“Like a last signpost to the other path, Napoleon appeared, the most isolated and late-born man there has even been, and in him the problem of the noble ideal as such made flesh--one might well ponder what kind of problem it is; Napoleon this synthesis of the inhuman and the superhuman”

German philosopher and writer

Friedrich Nietzsche was a German philosopher and writer. He began as a classical philologist, then turned to philosophy early in his academic career, and is known for a body of work that drew wide scholarly attention and lasting popular interest. In 1869 he became Professor of Classical Philology at the University of Basel, but he resigned in 1879 because of long-standing health problems. After that he lived as an independent writer, often in solitude and financial insecurity, moving between Switzerland, Italy, and southern France. He completed much of his main work in the following decade, before a neurological collapse in 1889 ended his working life.