The joyous science, p.20
The Joyous Science, page 20
306
Stoic and Epicurean
The Epicurean selects the situations, the persons and even the events which fit with his extremely irritable intellectual constitution; he renounces the rest – that is, the bulk of them – because they would constitute fare too strong and too heavy for him. The Stoic, on the other hand, practises swallowing stones and worms, glass shards and scorpions, without revulsion; his stomach is supposed to become indifferent in the end to everything that the accidents of existence pour into it – he is reminiscent of the members of the Arabic sect the ‘Īsāwiyya,18 with whom we became familiar in Algiers; and like these insensible people, he also enjoys inviting the public to witness the exhibition of his insensibility, the very thing an Epicurean would willingly dispense with – for of course he has his ‘garden’! For men subject to the capriciousness of fate, who live in violent times and are dependent on abrupt and changeable men, Stoicism may be quite advisable. But he who anticipates that fate will allow him to spin out a long thread does well to set himself up as an Epicurean, as all men engaged in intellectual labour have hitherto done! For it would be a great pity for them to forfeit their delicate irritability, and to receive in return the rough and spiny hide of a Stoical hedgehog.
307
In Favour of Criticism
Something now strikes you as an error which you had formerly loved as a truth, or at least as a probability; you shed the opinion and imagine that your reason has thereby gained a victory. But perhaps you were a different person then – at any given moment you are a different person – and at that time the error was necessary for you, just as necessary for you as all your present ‘truths’ are. It was like a skin, as it were, which covered and concealed from you much that you were not yet allowed to see. Your new life, not your rationality, has killed that opinion for you: you did not need it any more, and now it has broken down of its own accord, and its irrationality has crawled out of it like a worm into the light. When we engage in criticism it is nothing voluntary or impersonal – it is, or at least very often it is, proof that there are vital, driving forces in us which are shedding a skin. We negate and must negate because something in us lives and wants to affirm itself, perhaps something we are as yet unfamiliar with, perhaps something we are as yet unable to see! This speaks in favour of criticism.
308
The History of Each Day
What comprises the history of each day for you? Look at your habits which comprise it: are they the product of innumerable little acts of cowardice and laziness or of bravery and inventive reason? As different as the two cases are, it is possible that, either way, men would afford you the same praise and you would also bring them the same benefits. But praise and benefits and respectability may suffice for him who only wishes to have a good conscience – but not for you, trier of the hearts and reins,19 who has knowledge of its inner workings!
309
Out of the Seventh Solitude20
One day the wanderer shut a door behind him, stood still and wept. Then he said: ‘Oh, this impulse and inclination towards the true, the real, the non-apparent, the certain! How it vexes me! Why does precisely this dark and passionate taskmaster pursue me? I would like to rest, but he does not allow it. How many things tempt me to linger! Everywhere there are gardens of Armida21 for me, and therefore I must tear myself away and embitter my heart, again and again! I must set out again on my worn and weary feet; and because I must, I often cast fierce glances back at the most beautiful things that could not hold me – because they could not hold me!’
310
Will and Wave
How eagerly this wave approaches, as if it were trying to reach something! How it wriggles its way into the innermost crannies of the rocky cliff, as if in such a frightful hurry! It seems that it wants to steal a march on someone; it seems that there is something hidden there, something of value, of great value.
And now it returns, somewhat more slowly, still quite white with excitement – is it disappointed? Did it find what it was looking for? Does it merely pretend to be disappointed?
But already another wave approaches, still more wild and eager than the first, and its soul also seems to be filled with secrets, and a longing for treasure. Thus live the waves – thus live we who will! More I cannot say.
So? Do you distrust me? Are you angry with me, you beautiful monsters? Are you afraid that I will betray your secret? Well! Go ahead and be angry with me, raise your dangerous green bodies as high as you can, make a wall between me and the sun – just as you are doing now! Truly, nothing remains of the world but green twilight and green lightning. Do what you will, you wanton creatures, roar with delight and malice – or dive down again, pouring your emeralds into the depths, casting your endless white tufts of foam and spray over them – it is all the same to me, for it all goes so well for you, and I want it all to go so well for you; how could I betray you? For – mark my words – I know you and your secret, I know your kind! Most assuredly, you and I are of the same kind! And most assuredly, you and I share the same secret!
311
Refracted Light
We are not always brave, and when we are weary, then some of us are apt to complain in the following way: ‘It is so hard to hurt people – what a pity that it is necessary! What is the use of living in concealment, if we are not willing to keep to ourselves that which gives offence? Would it not be more advisable to live amid the hustle and bustle, and make amends to individuals for the sins we are obliged to commit against everybody? To be foolish with the fools, vain with the vain, enthusiastic with the enthusiastic? Would that not be fair given the inordinate degree to which we diverge on the whole? When I hear of the malice that others bear me – is not my first feeling that of satisfaction? Fair enough! I seem to be saying to them, I am so little in agreement with you, and have so much truth on my side that you might as well make the most of it! Here are my mistakes and shortcomings, here are my delusions, my bad taste, my confusion, my tears, my vanity, my owlish seclusion, my contradictions! Have a good laugh! Laugh and enjoy yourselves! I have no objection to the law and nature of things, which is that our mistakes and shortcomings bring joy to others!
