The Joyful Wisdom

192

The Good-natured.– What is it that distinguishes the good-natured, whose countenances beam kindness, from other people? They feel quite at ease in presence of a new person, and are quickly enamoured of him; they therefore wish him well; their first opinion is: "He pleases me." With them there follow in succession the wish to appropriate (they make little scruple about the person's worth), rapid appropriation, joy in the possession, and actions in favour of the person possessed.

193

Kant's Joke.– Kant tried to prove, in a way that dismayed "everybody," that "everybody" was in the right: – that was his secret joke. He wrote against the learned, in favour of popular prejudice; he wrote, however, for the learned and not for the people.

194

The "Open-hearted" Man.– That man acts probably always from concealed motives; for he has always communicable motives on his tongue, and almost in his open hand.

195

Laughable!– See! See! He runs away from men – : they follow him, however, because he runs before them, – they are such a gregarious lot!

196

The Limits of our Sense of Hearing.– We hear only the questions to which we are capable of finding an answer.

197

Caution therefore!– There is nothing we are fonder of communicating to others than the seal of secrecy – together with what is under it.

198

Vexation of the Proud Man.– The proud man is vexed even with those who help him forward: he looks angrily at his carriage-horses.

199

Liberality.– Liberality is often only a form of timidity in the rich.

200

Laughing.– To laugh means to love mischief, but with a good conscience.

201

In Applause.– In applause there is always some kind of noise: even in self-applause.

202

A Spendthrift.– He has not yet the poverty of the rich man who has counted all his treasure, – he squanders his spirit with the irrationalness of the spendthrift Nature.

203

Hic niger est. – Usually he has no thoughts, – but in exceptional cases bad thoughts come to him.

204

Beggars and Courtesy.– "One is not discourteous when one knocks at a door with a stone when the bell-pull is awanting" – so think all beggars and necessitous persons, but no one thinks they are in the right.

205

Need.– Need is supposed to be the cause of things; but in truth it is often only the result of things.

206

During the Rain.– It rains, and I think of the poor people who now crowd together with their many cares, which they are unaccustomed to conceal; all of them, therefore, ready and anxious to give pain to one another, and thus provide themselves with a pitiable kind of comfort, even in bad weather. This, this only, is the poverty of the poor!

207

The Envious Man.– That is an envious man – it is not desirable that he should have children; he would be envious of them, because he can no longer be a child.

208

A Great Man!– Because a person is "a great man," we are not authorised to infer that he is a man. Perhaps he is only a boy, or a chameleon of all ages, or a bewitched girl.

209

A Mode of Asking for Reasons.– There is a mode of asking for our reasons which not only makes us forget our best reasons, but also arouses in us a spite and repugnance against reason generally: – a very stupefying mode of questioning, and really an artifice of tyrannical men!

210

Moderation in Diligence.– One must not be anxious to surpass the diligence of one's father – that would make one ill.

211

Secret Enemies.– To be able to keep a secret enemy – that is a luxury which the morality even of the highest-minded persons can rarely afford.

212

Not Letting oneself be Deluded.– His spirit has bad manners, it is hasty and always stutters with impatience; so that one would hardly suspect the deep breathing and the large chest of the soul in which it resides.

213

The Way to Happiness.– A sage asked of a fool the way to happiness. The fool answered without delay, like one who had been asked the way to the next town: "Admire yourself, and live on the street!" "Hold," cried the sage, "you require too much; it suffices to admire oneself!" The fool replied: "But how can one constantly admire without constantly despising?"

214

Faith Saves.– Virtue gives happiness and a state of blessedness only to those who have a strong faith in their virtue: – not, however, to the more refined souls whose virtue consists of a profound distrust of themselves and of all virtue. After all, therefore, it is "faith that saves" here also! – and be it well observed, not virtue!

215

The Ideal and the Material.– You have a noble ideal before your eyes: but are you also such a noble stone that such a divine image could be formed out of you? And without that – is not all your labour barbaric sculpturing? A blasphemy of your ideal?

