Quotes

Day 3263, True World.

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Friedrich Nietzsche

Twilight of the Idols
How the “True World” Finally Became a Fiction
History of an Error


1. The true world, attainable for the wise, the devout, the virtuous—they live in it, they are it.

(Oldest form of the idea, relatively clever, simple, convincing. Paraphrase of the assertion, “I, Plato, am the truth.”)

2. The true world, unattainable for now, but promised to the wise, the devout, the virtuous (“to the sinner who does penance”).

(Progress of the idea: it becomes more refined, more devious, more mystifying—it becomes woman, it becomes Christian . . .)

3. The true world, unattainable, unprovable, unpromisable, but a consolation, an obligation, an imperative, merely by virtue of being thought.

(The old sun basically, but glimpsed through fog and skepticism; the idea become sublime, pallid, Nordic, Königsbergian.)

4. The true world—unattainable? In any case, unattained. And if it is unattained, it is also unknown. And hence it is not consoling, redeeming, or obligating either; to what could something unknown obligate us? . . .

(Gray dawn. First yawnings of reason. Rooster’s crow of positivism.)

5. The “true world”—an idea with no use anymore, no longer even obligating—an idea become useless, superfluous, hence a refuted idea: let’s do away with it!

(Bright day; breakfast; return of bon sens [good sense] and cheerfulness; Plato blushes; pandemonium of all free spirits.)

6. We have done away with the true world: what world is left over? The apparent one, maybe? . . . But no! Along with the true world, we have also done away with the apparent!

Day 3225, why.

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Friedrich Nietzsche

The Gay Science
Book two

93 But why do you write?– A: I am not one of those who think with an inky pen in their hand, much less one of those who in front of an open inkwell abandon themselves to their passions while they sit in a chair and stare at the paper. I am annoyed by and ashamed of my writing; writing is for me a pressing and embarrassing need, and to speak of it even in a parable disgusts me. B: But why, then, do you write? -A: Well, my friend, to be quite frank: so far, I have not discovered any other way of getting rid of my thoughts. -B: And why do you want to get rid of them? -A: Why 1 want to? Do I want to? I must. -B: Enough! Enough!

Day 3221, error.

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Friedrich Nietzsche

Human, All Too Human
From the Souls of Artists and Writers

149 The slow arrow of beauty. -The noblest sort of beauty does not sweep us away all at once, does not make stormy and intoxicating assaults (such beauty easily awakens disgust), but is instead the slowly penetrating sort that we carry around with us almost unnoticed and that we encounter again at times in a dream, but that finally, after it has laid discreetly upon our heart for a long time, takes full possession of us and fills our eyes with tears, our hearts with yearning. -What do we yearn for at the sight of beauty? To be beautiful: we imagine that there must be much happiness bound up in this. -But that is an error.

Day 3219, mine.

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Pyotr Kropotkin

The Conquest of Bread

Every machine has had the same history – a long record of sleepless nights and of poverty, of disillusions and of joys, of partial improvements discovered by several generations of nameless workers, who have added to the original invention these little nothings, without which the most fertile idea would remain fruitless. More than that, every new invention is a synthesis, the result of innumerable inventions that have preceded it in the vast field of mechanics and industry.
Science and industry, knowledge and application, discovery and practical realization leading to new discoveries, cunning of brain and of hand, toil of mind and muscle – all work together. Each discovery, each advance, each increase in the sum of human riches owes its being to the physical and mental travail of the past and the present.
By what right then can anyone, whatever appropriate the least morsel of this immense whole and say – This is mine, not yours?

Day 3214, poverty.

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Friedrich Nietzsche

The Gay Science
Book One

17 Finding a motive for one ‘s poverty. – There is clearly no trick that enables us to turn a poor virtue into a rich and overflowing one, but we can surely reinterpret its poverty nicely into a necessity, so that its sight no longer offends us and we no longer make reproachful faces at fate on its account. That is what the wise gardener does when he places the poor little stream in his garden in the arms of a nymph and thus finds a motive for its poverty: and who wouldn’t need nymphs as he does?

Day 3207, mask.

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Friedrich Nietzsche

Beyond Good and Evil
What is noble

278 – Wanderer, who are you? I watch you go on your way, without scorn, without love, with impenetrable eyes – damp and downhearted, like a plumb line that returns unsatisfied from every depth back into the light (what was it looking for down there?), with a breast that does not sigh, with lips that hide their disgust, with a hand that only grips slowly: who are you? What have you done? Take a rest here, this spot is hospitable to everyone, – relax! And whoever you may be: what would you like now? What do you find relaxing? Just name it: I’ll give you whatever I have! – “Relaxing? Relaxing? How inquisitive you are! What are you saying! But please, give me – –” What? What? Just say it! – “Another mask! A second mask!” …

Day 3204, it arouse doubts.