‘Of course, once upon a time as soon as someone had a new idea, however moderately new it might be, he could regard himself as so indispensable that he ran out into the street with it, exclaiming to everybody: “Behold! The kingdom of heaven is at hand!”22 I would not miss myself if I were gone. We are none of us indispensable!’
But as I said, we do not think that way when we are brave; we do not think that way at all.
312
My Dog
I have given a name to my pain, and call it ‘dog’ – it is just as faithful, just as importunate and shameless, just as entertaining, just as clever, as any other dog – and I can dominate it and vent my spleen on it, as others do with their dogs, servants and wives.
313
No Images of Martyrs
I will follow the example of Raphael, and never again paint an image of a martyr. There are enough sublime things in the world already for us to have to seek the sublime where it lives as a sister to cruelty. I have a greater ambition, and it is not enough for me to make myself into a sublime torturer.
314
New Domestic Animals
I want to have my lion and my eagle around me, so that I will always have signs and premonitions about how strong or weak I am. When I look down on them today, am I bound to fear them? And will the time come when they look up to me, and in fear?
315
Of the Final Hour
Storms are my danger. Will I have my storm from which I perish, as Oliver Cromwell23 perished from his? Or will I go out like a candle, not first blown out by the wind, but grown tired and weary of itself – a burnt-out candle? Or finally, will I blow myself out, so as not to burn out?
316
Prophetic Men
You are insensible of the fact that prophetic men suffer terribly; you think only that a beautiful ‘gift’ has been given to them, and that you would like to have it yourselves – but I will express myself with a simile. How much may the animals suffer from the electricity in the atmosphere and in the clouds! We see that some of them have a prophetic faculty for predicting the weather, for example, monkeys (as is well observed even in Europe, not only in menageries, but also on Gibraltar). But it never occurs to us that it is by virtue of their suffering that they are prophets! When strong, positive electricity, under the influence of an as yet invisible approaching cloud, is suddenly converted into negative electricity, and a change in the weather is imminent, these animals then behave as if an enemy were approaching, and prepare to defend themselves or flee; for the most part, they hide themselves – they do not think of the bad weather as weather, but as an enemy whose hand they can already feel!
317
In Retrospect
We are seldom aware of the real pathos in any period of our lives as long as we are still in it, but always think that it is henceforth the only possible and rational condition for us, that it is entirely ethos and none of it pathos – to speak and distinguish like the Greeks. A few notes of music today reminded me of a winter and a house, and a life of utter solitude, and at the same time the sentiments which characterized my life then – I thought I could live this way for ever. But now I understand that it was altogether pathos and passion, something comparable to this sadly encouraging and comforting music – one must not go on like that for years on end, let alone for aeons; otherwise one would become too ‘unearthly’ for this planet.
318
Wisdom in Pain
There is as much wisdom in pain as in pleasure: like pleasure, pain represents a power for the preservation of the species of the first order. Were it not so, pain itself would have perished long ago; that it hurts is no argument against it: it is its very essence. In pain I hear the commanding call of the ship’s captain: ‘Take in the sails!’ The bold seafarer known as ‘man’ must have learned to set his sails in a thousand different ways, otherwise he could not have lasted long, for the ocean would soon have swallowed him up. We must also know how to live with diminished energies: as soon as pain gives its danger signal, it is time to diminish them – some great danger, some storm, is approaching, and we would do well to ‘fill the sails’ as little as possible.
It is true that there are men who, on the approach of great pain, hear the very opposite commanding call, and who never appear more proud, more warlike or more happy than when the storm is threatening; indeed, pain itself provides them with their greatest moments! These are the heroic men, those who inflict the greatest amount of pain on mankind, those few and rare men who need just the same apology as pain in general – and truly, it should not be denied them! They are powers for the preservation and advancement of the species of the first order, if for no other reason than that they oppose comfortableness, and do not conceal their disgust at this kind of happiness.
319
As Interpreters of Our Experiences
One form of honesty has always been lacking among founders of religions and the like – they have never made their experiences a matter of intellectual conscience. ‘What did I actually experience? What took place just then within me and around me? Was my reason clear enough? Was I sufficiently determined to resist every deception of the senses, and resolute in repelling anything fantastic?’ None of them ever asked these questions, nor have any of our good religious people yet asked them. Rather, they have a thirst for things which are contrary to reason, and they do not want it to be too difficult to satisfy this thirst – so they experience ‘miracles’ and ‘rebirths’, and hear the voices of angels! But we who are different, who are thirsty for reason, want to look as rigorously at our experiences as if they were scientific experiments, hour after hour, day after day! We ourselves want to be our experiments and our experimental animals.
