What is the original source of this quote about immortality?

April 12, 2009 11:28 AM

"Millions long for immortality who don't know what to do with themselves on a rainy Sunday afternoon." What's the original source for this quote?

I've long thought this quote was from Nietzsche, specifically The Twilight of the Idols, but my googling turns up attributions to both a Susan Ertz (author) and a D.P. Barron. Any readers of Nietzsche out there who can help me locate something in his corpus that resembles this passage?

posted by joe lisboa to Religion & Philosophy (5 answers total)

I just read Twilight of the Idols a couple weeks ago and I think I would remember that line or anything like it had I read it.
posted by Ginkgo at 11:59 AM on April 12, 2009

Best answer: Susan Ertz definitely did write that in Anger in the Sky (Google Book search confirmed it), which was published in 1943. I have no idea who D.P. Barron is supposed to be.
posted by phoenixy at 12:12 PM on April 12, 2009

I have seen "Against boredom, the gods themselves struggle in vain" attributed to Freddy.
posted by Joe Beese at 12:15 PM on April 12, 2009

Best answer: Yale Book of Quotations attributes it to Susan Ertz, Anger in the Sky, ch. 5. I'd assume they did the research to confirm her as the correct author.
posted by Jaltcoh at 1:40 PM on April 12, 2009

Response by poster: Thanks, you guys.
posted by joe lisboa at 6:14 PM on April 12, 2009