216

Danger in the Voice.– With a very loud voice a person is almost incapable of reflecting on subtle matters.

217

Cause and Effect.– Before the effect one believes in other causes than after the effect.

218

My Antipathy.– I do not like those people who, in order to produce an effect, have to burst like bombs, and in whose neighbourhood one is always in danger of suddenly losing one's hearing – or even something more.

219

The Object of Punishment.– The object of punishment is to improve him who punishes,– that is the ultimate appeal of those who justify punishment.

220

Sacrifice.– The victims think otherwise than the spectators about sacrifice and sacrificing: but they have never been allowed to express their opinion.

221

Consideration.– Fathers and sons are much more considerate of one another than mothers and daughters.

222

Poet and Liar.– The poet sees in the liar his foster-brother whose milk he has drunk up; the latter has thus remained wretched, and has not even attained to a good conscience.

223

Vicariousness of the Senses.– "We have also eyes in order to hear with them," – said an old confessor who had grown deaf; "and among the blind he that has the longest ears is king."

224

Animal Criticism.– I fear the animals regard man as a being like themselves, seriously endangered by the loss of sound animal understanding; – they regard him perhaps as the absurd animal, the laughing animal, the crying animal, the unfortunate animal.

225

The Natural.– "Evil has always had the great effect! And Nature is evil! Let us therefore be natural!" – so reason secretly the great aspirants after effect, who are too often counted among great men.

226

The Distrustful and their Style.– We say the strongest things simply, provided people are about us who believe in our strength: – such an environment educates to "simplicity of style." The distrustful, on the other hand, speak emphatically; they make things emphatic.

227

Fallacy, Fallacy.– He cannot rule himself; therefore that woman concludes that it will be easy to rule him, and throws out her lines to catch him; – the poor creature, who in a short time will be his slave.

228

Against Mediators.– He who attempts to mediate between two decided thinkers is rightly called mediocre: he has not an eye for seeing the unique; similarising and equalising are signs of weak eyes.

229

Obstinacy and Loyalty.– Out of obstinacy he holds fast to a cause of which the questionableness has become obvious, – he calls that, however, his "loyalty."

230

Lack of Reserve.– His whole nature fails to convince– that results from the fact that he has never been reticent about a good action he has performed.

231

The "Plodders."– Persons slow of apprehension think that slowness forms part of knowledge.

232

Dreaming.– Either one does not dream at all, or one dreams in an interesting manner. One must learn to be awake in the same fashion: – either not at all, or in an interesting manner.

233

The most Dangerous Point of View.– What I now do, or neglect to do, is as important for all that is to come, as the greatest event of the past: in this immense perspective of effects all actions are equally great and small.

234

Consolatory Words of a Musician.– "Your life does not sound into people's ears: for them you live a dumb life, and all refinements of melody, all fond resolutions in following or leading the way, are concealed from them. To be sure you do not parade the thoroughfares with regimental music, – but these good people have no right to say on that account that your life is lacking in music. He that hath ears let him hear."

235

Spirit and Character.– Many a one attains his full height of character, but his spirit is not adapted to the elevation, – and many a one reversely.

236

To Move the Multitude.– Is it not necessary for him who wants to move the multitude to give a stage representation of himself? Has he not first to translate himself into the grotesquely obvious, and then set forth his whole personality and cause in that vulgarised and simplified fashion?

237

The Polite Man.– "He is so polite!" – Yes, he has always a sop for Cerberus with him, and is so timid that he takes everybody for Cerberus, even you and me, – that is his "politeness."

238

Without Envy.– He is wholly without envy, but there is no merit therein: for he wants to conquer a land which no one has yet possessed and hardly any one has even seen.

239

The Joyless Person.– A single joyless person is enough to make constant displeasure and a clouded heaven in a household; and it is only by a miracle that such a person is lacking! – Happiness is not nearly such a contagious disease; – how is that?

