The Joyful Wisdom (La Gaya Scienza)
Friedrich Nietzsche
1,346 passages indexed from The Joyful Wisdom (La Gaya Scienza) (Friedrich Nietzsche) — Page 8 of 27
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The Joyful Wisdom (La Gaya Scienza), passage 808
There are enough of men who _may_ yield to their impulses gracefully and carelessly: but they do not do so, for fear of that imaginary "evil thing" in nature! _That is the cause_ why there is so little nobility to be found among men: the indication of which will always be to have no fear of oneself, to expect nothing disgraceful from oneself, to fly without hesitation whithersoever we are impelled—we free-born birds! Wherever we come, there will always be freedom and sunshine around us.
The Joyful Wisdom (La Gaya Scienza), passage 816
Such a valuation, which prevails and has prevailed everywhere simultaneously with the morality of custom, educates "characters," and brings all changing, re-learning, and self-transforming into _disrepute_.
The Joyful Wisdom (La Gaya Scienza), passage 341
_Woman in Music._—How does it happen that warm and rainy winds bring the musical mood and the inventive delight in melody with them? Are they not the same winds that fill the churches and give women amorous thoughts?
The Joyful Wisdom (La Gaya Scienza), passage 79
I an Inquirer? No, that's not my calling Only _I weigh a lot_—I'm such a lump!— And through the waters I keep falling, falling, Till on the ocean's deepest bed I bump.
The Joyful Wisdom (La Gaya Scienza), passage 429
But he does not _wish_ to be so! His _character_ is more in love with large walls and daring frescoes! He fails to see that his _spirit_ has a different taste and inclination, and prefers to sit quietly in the corners of ruined houses:—concealed in this way, concealed even from himself, he there paints his proper masterpieces, all of which are very short, often only one bar in length,—there only does he become quite good, great, and perfect, perhaps there only.—But he does not know it!
The Joyful Wisdom (La Gaya Scienza), passage 633
_Criticism of Saints._—Must one then, in order to have a virtue, be desirous of having it precisely in its most brutal form?—as the Christian saints desired and needed;—those who only _endured_ life with the thought that at the sight of their virtue self-contempt might seize every man. A virtue with such an effect I call brutal.
The Joyful Wisdom (La Gaya Scienza), passage 1192
_What is Romanticism?_—It will be remembered perhaps, at least among my friends, that at first I assailed the modern world with some gross errors and exaggerations, but at any rate with _hope_ in my heart.
The Joyful Wisdom (La Gaya Scienza), passage 1206
(That there _may be_ quite a different kind of pessimism, a classical pessimism—this presentiment and vision belongs to me, as something inseparable from me, as my _proprium_ and _ipsissimum_; only that the word "classical" is repugnant to my ears, it has become far too worn; too indefinite and indistinguishable. I call that pessimism of the future,—for it is coming! I see it coming!—_Dionysian_ pessimism.)
The Joyful Wisdom (La Gaya Scienza), passage 381
_Art and Nature._—The Greeks (or at least the Athenians) liked to hear good talking: indeed they had an eager inclination for it, which distinguished them more than anything else from non-Greeks. And so they required good talking even from passion on the stage, and submitted to the unnaturalness of dramatic verse with delight:—in nature, forsooth, passion is so sparing of words! so dumb and confused! Or if it finds words, so embarrassed and irrational and a shame to itself!
The Joyful Wisdom (La Gaya Scienza), passage 90
"To nature true, complete!" so he begins. Who complete Nature to his canvas _wins_? Her tiniest fragment's endless, no constraint Can know: he paints just what his _fancy_ pins: What does his fancy pin? What he _can_ paint!
The Joyful Wisdom (La Gaya Scienza), passage 722
_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.
The Joyful Wisdom (La Gaya Scienza), passage 498
Almost in every speech of the foremost German statesman, and even when he makes himself heard through his imperial mouth-piece, there is an accent which the ear of a foreigner repudiates with aversion: but the Germans endure it,—they endure themselves.
