Day 1823, Daybreak VII.

Morgenröthe aka Daybreak

Book III

182. ROUGH AND READY CONSISTENCY.—People say of a man with great respect, ” He is a character “—that is, when he exhibits a rough and ready consistency, when it is evident even to the dullest eye. But, whenever a more subtle and profound intellect sets itself up and shows consistency in a higher manner, the spectators deny the existence of any character. That is why cunning statesmen usually act their comedy under the cloak of a kind of rough and ready consistency.

Friedrich Nietzsche

Day 1822, Daybreak VI.

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Morgenröthe aka Daybreak

Book II

141. MORE BEAUTIFUL BUT LESS VALUABLE.— Picturesque morality: such is the morality of those passions characterised by sudden outbursts, abrupt transitions;

pathetic, impressive, dreadful, and solemn attitudes and gestures. It is the semi-savage stage of morality : never let us be tempted to set it on a higher plane merely on account of its aesthetic charms.

Friedrich Nietzsche

Day 1821, Daybreak V.

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Morgenröthe aka Daybreak

Book II

121. CAUSE AND EFFECT.— On this mirror— and our intellect is a mirror—something is going on that indicates regularity: a certain thing is each time followed by another certain thing. When we perceive this and wish to give it a name, we call it cause and effect,—fools that we are! as if in this we had understood or could understand anything! For, of course, we have seen nothing but the images of causes and effects, and it is just this figurativeness which renders it impossible for us to see a more substantial relation than that of sequence!

Friedrich Nietzsche

Day 1820, Daybreak IV.

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Morgenröthe aka Daybreak

Book II

97. ONE BECOMES MORAL—but not because one is moral! Submission to morals may be due to slavishness or vanity, egoism or resignation, dismal fanaticism or thoughtlessness. It may, again, be an act of despair, such as submission to the authority of a ruler; but there is nothing moral about it per se.

Friedrich Nietzsche

Day 1819, Daybreak III

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Morgenröthe aka Daybreak

Book I

35. FEELINGS AND THEIR DECENT FROM JUDGMENTS.—” Trust in your feelings! “But feelings comprise nothing final, original; feelings are based upon the judgments and valuations which are transmitted to us in the shape of feelings (inclinations, dislikes). The inspiration which springs from a feeling is the grandchild of a judgment—often an erroneous judgment!—and certainly not one’s own judgment ! Trusting in our feelings simply means obeying our grandfather and grandmother more than the gods within ourselves: our reason and experience.

Friedrich Nietzsche

Day 1818, Daybreak II

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Morgenröthe aka Daybreak

Book I

32. THE BRAKE.—To suffer morally, and then to learn afterwards that this kind of suffering was founded upon an error, shocks us. For there is a unique consolation in acknowledging, by our suffering, a “deeper world of truth” than any other world, and we would much rather suffer and feel ourselves above reality by doing so (through the feeling that, in this way, we approach nearer to that “deeper world of truth”), than live without suffering and hence without this feeling of the sublime. Thus it is pride, and the habitual fashion of satisfying it, which opposes this new interpretation of morality. What power, then, must we bring into operation to get rid of this brake? Greater pride? A new pride ?

Friedrich Nietzsche

Day 1817, Daybreak.

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Morgenröthe aka Daybreak

Book I

6. THE JUGGLER AND HIS COUNTERPART.—That which is wonderful in science is contrary to that which is wonderful in the art of the juggler. For the latter would wish to make us believe that we see a very simple causality, where, in reality, an exceedingly complex causality is in operation.

Science, on the other hand, forces us to give up our belief in the simple causality exactly where everything looks so easily comprehensible and we are merely the victims of appearances. The simplest things are very “complicated”—we can never be sufficiently astonished at them !

Friedrich Nietzsche