Nietzsche, Dostoevsky, and Nihilism

Both Dostoevsky and Nietzsche were deeply religious by temperament; both were terrified of where nihilism could lead. If God is alive, everything is meaningful; if God is dead, everything is permitted, and nothing is comprehensible. “I made up my mind long ago not to understand,” says Ivan Karamazov in one of the earliest statements about ‘absurdity’. “If I try to understand anything, I shall be false to the fact, and I am determined to stick to the fact.”

-Ronald Hayman, “Nietzsche: A Critical Life”