240

On the Sea-Shore.– I would not build myself a house (it is an element of my happiness not to be a house-owner!). If I had to do so, however, I should build it, like many of the Romans, right into the sea, – I should like to have some secrets in common with that beautiful monster.

241

Work and Artist.– This artist is ambitious and nothing more; ultimately, however, his work is only a magnifying-glass, which he offers to every one who looks in his direction.

242

Suum cuique.– However great be my greed of knowledge, I cannot appropriate aught of things but what already belongs to me, – the property of others still remains in the things. How is it possible for a man to be a thief or a robber?

243

Origin of "Good" and "Bad."– He only will devise an improvement who can feel that "this is not good."

244

Thoughts and Words.– Even our thoughts we are unable to render completely in words.

245

Praise in Choice.– The artist chooses his subjects; that is his mode of praising.

246

Mathematics.– We want to carry the refinement and rigour of mathematics into all the sciences, as far as it is in any way possible, not in the belief that we shall apprehend things in this way, but in order thereby to assert our human relation to things. Mathematics is only a means to general and ultimate human knowledge.

247

Habits.– All habits make our hand wittier and our wit unhandier.

248

Books.– Of what account is a book that never carries us away beyond all books?

249

The Sigh of the Seeker of Knowledge.– "Oh, my covetousness! In this soul there is no disinterestedness – but an all-desiring self, which, by means of many individuals, would fain see as with its own eyes, and grasp as with its own hands – a self bringing back even the entire past, and wanting to lose nothing that could in anyway belong to it! Oh, this flame of my covetousness! Oh, that I were reincarnated in a hundred individuals!" – He who does not know this sigh by experience, does not know the passion of the seeker of knowledge either.

250

Guilt.– Although the most intelligent judges of the witches, and even the witches themselves, were convinced of the guilt of witchcraft, the guilt, nevertheless, was not there. So it is with all guilt.

251.

Misunderstood Sufferers.– Great natures suffer otherwise than their worshippers imagine; they suffer most severely from the ignoble, petty emotions of certain evil moments; in short, from doubt of their own greatness; – not however from the sacrifices and martyrdoms which their tasks require of them. As long as Prometheus sympathises with men and sacrifices himself for them, he is happy and proud in himself; but on becoming envious of Zeus and of the homage which mortals pay him – then Prometheus suffers!

252

Better to be in Debt.– "Better to remain in debt than to pay with money which does not bear our stamp!" – that is what our sovereignty prefers.

253

Always at Home.– One day we attain our goal– and then refer with pride to the long journeys we have made to reach it. In truth, we did not notice that we travelled. We got into the habit of thinking that we were at home in every place.

254

Against Embarrassment.– He who is always thoroughly occupied is rid of all embarrassment.

255

Imitators.– A: "What? You don't want to have imitators?" B: "I don't want people to do anything after me; I want every one to do something before himself (as a pattern to himself) – just as I do." A: "Consequently – ?"

256

Skinniness.– All profound men have their happiness in imitating the flying-fish at times, and playing on the crests of the waves; they think that what is best of all in things is their surface: their skinniness —sit venia verbo.

257

From Experience.– A person often does not know how rich he is, until he learns from experience what rich men even play the thief on him.

258

The Deniers of Chance.– No conqueror believes in chance.

259

From Paradise.– "Good and Evil are God's prejudices" – said the serpent.

260

One times One.– One only is always in the wrong, but with two truth begins. – One only cannot prove himself right; but two are already beyond refutation.

261

Originality.– What is originality? To see something that does not yet bear a name, that cannot yet be named, although it is before everybody's eyes. As people are usually constituted, it is the name that first makes a thing generally visible to them. – Original persons have also for the most part been the namers of things.

262

Sub specie æterni.– A: "You withdraw faster and faster from the living; they will soon strike you out of their lists!" – B: "It is the only way to participate in the privilege of the dead." A: "In what privilege?" – B: "No longer having to die."

