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IN THIS BOOK we find a “subterrestrial” at work, digging, mining, undermining. You can see him, always provided that you have eyes for such deep work, — how he makes his way slowly, cautiously, gently but surely, without showing signs of the weariness that usually accompanies a long privation of light and air. He might even be called happy, despite his labours in the dark. Does it not seem as if some faith were leading him on, some solace recompensing him for his toil? Or that he himself desires a long period of darkness, an unintelligible, hidden, enigmatic something, knowing as he does that
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Indeed, my indulgent friends, I will tell you — here, in this late preface, which might easily have become an obituary or a funeral oration — what I sought in the depths below: for I have come back, and — I have escaped. Think not that I will urge you to run the same perilous risk! or that I will urge you on even to the same solitude! For whoever proceeds on his own path meets nobody: this is the feature of one’s “own path.” No one comes to help him in his task: he must face everything quite alone — danger, bad luck, wickedness, foul weather. He goes his own way; and, as is only right, meets
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JOYFUL WISDOM
No ship e’er sped to fairer port.
My wisdom was like to the sun, I longed to give them light, But I only deceived them. The sun of my wisdom Blinded the eyes Of these poor bats....
Blacker and eviller things didst thou see than ever a seer did: Through the revels of Hell no sage had ever journeyed. Back! on my heels too closely ye follow! Back! lest my wisdom should tread on you, crush you!
“He goes to hell who goes thy ways!” So be it I to my hell I’ll pave the way myself with well-made maxims.
Only the poet who can lie Wilfully, skilfully, Can tell the truth.
This double thread of experiences, this means of access to two worlds that seem so far asunder, finds in every detail its counterpart in my own nature — I am my own complement: I have a “second” sight, as well as a first. And perhaps I also have a third sight. By the very nature of my origin I was allowed an outlook beyond all merely local, merely national and limited horizons; it required no effort on my part
WHY DO I know more things than other people? Why, in fact, am I so clever? I have never pondered over questions that are not questions.