Saturday, August 6, 2011

Serendipity: Nietzsche

Quotations taken from Human, All-Too-Human



83
The sleep of virtue. When virtue has slept, she will get up more refreshed.


I guess a little sinnin' is good for you, at least according to Nietzsche. But, I wonder--are people really more virtuous after engaging in an sinful escapade, or two, or three, or . . .?




184
Untranslatable. It is neither the best nor the worst in a book that is untranslatable.



I included this because I don't understand why he thinks this should be so.



189
Thoughts in a poem. The poet presents his thoughts festively, on the carriage of rhythm: usually because they could not walk.


I've often thought the same about many contemporary music groups: those with the spectacular light shows, colored smoke, strange costumes and hairstyles, and bizarre behavior usually are trying to hide that they are, at best, mediocre performers and/or singers. I guess they hope the audience won't notice how truly bad they really are.


All quotations from Human, All-Too-Human are taken from The Portable Nietzsche, translations by Walter Kaufmann.

2 comments:

  1. "The sleep of virtue. When virtue has slept, she will get up more refreshed.

    I guess a little sinnin' is good for you, at least according to Nietzsche. But, I wonder--are people really more virtuous after engaging in an sinful escapade, or two, or three, or . . .?"

    Maybe this is along the same lines of letting someone "sow their wild oats"? It might work for some, but I've seen people who never stop the "sowing" and end up alcoholics or drug addicts instead. In the same vein, I've also seen women who ignore a husband's adultery so that he'll "get it out of his system" and come back to her. The problem is, he doesn't.

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  2. Cheryl,

    I agree. I think this isn't as universal a truth as Nietzsche would have us believe.

    And, even if many do cease sowing wild oats, many find, to their sorrow, that the harvest may prove troublesome, or even disastrous. As it says somewhere: what ye sow, that shall ye reap.

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