The Joyful Wisdom (La Gaya Scienza), passage 85
She now has wit—how did it come her way? A man through her his reason lost, they say. His head, though wise ere to this pastime lent, Straight to the devil—no, to woman went!
The Joyful Wisdom (La Gaya Scienza), passage 330
We then shut our ears against all physiology, and we decree in secret that "we will hear nothing of the fact that man is something else than _soul and form_!" "The man under the skin" is an abomination and monstrosity, a blasphemy of God and of love to all lovers.—Well, just as the lover still feels with respect to nature and natural functions, so did every worshipper of God and his "holy omnipotence" formerly feel: in all that was said of nature by astronomers, geologists, physiologists, and physicians, he saw an encroachment on his most precious possession, and consequently an attack,—and moreover also an impertinence of the assailant!
The Joyful Wisdom (La Gaya Scienza), passage 974
Are we still, perhaps, too much under the _immediate effects_ of the event—and are these effects, especially as regards _ourselves_, perhaps the reverse of what was to be expected—not at all sad and depressing, but rather like a new and indescribable variety of light, happiness, relief, enlivenment, encouragement, and dawning day?...
The Joyful Wisdom (La Gaya Scienza), passage 185
(One can also suffer from excess,—even the desire to cast away, to share out, can assume the honourable name of "love.") When we see any one suffering, we willingly utilise the opportunity then afforded to take possession of him; the beneficent and sympathetic man, for example, does this; he also calls the desire for new possession awakened in him, by the name of "love," and has enjoyment in it, as in a new acquisition suggesting itself to him.
The Joyful Wisdom (La Gaya Scienza), passage 69
They write and write (quite maddening me) Their "sapient" twaddle airy, As if 'twere _primum scribere, Deinde philosophari_.
The Joyful Wisdom (La Gaya Scienza), passage 899
_Leisure and Idleness._—There is an Indian savagery, a savagery peculiar to the Indian blood, in the manner in which the Americans strive after gold: and the breathless hurry of their work—the characteristic vice of the new world—already begins to infect old Europe, and makes it savage also, spreading over it a strange lack of intellectuality. One is now ashamed of repose: even long reflection almost causes remorse of conscience.
The Joyful Wisdom (La Gaya Scienza), passage 45
Let our virtues be easy and nimble-footed in motion, Like unto Homer's verse ought they to come _and to go_.
The Joyful Wisdom (La Gaya Scienza), passage 65
Too nigh, my friend my joy doth mar, I'd have him high above and far, Or how can he become my star?
The Joyful Wisdom (La Gaya Scienza), passage 738
_Skinniness._—All profound men have their happiness in imitating the flying-fish for once, 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_.
The Joyful Wisdom (La Gaya Scienza), passage 1290
Wise thoughts can move without sound, But I've songs that I can't sing alone; So birdies, pray gather around, And listen to what I have found In the South!
The Joyful Wisdom (La Gaya Scienza), passage 1275
don't forget we are in the mountains! But what you will hear is at least new; and if you do not understand it, if you misunderstand the _singer_, what does it matter! That—has always been "The Singer's Curse."[14] So much the more distinctly can you hear his music and melody, so much the better also can you—dance to his piping. _Would you like_ to do that?...
The Joyful Wisdom (La Gaya Scienza), passage 512
_New Struggles._—After Buddha was dead people showed his shadow for centuries afterwards in a cave,—an immense frightful shadow. God is dead: but as the human race is constituted, there will perhaps be caves for millenniums yet, in which people will show his shadow,—And we—we have still to overcome his shadow!
The Joyful Wisdom (La Gaya Scienza), passage 704
_Sacrifice._—The victims think otherwise than the spectators about sacrifice and sacrificing: but they have never been allowed to express their opinion.
The Joyful Wisdom (La Gaya Scienza), passage 224
Those who reverence the old religion and the religious disposition then complain of corruption,—they have hitherto also determined the usage of language, and have given a bad repute to superstition, even among the freest spirits.
