You need to have been born for any higher world; to say it more clearly, you need to have been bred for it: only your descent, your ancestry can give you a right to philosophy – taking that word in its highest sense. Even here, “bloodline” is decisive. The preparatory labor of many generations…
These days, by contrast, when only the herd animal gets and gives honor in Europe [America], when “equal rights” could all too easily end up as equal wrongs (I mean, in waging a joint war on everything rare, strange, privileged, on the higher man, higher soul, higher duty, higher responsibility, on creative power and…
But true philosophers are commanders and legislators: they say “That is how it should be!” They are the ones who first determine the “where to?” and “what for?” of people… True philosophers reach for the future with a creative hand and everything that is and was becomes a means, a tool, a hammer for…
Thursday sunrise dawns with a clear sky. These are paradisiacal days. A friend’s dahlias are in full bloom, several are on display here at Starbucks. We shouldn’t be deceived though, everything is not well here in paradise. The New York Times published a report showing that upward mobility, the income of working class whites…
In fact, these philosophers [of the future] admit to taking pleasure in saying no, in dissecting, and in a certain level-headed cruelty that knows how to guide a knife with assurance and subtlety, even when the heart is bleeding. They will be more severe (and perhaps not always with themselves alone) than humane people…
I understand this poem was found in T. S. Eliot’s papers. It appears to have been written in the last years of his writing career. The poem is a composition of poems which were previously written and published. Near to the end of a journey one sometimes is able to understand how once seeming…
If you hear anyone praised these days for living “wisely” or “like a philosopher” it basically just means he is “clever and keeps out of the way.” To the rabble, wisdom seems like a kind of escape, a device or trick for pulling yourself out of the game when things get rough. But the…
…but someone with an uncommon eye for the overall danger that “humanity” itself will degenerate, someone like us, who has recognized the outrageous contingency that has been playing games with the future of humanity so far – games in which no hand and not even a “finger of God” has taken part! – someone…
…a new type of philosopher and commander will be needed for this someday, and whatever hidden, dreadful, or benevolent spirits have existed on earth will pale into insignificance beside the image of this type. The image of such leaders hovers before our eyes: – may I say this out loud, you free spirits? The…
We who have a different faith –, we who consider the democratic movement to be not merely an abased form of political organization, but rather an abased (a diminished) form of humanity, a mediocritization and depreciation of humanity in value: where do we need to reach with our hopes? – Towards new philosophers, there…