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Friedrich Nietzsche

The Will to Power
Book Two: Critique of Highest Values

313 It would arouse doubts in us concerning a man if we heard he needed reasons for remaining decent: certainly, we would avoid him. The little word “for” can be compromising in certain cases; one can even refute oneself now and then with a single “for.” Now, if we hear further that such an aspirant to virtue needed bad reasons for remaining respectable, this would be no reason for us to feel an increased respect for him. But he goes further, he comes to us and tells us to our face: “Unbeliever, you are disturbing my morality with your unbelief; as long as you do not  believe in my bad reasons, which is to say in God, in a punishment in the beyond, in freedom of will, you hamper my virtueMoral: unbelievers must be abolished: they hamper the moralization of the masses.”

Day 3196, to be.

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Martin Heidegger’s concept of Dasein (literally “being-there”) is central to his philosophy, particularly in his seminal work, Being and Time (1927). Dasein refers to human existence not merely as a biological entity but as a being that is uniquely aware of and questions its existence. Unlike other entities, humans have a distinct mode of being characterized by self-awareness, temporal existence, and a capacity for meaning-making.

For Heidegger, Dasein is always “thrown” into a world not of its choosing but shaped by its historical and cultural context. This “thrownness” implies that individuals find themselves amidst a pre-given world of relationships, language, and societal norms. At the same time, Dasein is “projective,” meaning it is oriented toward possibilities and can shape its own future through choice.

Crucially, Heidegger emphasizes Dasein’s relationship with time. Human existence is structured by temporality—past, present, and future. Awareness of one’s finite nature, or “being-towards-death,” compels Dasein to confront its potential for authenticity. To live authentically, one must take responsibility for their choices rather than passively conforming to societal expectations (the They).

Thus, Dasein is the ground for exploring the fundamental question of ontology: “What does it mean to be?”

Thank you, ChatGPT, for explaining in 200 words what would have taken me a lot more time. As far as I understand the concept, this seems correct. 

Day 3194, the result.

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Friedrich Nietzsche

The Gay Science
Book One

41 Against remorse.– A thinker sees his own actions as experiments and questions – as attempts to find out something. Success and failure are for him answers above all. To be annoyed or feel remorse because something goes wrong – that he leaves to those who act because they have received orders and who have to reckon with a beating when his lordship is not satisfied with the result.

Day 3192, unnatrual.

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When you wake up in the morning, tell yourself: the people I deal with today will be meddling, ungrateful, arrogant, dishonest, jealous, and surly. They are like this because they can’t tell good from evil. But I have seen the beauty of good and the ugliness of evil and have recognized that the wrongdoer has a nature related to my own – not of the same blood and birth, but the same mind and possessing a share of the divine. And so none of them can hurt me. No one can implicate me in ugliness. Nor can I feel angry at my relative or hate him. We were born to work together like feet, hands, and eyes, like the two rows of teeth, upper and lower. To obstruct each other is unnatural. To feel anger at someone, to turn your back on him: these are unnatural.
Marcus Aurelius, Meditations

Day 3189, three times.

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Friedrich Nietzsche

Human. All Too Human
On The History Of Moral Feelings

4 1 The unchangeable character. In the strict sense, it is not true that one’s character is unchangeable; rather, this popular tenet means only that during a man’s short lifetime the motives affecting him cannot normally cut deeply enough to destroy the imprinted writing of many millennia. If a man eighty thousand years old were conceivable, his character would in fact be absolutely variable, so that out of him little by little an abundance of different individuals would develop. The brevity of human life misleads us to many an erroneous assertion about the qualities of man.

59 Intellect and morality. One must have a good memory to be able to keep the promises one has given. One must have strong powers of imagination to be able to have pity. So closely is morality bound to the quality of the intellect.

82 The skin of the soul. Just as the bones, flesh, intestines, and blood vessels are enclosed by skin, which makes the sight of a man bearable, so the stirrings and passions of the soul are covered up by vanity: it is the skin of the soul.

Day 3186,

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Friedrich Nietzsche

Human, All Too Human
On The History Of Moral Feelings

70 Executions. How is it that every execution offends us more than a murder? It is the coldness of the judges, the painful preparations, the understanding that a man is here being used as a means to deter others. For guilt is not being punished, even if there were guilt; guilt lies in the educators, the parents, the environment, in us, not in the murderer, I am talking about the motivating circumstances.