The Joyful Wisdom ("La Gaya Scienza"): Complete Works, Volume Ten
Nietzsche · en
_Differences in the Dangerousness of Life._--You don't know at all what
you experience; you run through life as if intoxicated, and now and
then fall down a stair. Thanks however to your intoxication you still
do not break your limbs: your muscles are too languid and your head too
confused to find the stones of the staircase as hard as we others do!
For, us life is a greater danger: we are made of glass--alas, if we
should _strike against_ anything! And all is lost if we should _fall_!
155.
_What we Lack._--We love the _grandeur_ of Nature, and have discovered
it; that is because human grandeur is lacking in our minds. It was
the reverse with the Greeks: their feeling towards Nature was quite
different from ours.
156.
_The most Influential Person._--The fact that a person resists the
whole spirit of his age, stops it at the door and calls it to account,
_must_ exert an influence! It is indifferent whether he wishes to exert
an influence; the point is that he _can_.
157.
_Mentiri._--Take care!--he reflects: he will have a lie ready
immediately. This is a stage in the civilisation of whole nations.
Consider only what the Romans expressed by _mentiri!_
158.
_An Inconvenient Peculiarity._--To find everything deep is an
inconvenient peculiarity: it makes one constantly strain one's eyes, so
that in the end one always finds more than one wishes.
159.
_Every Virtue has its Time._--The honesty of him who is at present
inflexible often causes him remorse; for inflexibility is the virtue of
a time different from that in which honesty prevails.
160.
_In Intercourse with Virtues._--One can also be undignified and
flattering towards a virtue.
161.
_To the Admirers of the Age._--The runaway priest and the liberated
criminal are continually making grimaces; what they want is a look
without a past. But have you ever seen men who know that their looks
reflect the future, and who are so courteous to you, the admirers of
the "age," that they assume a look without a future?--
162.
_Egoism._--Egoism is the _perspective_ law of our sentiment, according
to which the near appears large and momentous, while in the distance
the magnitude and importance of all things diminish.
163.
_After a Great Victory._--The best thing in a great victory is that
it deprives the conqueror of the fear of defeat. "Why should I not be
worsted for once?" he says to himself, "I am now rich enough to stand
it."
164.
_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.