私を殺さないものは私を強くする watashi o korosanai mono wa watashi o tsuyoku suru What Does Not Kill Me, Makes Me Stronger

私を殺さないものは私を強くする is about a self that takes a blow and comes out the stronger for it. Whatever comes at me and fails to end me leaves me more than I was. 私を殺さないもの, the thing that does not kill me, is one phrase and the subject of the sentence. 強くする is to make strong, so what survives is built up, not just spared.

The Japanese keeps the relative clause the sentence turns on whole.

The sentence is Nietzsche's, the eighth of the maxims that open Götzen-Dämmerung (1889), Was mich nicht umbringt, macht mich stärker; this short Japanese form of it is in print by 1967, where the Japanese translations of the book, from 1926 on, all say stronger.

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