Home > Work > Unpublished Writings from the Period of Unfashionable Observations
1 " Every moment of life wants to tell us something, but we do not want to hear what it has to say: when we are alone and quiet we are afraid that something will be whispered into our ear and hence we despise quiet and drug ourselves with sociability. "
― Friedrich Nietzsche , Unpublished Writings from the Period of Unfashionable Observations
2 " Healthy introspection, without undermining oneself; it is a rare gift to venture into the unexplored depths of the self, without delusions or fictions, but with an uncorrupted gaze. "
3 " Pure logic is the impossibility by means of which science is maintained. "
4 " Due to the superficiality of our intellect, we do indeed live in one ongoing illusion: that means that in every moment we need art in order to live. Our eyes do not permit us to get beyond the forms. But if we ourselves are the ones who have gradually trained our eyes to do this, then we realize that an artistic power holds sway within us. Thus, we see in nature itself mechanisms that protect against absolute knowledge: the philosopher recognizes the language of nature and says: “we need art” and “we need only a limited amount of knowledge”. "
5 " Due to the superficiality of our intellect, we do indeed live in one ongoing illusion: that means that in every moment we need art in order to live. "
6 " Misery drives human beings into the future, misery drives them into a distant past so that they thereby can demonstrate the relative happiness of the present or console with the thought that at one time others lived well. It is the drive to find happiness that prevents human beings from discovering the lesson of their day, resignation; since happiness is not yet there, it obviously must be on the way, they conclude, or must already have been there. Or it is already there by comparison with prior unhappiness, etc. The same thing that drives on each human being drives them all on: they use history in order to become happier in the future. "
7 " Our salvation does not lie in knowing, but in creating! Our greatness lies in supreme semblance, in the noblest fervency. If the universe is no concern of ours, then at least we demand the right to despise it. "