263

Without Vanity.– When we love we want our defects to remain concealed, – not out of vanity, but lest the person loved should suffer therefrom. Indeed, the lover would like to appear as a God, – and not out of vanity either.

264

What we Do.– What we do is never understood, but only praised and blamed.

265

Ultimate Scepticism.– But what after all are man's truths? – They are his irrefutable errors.

266

Where Cruelty is Necessary.– He who is great is cruel to his second-rate virtues and judgments.

267

With a high Aim.– With a high aim a person is superior even to justice, and not only to his deeds and his judges.

268

What makes Heroic?– To face simultaneously one's greatest suffering and one's highest hope.

269

What dost thou Believe in?– In this: That the weights of all things must be determined anew.

270

What Saith thy Conscience?– "Thou shalt become what thou art."

271

Where are thy Greatest Dangers?– In pity.

272

What dost thou Love in others?– My hopes.

273

Whom dost thou call Bad?– Him who always wants to put others to shame.

274

What dost thou think most humane?– To spare a person shame.

275

What is the Seal of Attained Liberty?– To be no longer ashamed of oneself.

BOOK FOURTH

SANCTUS JANUARIUS

Thou who with cleaving fiery lancesThe stream of my soul fromits ice dost free,Till with a rush and a roar it advancesTo enter with glorious hoping the sea:Brighter to see and purer ever,Free in the bonds of thy sweet constraint, —So it praises thy wondrous endeavour,January, thou beauteous saint! Genoa, January 1882.276

For the New Year.– I still live, I still think; I must still live, for I must still think. Sum, ergo cogito: cogito, ergo sum. To-day everyone takes the liberty of expressing his wish and his favourite thought: well, I also mean to tell what I have wished for myself to-day, and what thought first crossed my mind this year, – a thought which ought to be the basis, the pledge and the sweetening of all my future life! I want more and more to perceive the necessary characters in things as the beautiful: – I shall thus be one of those who beautify things. Amor fati: let that henceforth be my love! I do not want to wage war with the ugly. I do not want to accuse, I do not want even to accuse the accusers. Looking aside, let that be my sole negation! And all in all, to sum up: I wish to be at any time hereafter only a yea-sayer!

277

Personal Providence.– There is a certain climax in life, at which, notwithstanding all our freedom, and however much we may have denied all directing reason and goodness in the beautiful chaos of existence, we are once more in great danger of intellectual bondage, and have to face our hardest test. For now the thought of a personal Providence first presents itself before us with its most persuasive force, and has the best of advocates, apparentness, in its favour, now when it is obvious that all and everything that happens to us always turns out for the best. The life of every day and of every hour seems to be anxious for nothing else but always to prove this proposition anew; let it be what it will, bad or good weather, the loss of a friend, a sickness, a calumny, the non-receipt of a letter, the spraining of one's foot, a glance into a shop-window, a counter-argument, the opening of a book, a dream, a deception: – it shows itself immediately, or very soon afterwards, as something "not permitted to be absent," – it is full of profound significance and utility precisely for us! Is there a more dangerous temptation to rid ourselves of the belief in the Gods of Epicurus, those careless, unknown Gods, and believe in some anxious and mean Divinity, who knows personally every little hair on our heads, and feels no disgust in rendering the most wretched services? Well – I mean in spite of all this! we want to leave the Gods alone (and the serviceable genii likewise), and wish to content ourselves with the assumption that our own practical and theoretical skilfulness in explaining and suitably arranging events has now reached its highest point. We do not want either to think too highly of this dexterity of our wisdom, when the wonderful harmony which results from playing on our instrument sometimes surprises us too much: a harmony which sounds too well for us to dare to ascribe it to ourselves. In fact, now and then there is one who plays with us – beloved Chance: he leads our hand occasionally, and even the all-wisest Providence could not devise any finer music than that of which our foolish hand is then capable.

