|
|
Family failing of philosophers. -- All philosophers have the
common failing of starting out from man as he is now and
thinking they can reach their goal through an analysis of him.
They involuntarily think of 'man' as an aeterna veritas, as
something that remains constant in the midst of all flux, as a
sure measure of things. Everything the philosopher has
declared about man is, however, at bottom no more than a
testimony as to the man of a very limited period of time.
Lack of historical sense is the family failing of all
philosophers.
from Nietzsche's Human, all too Human, s.2, R.J. Hollingdale
transl.
Truth as Circe.-- Error has transformed animals into men; is
truth perhaps capable of changing man back into an animal?
from
Nietzsche's Human, all too Human, s.519, R.J.
Hollingdale transl.
In the stream.-- Mighty waters draw much stone and rubble
along with them; mighty spirits many stupid and bewildered
heads.
from
Nietzsche's Human, all too Human, s.541, R.J.
Hollingdale transl.
When asses are needed.-- You will never get the crowd to
cry Hosanna until you ride into town on an ass.
from Nietzsche's Assorted Opinions and Maxims,s. 313, R.J.
Hollingdale transl.
Anti-theses.-- The most senile thing ever thought about man
is contained in the celebrated saying 'the ego is always
hateful'; the most childish is the even more celebrated 'love
thy neighbor as thyself'. -- In the former, knowledge of
human nature has ceased, in the latter it has not yet even
begun.
from Nietzsche's Assorted Opinions and Maxims,s. 385, R.J.
Hollingdale transl.
Not enough!-- It is not enough to prove something, one also
has to seduce or elevate people to it. That is why the man of
knowledge should learns how to speak his wisdom: and often
in such a way that it sounds like folly!
from Nietzsche's Daybreak, s. 330, R.J. Hollingdale
transl
Gardener and garden.-- Out of damp and gloomy days, out
of solitude, out of loveless words directed at us, conclusions
grow up in us like fungus: one morning they are there, we
know not how, and they gaze upon us, morose and gray. Woe
to the thinker who is not the gardener but only the soil of the
plants that grow in him!
from Nietzsche's Daybreak, s. 382, R.J. Hollingdale
transl
The vain.-- We are like shop windows in which we are
continually arranging, concealing or illuminating the
supposed qualities other ascribe to us - in order to deceive
ourselves.
from Nietzsche's Daybreak, s. 385, R.J. Hollingdale
transl
It is not things, but opinions about things that have
absolutely no existence, which have so deranged mankind!
from Nietzsche's Daybreak, s. 563, R.J. Hollingdale
transl
The men of corruption are witty and slanderous; they know
of types of murder that require neither daggers nor assault;
they know that whatever is said well is believed.
from Nietzsche's The Gay Science, s. 23, Walter Kaufmann
transl
Will and willingness.-- Someone took a youth to a sage and
said: "Look, he is being corrupted by women." The sage
shook his head and smiled. "It is men," said he, "that corrupt
women; and all the failings of women should be atoned by
and improved in men. For it is man who creates for himself
the image of woman, and woman forms herself according to
this image."
"You are too kind-hearted about women," said one of those
present; "you do not know them." The sage replied: "Will is
the manner of men; willingness that of women. That is the
law of the sexes - truly, a hard law for women. All of
humanity is innocent of its existence; but women are doubly
innocent. Who could have oil and kindness enough for
them?"
"Damn oil! Damn kindness!" someone shouted out of the
crowd; "Women need to be educated better!" - "Men need to
be educated better," said the sage and beckoned to the youth
to follow him. - The youth, however, did not follow him.
from Nietzsche's The Gay Science, s. 68, Walter Kaufmann
transl.
The greatest danger that always hovered over humanity and
still hovers over it is the eruption of madness - which means
the eruption of arbitrariness in feeling, seeing and hearing,
the enjoyment of the mind's lack of discipline, the joy in
human unreason. Not truth and certainty are the opposite of
the world of the madman, but the universality and the
universal binding force of a faith; in sum, the non-arbitrary
character of judgements... Thus the virtuous intellects are
needed - oh, let me use the most unambiguous word - what is
needed is virtuous stupidity, stolid metronomes for the slow
spirit, to make sure that the faithful of the great shared faith
stay together and continue their dance... We others are the
exception and the danger - and we need eternally to be
opposed. - Well, there actually are things to be said in favor
of the exception, provided that it never wants to become the
rule.
from Nietzsche's The Gay Science, s. 76, Walter Kaufmann
transl.