The Joyful Wisdom (La Gaya Scienza), passage 486

If we want to imagine the man of _this_ music,—well, let us just imagine Beethoven as he appeared beside Goethe, say, at their meeting at Teplitz: as semi-barbarism beside culture, as the masses beside the nobility, as the good-natured man beside the good and more than "good" man, as the visionary beside the artist, as the man needing comfort beside the comforted, as the man given to exaggeration and distrust beside the man of reason, as the crank and self-tormenter, as the foolish, enraptured, blessedly unfortunate, sincerely immoderate man, as the pretentious and awkward man,—and altogether as the "untamed man": it was thus that Goethe conceived and characterised him, Goethe, the exceptional German, for whom a music of equal rank has not yet been found!—Finally, let us consider whether the present, continually extending contempt of melody and the stunting of the sense for melody among Germans should not be understood as a democratic impropriety and an after-effect of the Revolution?

The Joyful Wisdom (La Gaya Scienza), passage 845

"Our doing must determine what we leave undone; in that we do, we leave undone"—so it pleases me, so runs _my placitum_. But I do not mean to strive with open eyes for my impoverishment; I do not like any of the negative virtues whose very essence is negation and self-renunciation.

The Joyful Wisdom (La Gaya Scienza), passage 242

_Not Pre-ordained to Knowledge._—There is a purblind humility not at all rare, and when a person is afflicted with it, he is once for all unqualified for being a disciple of knowledge. It is this in fact: the moment a man of this kind perceives anything striking, he turns as it were on his heel, and says to himself: "You have deceived yourself! Where have your wits been!

The Joyful Wisdom (La Gaya Scienza), passage 479

It needs whole generations in order merely to devise a courteous convention of gratefulness; it is only very late that the period arrives when something of spirit and genius enters into gratitude. Then there is usually some one who is the great receiver of thanks, not only for the good he himself has done, but mostly for that which has been gradually accumulated by his predecessors, as a treasure of what is highest and best.

The Joyful Wisdom (La Gaya Scienza), passage 554

_Health of the Soul._—The favourite medico-moral formula (whose originator was Ariston of Chios), "Virtue is the health of the soul," would, at least in order to be used, have to be altered to this: "Thy virtue is the health of thy soul." For there is no such thing as health in itself, and all attempts to define a thing in that way have lamentably failed.

The Joyful Wisdom (La Gaya Scienza), passage 1151

And who knows but that this block of ancient character will in the end get the upper hand of the national movement, and will have to make itself in a _positive_ sense the heir and continuator of Napoleon:—who, as one knows, wanted _one_ Europe, which was to be _mistress of the world_.—

The Joyful Wisdom (La Gaya Scienza), passage 952

Thou wilt also want to help, but only those whose distress thou entirely _understandest_, because they have _one_ sorrow and _one_ hope in common with thee—thy _friends_: and only in _the_ way that thou helpest thyself:—I want to make them more courageous, more enduring, more simple, more joyful! I want to teach them that which at present so few understand, and the preachers of fellowship in sorrow least of all:—namely, _fellowship in joy_!

The Joyful Wisdom (La Gaya Scienza), passage 537

We operate only with things which do not exist, with lines, surfaces, bodies, atoms, divisible times, divisible spaces—how can explanation ever be possible when we first make everything a _conception_, our conception! It is sufficient to regard science as the exactest humanising of things that is possible; we always learn to describe ourselves more accurately by describing things and their successions.

The Joyful Wisdom (La Gaya Scienza), passage 189

Those who have been favoured with much possession and satiety, have, to be sure, dropped a word now and then about the "raging demon," as, for instance, the most lovable and most beloved of all the Athenians—Sophocles; but Eros always laughed at such revilers,—they were always his greatest favourites.—There is, of course, here and there on this terrestrial sphere a kind of sequel to love, in which that covetous longing of two persons for one another has yielded to a new desire and covetousness, to a _common_, higher thirst for a superior ideal standing above them: but who knows this love?

The Joyful Wisdom (La Gaya Scienza), passage 894

What have the preachers of morality not dreamt concerning the inner "misery" of evil men! What _lies_ have they not told us about the misfortunes of impassioned men! Yes, lying is here the right word: they were only too well aware of the overflowing happiness of this kind of man, but they kept silent as death about it; because it was a refutation of their theory, according to which happiness only originates through the annihilation of the passions and the silencing of the will!

