilight of
  the Idols and The Anti-Christ, translated by R. J. Hollingdale. Translation
  copyright © R. J. Hollingdale, 1968. Reproduced by permission of Penguin Books
  Ltd, London.
  
  Production editor: Yvonne E. Cárdenas
  
  Text designer: Jennifer Daddio / Bookmark Design & Media Inc.
  
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  without written permission from Other Press 