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FRIEDRICH NIETZSCHE
2 Even the most courageous among us only rarely has the courage to face
what he already knows.
3 To live alone one must be a beast or a god, says Aristotle. Leaving out
the third case: one must be both — a philosopher.
5 I want, once and for all, not to know many things. Wisdom requires
moderation in knowledge as in other things.
6 In our own wild nature we find the best recreation from our un-nature,
from our spirituality.
8 Out of life's school of war: What does not destroy me, makes me
stronger.
9 Help yourself, then everyone will help you. Principle of brotherly love.
10 Not to perpetrate cowardice against one's own acts! Not to leave them
in the lurch afterward! The bite of conscience is indecent.
11 Can an ass be tragic? To perish under a burden one can neither bear nor
throw off? The case of the philosopher.
12 If we have our own why in life, we shall get along with almost any
how. Man does not strive for pleasure; only the Englishman does.
13 Man has created woman — out of what? Out of a rib of his god — of
his "ideal."
16 Among women: "Truth? Oh, you don't know truth! Is it not an attempt
to kill our modesty?"
17 That is the kind of artist I love, modest in his needs: he really wants
only two things, his bread and his art — panem et Circen ["bread and
Circe"].
18 Whoever does not know how to lay his will into things, at least lays
some meaning into them: that means, he has the faith that they already
obey a will. (Principle of "faith".)
19 What? You chose virtue and took pride in your virtue, and yet you leer
enviously at the advantages of those without scruples? But virtue
involves renouncing "advantages." (Inscription for an anti-Semite's
door.)
21 To venture into many situations where one cannot get by with sham
virtues, but where, like the tightrope walker on his rope, one either
stands or falls — or gets away.
22 "Evil men have no songs." How is it, then, that the Russians have
songs?
25 Being pleased with oneself protects even against the cold. Has a woman
who knew herself to be well dressed ever caught a cold? I am assuming
that she was barely dressed.
28 If a woman has only manly virtues, we run away; and if she has no
manly virtues, she runs away herself.
29 "How much has conscience had to chew on in the past! And what
excellent teeth it had! And today — what is lacking?" A dentist's
question.
30 One rarely falls into a single error. Falling into the first one, one always
does too much. So one usually perpetrates another one — and now one
does too little.
31 When stepped on, a worm doubles up. That is clever. In that way he
lessens the probability of being stepped on again. In the language of
morality: humility.
34 On ne peut penser et ecrire qu'assis [One cannot think and write except
when seated] (G. Flaubert). There I have caught you, nihilist! The
sedentary life is the very sin against the Holy Spirit. Only thoughts
reached by walking have value.
40 Are you one who looks on? Or one who lends a hand? Or one who
looks away and walks off? Third question of conscience.