*Weltschmerz* (German, n.) — world-weariness; a mood of melancholy or sentimental sadness at the state of the world, felt when one measures the world as it is against how it ideally ought to be and finds it wanting. Literally "world-pain" (*Welt* + *Schmerz*). > [!note] Seedling — this definition is still being developed. Source: [[Evil in Modern Thought - Neiman|Evil in Modern Thought]] by Susan Neiman, p. 223. ## In this book (p. 223) In context, *weltschmerz* is the **elevated ache of a deep, feeling soul** — an ennobling world-pain — as distinct from brute suffering that merely annihilates. Neiman reads [[Nietzsche]]'s "paradigms of suffering" as really this world-weariness, and notes that weltschmerz can be embraced where plain suffering cannot: one may accept the pains that make a life richer over a numb life of feeling little, but that willingness stops at pain that destroys great souls instead of deepening them. > "Nietzsche's paradigms of suffering sound more like weltschmerz than anything else. And weltschmerz may be acceptable where suffering is not. You may be willing to embrace pain in the course of life that is richer than one where you feel very little at all. But your willingness may stop at the sort of pain that annihilates great souls instead of ennobling them." > — Susan Neiman, *Evil in Modern Thought*, p. 223