The Joyful Wisdom (La Gaya Scienza), passage 481
The court language, however, is the language of the courtier who _has no profession_, and who even in conversations on scientific subjects avoids all convenient, technical expressions, because they smack of the profession; on that account the technical expression, and everything that betrays the specialist, is a _blemish of style_ in countries which have a court culture.
The Joyful Wisdom (La Gaya Scienza), passage 285
Thus among the Wahabites, there are only two mortal sins: having another God than the Wahabite God, and—smoking (it is designated by them as "the disgraceful kind of drinking"). "And how is it with regard to murder and adultery?"—asked the Englishman with astonishment on learning these things.
The Joyful Wisdom (La Gaya Scienza), passage 286
"Well, God is gracious and pitiful!" answered the old chief.—Thus among the ancient Romans there was the idea that a woman could only sin mortally in two ways: by adultery on the one hand, and—by wine-drinking on the other. Old Cato pretended that kissing among relatives had only been made a custom in order to keep women in control on this point; a kiss meant: did her breath smell of wine?
The Joyful Wisdom (La Gaya Scienza), passage 753
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 Joyful Wisdom (La Gaya Scienza), passage 588
They may then, like the Tibetans, chew the cud of their "_om mane padme hum_," innumerable times, or, as in Benares, count the name of God Ram-Ram-Ram (and so on, with or without grace) on their fingers; or honour Vishnu with his thousand names of invocation, Allah with his ninety-nine; or they may make use of the prayer-wheels and the rosary: the main thing is that they are settled down for a time at this work, and present a tolerable appearance; their mode of prayer is devised for the advantage of the pious who have thought and elevation of their own.
The Joyful Wisdom (La Gaya Scienza), passage 508
We must rest from ourselves occasionally by contemplating and looking down upon ourselves, and by laughing or weeping _over_ ourselves from an artistic remoteness: we must discover the _hero_, and likewise the _fool_, that is hidden in our passion for knowledge; we must now and then be joyful in our folly, that we may continue to be joyful in our wisdom!
The Joyful Wisdom (La Gaya Scienza), passage 1291
"You are merry lovers and false and gay, In frolics and sport you pass the day; Whilst in the North, I shudder to say, I worshipped a woman, hideous and gray, Her name was Truth, so I heard them say, But I left her there and I flew away To the South!"
The Joyful Wisdom (La Gaya Scienza), passage 436
_Prose and Poetry._—Let it be observed that the great masters of prose have almost always been poets as well, whether openly, or only in secret and for the "closet"; and in truth one only writes good prose _in view of poetry_!
The Joyful Wisdom (La Gaya Scienza), passage 882
_On Meeting Again._—A: Do I quite understand you? You are in search of something? _Where_, in the midst of the present, actual world, is _your_ niche and star? Where can _you_ lay yourself in the sun, so that you also may have a surplus of well-being, that your existence may justify itself? Let everyone do that for himself—you seem to say, —and let him put talk about generalities, concern about others and society, out of his mind!—B: I want more; I am no seeker. I want to create my own sun for myself.
The Joyful Wisdom (La Gaya Scienza), passage 433
_Now and Formerly._—Of what consequence is all our art in artistic products, if that higher art, the art of the festival, be lost by us? Formerly all artistic products were exhibited on the great festive path of humanity, as tokens of remembrance, and monuments of high and happy moments. One now seeks to allure the exhausted and sickly from the great suffering path of humanity for a wanton moment by means of works of art; one furnishes them with a little ecstasy and insanity.
The Joyful Wisdom (La Gaya Scienza), passage 150
The observation alone of the different degrees of development which the human impulses have attained, and could yet attain, according to the different moral climates, would furnish too much work for the most laborious; whole generations, and regular co-operating generations of the learned, would be needed in order to exhaust the points of view and the material here furnished.
The Joyful Wisdom (La Gaya Scienza), passage 743
_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.
The Joyful Wisdom (La Gaya Scienza), passage 447
One knows Chamfort's last words: "_Ah! mon ami_," he said to Sieyès, "_je m'en vais enfin de ce monde, où il faut que le cœur se brise ou se bronze_—." These were certainly not the words of a dying Frenchman.
