Only artists, and especially those of the theater, have given men eyes and ears to see and hear with some pleasure… only they have taught us to esteem the hero that is concealed in everyday characters; only they have taught us the art of viewing ourselves as heroes from a distance and, as it…
The animal with a good conscience.– The vulgar element in everything that gives pleasure… does not escape me, but it does not offend me anymore… How come? Is it because there is no sense of shame and everything vulgar appears as poised and self-assured as anything noble, lovely, and passionate in the same sort…
The greatest dangerthat always hovered over humanityand still hovers over it is the eruption of madness–which means the eruption of arbitrariness in feeling, seeing, and hearing,the enjoyment of the mind’s lack of discipline,the joy in human un-reason. Not truth and certaintyare the opposite of the world of the madman,but the universality andthe universal binding…
Men and Women… The simultaneous attraction and risk inherent in the roles of men and women has been mined by poets, lyricists, and by philosophers. Nietzsche opined on women. As one reads one recognizes that Nietzsche’s experience with women was limited, and by any account, unfortunate. Nietzsche wrote some obtuse, even boneheaded things about…
Only As Creators! …what things are called is incomparably more important than what they are. The reputation, name, and appearance, the usual measure and weight of a thing, what it counts for — originally almost always wrong and arbitrary, thrown over things like a dress and altogether foreign to their nature and even to…
A group, five of us discussed the principles of Buddhist philosophy, the world view that rises from noticing the fluidity of “things.” We are surrounded by a kaleidoscope should we pause, slow down sufficiently to notice. What is real? I am not sure. Moreover I too am kaleidoscopic… I cannot assume a god-like vantage…
The ultimate noblemindedness.- What makes a person “noble”? …the passion that attacks those who are noble is peculiar, and they fail to realize this. It involves the use of a rare and singular standard and almost a madness: the feeling of heat in things that feel cold to everybody else; the discovery of values…
Truthfulness— I favor any skepsis to which I may reply: “Let us try it!” But I no longer wish to hear anything of all those things and questions that do not permit any experiment. This is the limit of my “truthfulness”; for there courage has lost its right. –excerpt The Gay Science, Book 1,…
The end, it’s moving toward us. His future’s set in an unreadable script. — excerpt Lullaby by John James Saturday, early spring is overcast. I am excited. The photo shoot is “on” at the old Joliet prison. A collection of photo’s depicting the dissonance between our actions, our practices, ways-of-life all contributing to climate…
I have an old friend, an individual who expresses his disdain for “socialism.” He speaks of “force collectivism” with condescension. His point, policies to help the majority, those under-employed, individuals and families unable to “help themselves” are contemptible. I and others, react to his aversion to public funding of services targeted to persons, who…