The Joyful Wisdom (La Gaya Scienza), passage 103

Hatred, delight in mischief, rapacity and ambition, and whatever else is called evil—belong to the marvellous economy of the conservation of the race; to be sure a costly, lavish, and on the whole very foolish economy:—which has, however, hitherto preserved our race, _as is demonstrated to us_.

The Joyful Wisdom (La Gaya Scienza), passage 476

And so, on the contemplation of such a man, these thoughts still ring in my ears to-day, as formerly: "That passion is better than stoicism or hypocrisy; that straightforwardness, even in evil, is better than losing oneself in trying to observe traditional morality; that the free man is just as able to be good as evil, but that the unemancipated man is a disgrace to nature, and has no share in heavenly or earthly bliss; finally, that _all who wish to be free must become so through themselves_, and that freedom falls to nobody's lot as a gift from Heaven." (_Richard Wagner in Bayreuth_, Vol.

The Joyful Wisdom (La Gaya Scienza), passage 890

And because mankind as a whole has for centuries listened too eagerly to those teachers, something of the superstition that the human race is in a very bad way has actually come over men: so that they are now far too ready to sigh; they find nothing more in life and make melancholy faces at each other, as if life were indeed very hard _to endure_.

The Joyful Wisdom (La Gaya Scienza), passage 967

Bless the cup that is about to overflow, that the water may flow golden out of it, and carry everywhere the reflection of thy bliss! Lo! This cup is again going to empty itself, and Zarathustra is again going to be a man."—Thus began Zarathustra's down-going.

The Joyful Wisdom (La Gaya Scienza), passage 885

_Happiness in Destiny._—Destiny confers its greatest distinction upon us when it has made us fight for a time on the side of our adversaries. We are thereby _predestined_ to a great victory.

The Joyful Wisdom (La Gaya Scienza), passage 201

_To the Teachers of Unselfishness._—The virtues of a man are called _good_, not in respect of the results they have for himself, but in respect of the results which we expect therefrom for ourselves and for society:—we have all along had very little unselfishness, very little "non-egoism" in our praise of the virtues!

The Joyful Wisdom (La Gaya Scienza), passage 124

When they are all too plainly convinced of the absence of selfish intentions and emoluments, the noble person is regarded by them as a kind of fool: they despise him in his gladness, and laugh at the lustre of his eye. "How can a person rejoice at being at a disadvantage, how can a person with open eyes want to meet with disadvantage!

The Joyful Wisdom (La Gaya Scienza), passage 783

_Aboard Ship!_—When one considers how a full philosophical justification of his mode of living and thinking operates upon every individual—namely, as a warming, blessing, and fructifying sun, specially shining on him; how it makes him independent of praise and blame, self-sufficient, rich and generous in the bestowal of happiness and kindness; how it unceasingly transforms the evil to the good, brings all the energies to bloom and maturity, and altogether hinders the growth of the greater and lesser weeds of chagrin and discontent:—one at last cries out importunately: Oh, that many such new suns were created!

The Joyful Wisdom (La Gaya Scienza), passage 297

With respect to the latter, owing to lack of sufficient self-experience, we men of the present day (in spite of our deficiencies and infirmities), are perhaps all of us blunderers and visionaries in comparison with the men of the age of fear—the longest of all ages,—when the individual had to protect himself against violence, and for that purpose had to be a man of violence himself.

The Joyful Wisdom (La Gaya Scienza), passage 1075

When they again find aught in things, among things, or behind things, that is unfortunately very well known to us, for example, our multiplication table, or our logic, or our willing and desiring, how happy they immediately are! For "what is known is understood": they are unanimous as to that.

The Joyful Wisdom (La Gaya Scienza), passage 834

Whatever has _value_ in the present world, has it not in itself, by its nature,—nature is always worthless:—but a value was once given to it, bestowed upon it, and it was _we_ who gave and bestowed!

The Joyful Wisdom (La Gaya Scienza), passage 107

When the maxim, "The race is all, the individual is nothing,"—has incorporated itself in humanity, and when access stands open to every one at all times to this ultimate emancipation and irresponsibility.—Perhaps then laughter will have united with wisdom, perhaps then there will be only "joyful wisdom." Meanwhile, however, it is quite otherwise, meanwhile the comedy of existence has not yet "become conscious" of itself, meanwhile it is still the period of tragedy, the period of morals and religions.

