Any fool can make things bigger, more complex, and more violent. It takes a touch of genius-and a lot of courage-to move in the opposite direction.
Albert Einstein
First say to yourself what you would be; and then do what you have to do.
Epictetus
“I am the totem of the Earth, the Phallus raised to pierce the sky; - this is the altar of the stars. But they are mere flowers of the garden; harvest them and adorn thyself.
Tear at the void and the lights therein; feast on infinities.”
“The enemies of living life; outdated little liberals, afraid of their own independence; lackeys of thought, enemies of the person and freedom, decrepit preachers of carrion and rot! What do they have: gray heads, the golden mean, the most abject and philistine giftlessness, envious equality, equality without personal dignity, equality as understood by a lackey or a Frenchman of the year ninety-three…And scoundrells, above all, scoundrels, scoundrels everywhere!”
— Fyodor Dostoyevsky (Demons)
„Ich bin ein Teil von jener Kraft, // Die stets das Böse will und stets das Gute schafft. // … Ich bin der Geist, der stets verneint! // Und das mit Recht; denn alles, was entsteht, // ist wert, daß es zugrunde geht; // Drum besser wärs, daß nichts entstünde. // So ist denn alles, was ihr Sünde, // Zerstörung, kurz das Böse nennt, // Mein eigentliches Element.“ - Johann Wolfgang (von) Goethe, Faust (I), 1790 / 1808, S. 64-67. **
Translation:
„I am Part of that Power which would // The Evil ever do, and ever does the Good. // … I am the Spirit that denies! // And rightly too; for all that doth begin // Should rightly to destruction run; // 'Twere better then that nothing were begun. // Thus everything that you call Sin, // Destruction - in a word, as Evil represent- // That is my own, real element. “ - Johann Wolfgang (von) Goethe, Faust (I), 1790 / 1808, p. 64-67.
K: I am learning German by Reading Faust. I have Walter Kaufmann’s translation which is English on
one side and the German on the other side. Interesting way to learn a Language.
My quote by the way is “back at the ranch” by me, which is my way of saying getting back to the point.
[b]“I am the spirit that negates.
And rightly so, for all that comes to be
Deserves to perish wretchedly;
'Twere better nothing would begin.
Thus everything that that your terms, sin,
Destruction, evil represent—
That is my proper element.”
“—very popular error: having the courage of one’s convictions—? Rather it is a matter of having the courage for an attack on one’s convictions”
― Friedrich Nietzsche