320
Upon Seeing Each Other Again
A: ‘Do I fully understand you? You are seeking something? Where, in the midst of the present and actual world, is your nook and star? Where can you lay yourself down in the sun, so that a superabundance of well-being may come to you and justify your existence? Let everybody take care of himself – you seem to say to me – and forget all this talk of the common weal, of concern for others and society!’ B: ‘I want more; I am no seeker. I want to create my own sun.’
321
New Precaution
Let us no longer think so much about punishment, blame and improvement! We seldom change an individual, and when we do succeed, perhaps something else occurs without our realizing it: he may have succeeded in changing us! Rather, let us see to it that our own influence on all that is to come offsets and outweighs his influence! Let us refrain from direct conflict – and that includes all blame, punishment and desire for improvement! Instead, let us elevate ourselves that much higher! Let us make ourselves an ever more shining example! Let our light put others in the shade! No! We do not wish to become darker ourselves on his account, like all who punish and are dissatisfied! Let us stand aside! Let us look away!
322
A Simile
Those thinkers in whom all the planets move in circular orbits are not the most profound. He who looks into himself, as into an immense space, and carries Milky Ways within himself, also knows how irregular all Milky Ways are: they lead into the chaos and labyrinth of existence.
323
Good Fortune in Destiny
Destiny singles us out for the greatest distinction when it allows us to fight for a while on the side of our enemies. With that, a great victory for us is foreordained.
324
In Media Vita24
No! Life has not deceived or disappointed me! Every year I find it more genuine, more desirable and more mysterious – ever since the day when the great liberator came to me: the idea that life might be an experiment for the knowledge-seeker – and not a duty, not a tragedy, not a swindle!
For others, knowledge itself may be something else: for example, a day bed, or the way to a day bed, or an entertainment, or a diversion – for me, it is a world of dangers and victories in which even the heroic sentiments have their place, and are free to dance and romp about. ‘Life as a means to knowledge’ – with this principle in one’s heart one can not only live bravely, but can even live joyously and laugh joyously! And who would know how to laugh well and live well, if he did not first know war and victory well?
325
A Part of Greatness
Who can achieve anything great if he does not feel in himself the ability and willingness to inflict great pain? The capacity for suffering is but the smallest part of it; weak women and even slaves often attain mastery in that. But not to perish from doubt and distress when inflicting great suffering and hearing the cry of this suffering – that is great, that is a part of greatness.
326
Physicians of the Soul and Pain
All preachers of morality, like all theologians, have a bad habit in common: all of them try to persuade man that he is in a very bad way, and that a severe, ultimate, radical cure is necessary. And because mankind as a whole has too eagerly lent its ears to these doctrines for centuries, men have come to believe something of the superstition that things are going quite badly, so that they are now far too ready to sigh; they no longer find life worth living and make sad faces at one another as if it were difficult to bear. In truth, they are irrepressibly sanguine about their lives and in love with them, and unspeakably cunning and subtle at ridding themselves of anything unpleasant, and taking the sting out of pain and misfortune. It seems to me that people always exaggerate when it comes to pain and misfortune, as if one were expected to exaggerate here. On the other hand, people are deliberately silent about the fact that there are innumerable palliatives for pain: anaesthesia; a feverish rush of thought; a restful posture; good or bad memories, intentions and hopes; many kinds of pride and sympathy which have almost the effect of anaesthetics; and, with the most extreme pains, falling into a swoon. We know all too well how to sprinkle a little sweetness over our bitterness, especially over the bitterness of the soul; we find expedients in our bravery and sublimity, as well as in the nobler deliria of submission and resignation. A loss is hardly a loss for an hour: somehow a gift from heaven falls into our lap with it – a new form of strength, for example – even if it is only a new opportunity to exercise strength! What fantastical ideas have the preachers of morality not entertained concerning the inner ‘misery’ of evil men! How they have deceived us about the misfortunes of passionate men! Yes, deceit is the right word here: they were all too aware of the superabundant happiness of this kind of man, but they were as silent as the grave about it, because it refuted their theory that happiness is the result of the extinction of the passions and the silencing of the will! And as far as the recipe of all these physicians of the soul is concerned, and their touting of a severely radical cure, might we be allowed to ask: is our life really painful and irksome enough for it to be worthwhile for us to exchange it for a Stoical way of life, and Stoical petrification? Our lives are not miserable enough for us to have to be miserable the way that Stoics are!