The Joyful Wisdom (La Gaya Scienza), passage 1170

how the reverse has always taken place! Alas! how they themselves are now for ever occupied and possessed by their science! Grown into their nook, crumpled into unrecognisability, constrained, deprived of their equilibrium, emaciated and angular everywhere, perfectly round only in one place,—we are moved and silent when we find them so.

The Joyful Wisdom (La Gaya Scienza), passage 364

And the greatest labour of human beings hitherto has been to agree with one another regarding a great many things, and to impose upon themselves a _law of agreement_—indifferent whether these things are true or false. This is the discipline of the mind which has preserved mankind;—but the counter-impulses are still so powerful that one can really speak of the future of mankind with little confidence.

The Joyful Wisdom (La Gaya Scienza), passage 430

_Earnestness for the Truth._—Earnest for the truth! What different things men understand by these words!

The Joyful Wisdom (La Gaya Scienza), passage 936

To others it appears as the indication of stealthily approaching age, and our planet is regarded by them as a melancholy invalid, who, in order to forget his present condition, writes the history of his youth. In fact, this is one aspect of the new sentiment.

The Joyful Wisdom (La Gaya Scienza), passage 174

_Doing good_ and being kind to those who are in any way already dependent on us (that is, who are accustomed to think of us as their _raison d'être_); we want to increase their power, because we thus increase our own; or we want to show them the advantage there is in being in our power,—they thus become more contented with their position, and more hostile to the enemies of _our_ power and readier to contend with them.

The Joyful Wisdom (La Gaya Scienza), passage 227

And thus it is precisely in times of "effeminacy" that tragedy runs at large in and out of doors, it is then that ardent love and ardent hatred are born, and the flame of knowledge flashes heavenward in full blaze.—Thirdly, as if in amends for the reproach of superstition and effeminacy, it is customary to say of such periods of corruption that they are milder, and that cruelty has then greatly diminished in comparison with the older, more credulous, and stronger period.

The Joyful Wisdom (La Gaya Scienza), passage 684

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

The Joyful Wisdom (La Gaya Scienza), passage 624

The work of _Luther_ would thus be consummated,—he who taught them to be anti-Roman and to say: "Here _I_ stand! _I_ cannot do otherwise!"—

The Joyful Wisdom (La Gaya Scienza), passage 1239

Is it not obvious that with all this we must feel ill at ease in an age which claims the honour of being the most humane, gentle and just that the sun has ever seen? What a pity that at the mere mention of these fine words, the thoughts at the back of our minds are all the more unpleasant, that we see therein only the expression—or the masquerade—of profound weakening, exhaustion, age, and declining power! What can it matter to us with what kind of tinsel an invalid decks out his weakness?

The Joyful Wisdom (La Gaya Scienza), passage 77

"Rather on your toes stand high Than crawl upon all fours, Rather through the keyhole spy Than through open doors!"

The Joyful Wisdom (La Gaya Scienza), passage 669

_The Music of the Best Future._—The first musician for me would be he who knew only the sorrow of the profoundest happiness, and no other sorrow: there has not hitherto been such a musician.

The Joyful Wisdom (La Gaya Scienza), passage 228

But to this praise I am just as little able to assent as to that reproach: I only grant so much—namely, that cruelty now becomes more refined, and its older forms are henceforth counter to the taste; but the wounding and torturing by word and look reaches its highest development in times of corruption,—it is now only that _wickedness_ is created, and the delight in wickedness.

The Joyful Wisdom (La Gaya Scienza), passage 597

Perhaps the modern, European discontentedness is to be looked upon as caused by the fact that the world of our forefathers, the whole Middle Ages, was given to drink, owing to the influence of German tastes in Europe: the Middle Ages, that means the alcoholic poisoning of Europe.—The German dislike of life (including the influence of the cellar-air and stove-poison in German dwellings), is essentially a cold-weather complaint.

The Joyful Wisdom (La Gaya Scienza), passage 672

_Bad Conscience._—All that he now does is excellent and proper—and yet he has a bad conscience with it all. For the exceptional is his task.