278

The Thought of Death.– It gives me a melancholy happiness to live in the midst of this confusion of streets, of necessities, of voices: how much enjoyment, impatience and desire, how much thirsty life and drunkenness of life comes to light here every moment! And yet it will soon be so still for all these shouting, lively, life-loving people! How everyone's shadow, his gloomy travelling-companion stands behind him! It is always as in the last moment before the departure of an emigrant-ship: people have more than ever to say to one another, the hour presses, the ocean with its lonely silence waits impatiently behind all the noise – so greedy, so certain of its prey! And all, all, suppose that the past has been nothing, or a small matter, that the near future is everything: hence this haste, this crying, this self-deafening and self-overreaching! Everyone wants to be foremost in this future, – and yet death and the stillness of death are the only things certain and common to all in this future! How strange that this sole thing that is certain and common to all, exercises almost no influence on men, and that they are the furthest from regarding themselves as the brotherhood of death! It makes me happy to see that men do not want to think at all of the idea of death! I would fain do something to make the idea of life even a hundred times more worthy of their attention.

279

Stellar Friendship. – We were friends, and have become strangers to each other. But this is as it ought to be, and we do not want either to conceal or obscure the fact, as if we had to be ashamed of it. We are two ships, each of which has its goal and its course; we may, to be sure, cross one another in our paths, and celebrate a feast together as we did before, – and then the gallant ships lay quietly in one harbour, and in one sunshine, so that it might have been thought they were already at their goal, and that they had had one goal. But then the almighty strength of our tasks forced us apart once more into different seas and into different zones, and perhaps we shall never see one another again, – or perhaps we may see one another, but not know one another again; the different seas and suns have altered us! That we had to become strangers to one another is the law to which we are subject: just by that shall we become more sacred to one another! Just by that shall the thought of our former friendship become holier! There is probably some immense, invisible curve and stellar orbit in which our courses and goals, so widely different, may be comprehended as small stages of the way, – let us raise ourselves to this thought! But our life is too short, and our power of vision too limited for us to be more than friends in the sense of that sublime possibility. – And so we will believe in our stellar friendship, though we should have to be terrestrial enemies to one another.

280

Architecture for Thinkers.– An insight is needed (and that probably very soon) as to what is specially lacking in our great cities – namely, quiet, spacious, and widely extended places for reflection, places with long, lofty colonnades for bad weather, or for too sunny days, where no noise of wagons or of shouters would penetrate, and where a more refined propriety would prohibit loud praying even to the priest: buildings and situations which as a whole would express the sublimity of self-communion and seclusion from the world. The time is past when the Church possessed the monopoly of reflection, when the vita contemplativa had always in the first place to be the vita religiosa: and everything that the Church has built expresses this thought. I know not how we could content ourselves with their structures, even if they should be divested of their ecclesiastical purposes: these structures speak a far too pathetic and too biassed speech, as houses of God and places of splendour for supernatural intercourse, for us godless ones to be able to think our thoughts in them. We want to have ourselves translated into stone and plant, we want to go for a walk in ourselves when we wander in these halls and gardens.

281

Knowing how to Find the End.– Masters of the first rank are recognised by knowing in a perfect manner how to find the end, in the whole as well as in the part; be it the end of a melody or of a thought, be it the fifth act of a tragedy or of a state affair. The masters of the second degree always become restless towards the end, and seldom dip down into the sea with such proud, quiet equilibrium as for example, the mountain-ridge at Porto fino– where the Bay of Genoa sings its melody to an end.

282

The Gait.– There are mannerisms of the intellect by which even great minds betray that they originate from the populace, or from the semi-populace – it is principally the gait and step, of their thoughts which betray them; they cannot walk. It was thus that even Napoleon, to his profound chagrin, could not walk "legitimately" and in princely fashion on occasions when it was necessary to do so properly, as in great coronation processions and on similar occasions: even there he was always just the leader of a column – proud and brusque at the same time, and very self-conscious of it all. – It is something laughable to see those writers who make the folding robes of their periods rustle around them: they want to cover their feet.