The Joyful Wisdom (La Gaya Scienza), passage 1023
Where the feeling finds expression, "That is at last proved, I am now done with it," it is commonly the ancestor in the blood and instincts of the learned man that approves of the "accomplished work" in the nook from which he sees things;—the belief in the proof is only an indication of what has been looked upon for ages by a laborious family as "good work." Take an example: the sons of registrars and office-clerks of every kind, whose main task has always been to arrange a variety of material, distribute it in drawers, and systematise it generally, evince, when they become learned men, an inclination to regard a problem as almost solved when they have systematised it.
The Joyful Wisdom (La Gaya Scienza), passage 589
But even these have their weary hours when a series of venerable words and sounds and a mechanical, pious ritual does them good. But supposing that these rare men—in every religion the religious man is an exception—know how to help themselves, the poor in spirit do not know, and to forbid them the prayer-babbling would mean to take their religion from them, a fact which Protestantism brings more and more to light.
The Joyful Wisdom (La Gaya Scienza), passage 283
It perhaps distinguishes the Asiatics above the Europeans, that they are capable of a longer and profounder repose; even their narcotics operate slowly and require patience, in contrast to the obnoxious suddenness of the European poison, alcohol.
The Joyful Wisdom (La Gaya Scienza), passage 905
Formerly it was the very reverse: it was "action" that suffered from a bad conscience. A man of good family _concealed_ his work when need compelled him to labour. The slave laboured under the weight of the feeling that he did something contemptible:—the "doing" itself was something contemptible. "Only in _otium_ and _bellum_ is there nobility and honour:" so rang the voice of ancient prejudice!
The Joyful Wisdom (La Gaya Scienza), passage 944
The "religion of compassion" (or "the heart") bids him help, and he thinks he has helped best when he has helped most speedily!
The Joyful Wisdom (La Gaya Scienza), passage 603
God and mankind are here thought of as separated, as so antithetical that sin against the latter cannot be at all possible,—all deeds are to be looked upon _solely with respect to their supernatural consequences_, and not with respect to their natural results: it is thus that the Jewish feeling, to which all that is natural seems unworthy in itself, would have things.
The Joyful Wisdom (La Gaya Scienza), passage 1345
Translated by Miss M. D. Petre. Inserted by permission of the editor of the _Nation_, in which it appeared on May 15, 1909.
The Joyful Wisdom (La Gaya Scienza), passage 245
_The Self-Renouncer._—What does the self-renouncer do? He strives after a higher world, he wants to fly longer and further and higher than all men of affirmation—he _throws away many things_ that would burden his flight, and several things among them that are not valueless, that are not unpleasant to him: he sacrifices them to his desire for elevation.
The Joyful Wisdom (La Gaya Scienza), passage 239
If there had not been a surplus of dissatisfied persons of this kind in Europe since the time of the Middle Ages, the remarkable capacity of Europeans for constant _transformation_ would perhaps not have originated at all; for the claims of the strong dissatisfied persons are too gross, and really too modest to resist being finally quieted down.
The Joyful Wisdom (La Gaya Scienza), passage 76
Brethren, war's the origin Of happiness on earth: Powder-smoke and battle-din Witness friendship's birth! Friendship means three things, you know,— Kinship in luckless plight, Equality before the foe Freedom—in death's sight!
The Joyful Wisdom (La Gaya Scienza), passage 796
Here, however, on turning every corner you find a man by himself, who knows the sea, knows adventure, and knows the Orient, a man who is averse to law and to neighbour, as if it bored him to have to do with them, a man who scans all that is already old and established, with envious glances: with a wonderful craftiness of fantasy, he would like, at least in thought, to establish all this anew, to lay his hand upon it, and introduce his meaning into it—if only for the passing hour of a sunny afternoon, when for once his insatiable and melancholy soul feels satiety, and when only what is his own, and nothing strange, may show itself to his eye.