The Joyful Wisdom (La Gaya Scienza), passage 965

For ten years hast thou climbed hither unto my cave: thou wouldst have wearied of thy light and of the journey, had it not been for me, mine eagle, and my serpent. But we awaited thee every morning, took from thee thine overflow, and blessed thee for it. Lo! I am weary of my wisdom, like the bee that hath gathered too much honey; I need hands outstretched to take it.

The Joyful Wisdom (La Gaya Scienza), passage 664

_For Moral Enlightenment._—The Germans must be talked out of their Mephistopheles—and out of their Faust also. These are two moral prejudices against the value of knowledge.

The Joyful Wisdom (La Gaya Scienza), passage 1042

The people regard such sacrificed, silent, serious men of "faith" as "_wise_," that is to say, as men who have become sages, as "reliable" in relation to their own unreliability.

The Joyful Wisdom (La Gaya Scienza), passage 776

_Excelsior!_—"Thou wilt never more pray, never more worship, never more repose in infinite trust—thou refusest to stand still and dismiss thy thoughts before an ultimate wisdom, an ultimate virtue, an ultimate power,—thou hast no constant guardian and friend in thy seven solitudes—thou livest without the outlook on a mountain that has snow on its head and fire in its heart—there is no longer any requiter for thee, nor any amender with his finishing touch—there is no longer any reason in that which happens, or any love in that which will happen to thee—there is no longer any resting-place for thy weary heart, where it has only to find and no longer to seek, thou art opposed to any kind of ultimate peace, thou desirest the eternal recurrence of war and peace:—man of renunciation, wilt thou renounce in all these things?

The Joyful Wisdom (La Gaya Scienza), passage 427

No one equals him in the colours of the late autumn, in the indescribably touching happiness of a last, a final, and all too short enjoyment; he knows a chord for those secret and weird midnights of the soul when cause and effect seem out of joint, and when every instant something may originate "out of nothing." He draws his resources best of all out of the lower depths of human happiness, and so to speak, out of its drained goblet, where the bitterest and most nauseous drops have ultimately, for good or for ill, commingled with the sweetest.

The Joyful Wisdom (La Gaya Scienza), passage 688

_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.

The Joyful Wisdom (La Gaya Scienza), passage 1135

Sometimes, perhaps, from the point of view of education which hallows so many lies, it has been a tender regard for growing and evolving persons, for disciples who have often to be guarded against themselves by means of the belief in a person (by means of an error).

The Joyful Wisdom (La Gaya Scienza), passage 578

_After-Effect of the most Ancient Religiousness._—The thoughtless man thinks that the Will is the only thing that operates, that willing is something simple, manifestly given, underived, and comprehensible in itself. He is convinced that when he does anything, for example, when he delivers a blow, it is _he_ who strikes, and he has struck because he _willed_ to strike.

The Joyful Wisdom (La Gaya Scienza), passage 177

Certainly the condition we are in when we do ill is seldom so pleasant, so purely pleasant, as that in which we practise kindness,—it is an indication that we still lack power, or it betrays ill-humour at this defect in us; it brings with it new dangers and uncertainties as to the power we already possess, and clouds our horizon by the prospect of revenge, scorn, punishment and failure.

The Joyful Wisdom (La Gaya Scienza), passage 677

_Against many a Vindication._—The most perfidious manner of injuring a cause is to vindicate it intentionally with fallacious arguments.

The Joyful Wisdom (La Gaya Scienza), passage 774

Knowledge will finally stretch out her hand for that which belongs to her:—she means to _rule_ and _possess_, and you with her!

The Joyful Wisdom (La Gaya Scienza), passage 987

There is no doubt that the conscientious man in the daring and extreme sense in which he is presupposed by the belief in science, _affirms thereby a world other than_ that of life, nature, and history; and in so far as he affirms this "other world," what? must he not just thereby—deny its counterpart, this world, _our_ world?...

The Joyful Wisdom (La Gaya Scienza), passage 1222

do we actually wish to have existence debased in that fashion to a ready-reckoner exercise and calculation for stay-at-home mathematicians? We should not, above all, seek to divest existence of its _ambiguous_ character: _good_ taste forbids it, gentlemen, the taste of reverence for everything that goes beyond your horizon!

The Joyful Wisdom (La Gaya Scienza), passage 969

"Carcasse, tu trembles? Tu tremblerais bien davantage, si tu savais, où je te mène."— _Turenne._