The Joyful Wisdom ("La Gaya Scienza")Nietzsche, Friedrich Wilhelm
PhilosophyPhilosophy
The Joyful Wisdom ("La Gaya Scienza")
Nietzsche, Friedrich Wilhelm
Philosophy
_Those who Seek Repose._—I recognise the minds that seek repose by the
many _dark_ objects with which they surround themselves: those who want
to sleep darken their chambers, or creep into caverns. A hint to those
who do not know what they really seek most, and would like to know!
165.
_The Happiness of Renunciation._—He who has absolutely dispensed with
something for a long time will almost imagine, when he accidentally
meets with it again, that he has discovered it,—and what happiness every
discoverer has! Let us be wiser than the serpents that lie too long in
the same sunshine.
166.
_Always in our own Society._—All that is akin to me in nature and
history speaks to me, praises me, urges me forward and comforts me—:
other things are unheard by me, or immediately forgotten. We are only in
our own society always.
167.
_Misanthropy and Philanthropy._—We only speak about being sick of men
when we can no longer digest them, and yet have the stomach full of
them. Misanthropy is the result of a far too eager philanthropy and
"cannibalism,"—but who ever bade you swallow men like oysters, my Prince
Hamlet!
168.
_Concerning an Invalid._—"Things go badly with him!"—What is wrong?—"He
suffers from the longing to be praised, and finds no sustenance for
it."—Inconceivable! All the world does honour to him, and he is
reverenced not only in deed but in word!—"Certainly, but he is dull of
hearing for the praise. When a friend praises him it sounds to him as if
the friend praised himself; when an enemy praises him, it sounds to him
as if the enemy wanted to be praised for it; when, finally, some one
else praises him—there are by no means so many of these, he is so
famous!—he is offended because they neither want him for a friend nor
for an enemy; he is accustomed to say: 'What do I care for those who can
still pose as the all-righteous towards me!'"
169.
_Avowed Enemies._—Bravery in presence of an enemy is a thing by itself:
a person may possess it and still be a coward and an irresolute
numskull. That was Napoleon's opinion concerning the "bravest man" he
knew, Murat:—whence it follows that avowed enemies are indispensable to
some men, if they are to attain to _their_ virtue, to their manliness,
to their cheerfulness.
170.
_With the Multitude._—He has hitherto gone with the multitude and is its
panegyrist; but one day he will be its opponent! For he follows it in
the belief that his laziness will find its advantage thereby; he has not
yet learned that the multitude is not lazy enough for him! that it
always presses forward! that it does not allow any one to stand
still!—And he likes so well to stand still!
171.
_Fame._—When the gratitude of many to one casts aside all shame, then
fame originates.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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