All credibility, all good conscience, all evidence of truth come

"All credibility, all good conscience, all evidence of truth come only from the senses." — so proclaimed Friedrich Nietzsche, the bold prophet of modern philosophy, whose words often thundered against the illusions of men. In this teaching he reminds us that truth is not born of empty abstractions or idle speculation, but of the body itself: of the eyes that see, the ears that hear, the hands that touch, the heart that feels. What is not grounded in the senses dissolves into shadow, but what is confirmed by lived experience stands firm like a mountain before the ages.

Nietzsche, who raged against the lifeless philosophies of his time, sought to restore man to the earth. Too long, he said, had thinkers fled into the cold palaces of reason divorced from experience, worshiping pale concepts as if they were gods. But reality, he insisted, is felt, tasted, heard, seen, and touched. The senses are the only gate through which truth may enter. Remove them, and you are left with words without flesh, theories without ground, faith without root. To honor the senses, therefore, is to honor the living world itself.

Consider the tale of Galileo Galilei, who dared to lift his telescope toward the night sky. His senses revealed to him moons circling Jupiter, mountains upon the moon, stars beyond counting. Against this evidence, the philosophers and clerics of his time clung to inherited abstractions, denying what they had not seen. Yet truth, carried on the wings of sight, prevailed. Galileo did not reason truth into being; he saw it. And though he suffered for his vision, history vindicated him. Here Nietzsche’s words prove themselves: credibility and evidence of truth come only from the senses.

This teaching also calls us to honesty in conscience. For how often do men deceive themselves with fantasies? How often do they cling to what they wish were true rather than what they have truly seen? Good conscience, Nietzsche tells us, is not the echo of custom or the command of authority, but the alignment of one’s inner life with the evidence of reality. To deceive oneself is to live in falsehood; to live by the senses is to live in integrity. The man who closes his eyes to the world cannot be trusted, but the one who dares to see and to acknowledge what he sees carries the weight of truth.

Yet, O seeker, let us not mistake Nietzsche’s wisdom for mere materialism. The senses do not only show us the outer world; they also awaken the depths of the inner. When you hear a hymn, when you see a painting, when you feel the warmth of another’s hand, you encounter truths that no logic alone could bring forth. Beauty, love, grief—all are truths revealed first to the senses, and only then shaped into thought. Thus, the senses are not chains but bridges, not prison walls but windows opening into both world and soul.

From this saying, a lesson rises like dawn: do not flee from the world of sense into the barren desert of abstraction. Philosophy, art, science, and even faith must return to experience if they are to remain alive. Trust what you see, test what you hear, honor what you feel. Do not be seduced by those who claim truth without evidence, nor by those who demand faith without sight. For Nietzsche calls you to live with eyes open, to ground your conscience in reality, and to measure credibility not by words but by what the senses affirm.

Practical action is clear: cultivate attention. Walk slowly and truly see the world around you. Listen deeply to voices, to music, to silence. Taste your food with gratitude, touch the earth with reverence, breathe the air with awareness. Let your life be rooted in sensation, and from that root let thought, art, and action grow. By doing so, you will not drift into illusion, but live as one who honors the earth, the body, and the truth that arises from them.

Thus, Nietzsche’s voice resounds across the ages: truth is not in the clouds but in the senses. Let us then be faithful not to empty words, but to the world that meets our eyes and hands. For in sight, sound, touch, taste, and breath lies all credibility, all good conscience, and all evidence of truth. To deny them is to deny life itself; to embrace them is to walk in the fullness of being.