pt.7: ON PHILOSOPHY (TRAINING FOR DEATH)
THE PLAYERS AND THEIR ARGUMENTS
And so, Nietzsche said: All truth is simple
is that not doubly a lie?
Hope in reality is the worst of all evils
because it prolongs the torments of man.
Religion is hope.
And in Christianity neither morality nor religion
come into contact with reality at any point
for if there is something to pardon in everything,
there is also something to condemn
such that in heaven, all the interesting people are missing
and a casual stroll through the lunatic asylum
shows that faith does not prove anything. For
the Christian resolution to find the world ugly and bad
has made the world ugly and bad.
So, I say unto you:
God is dead.
God remains dead.
And we have killed him.
Yet his shadow still looms.
How shall we comfort ourselves, the murderers of all murderers? What was holiest and mightiest of all that the world has yet owned
has bled to death under our knives;
who will wipe this blood off us?
What water is there for us to clean ourselves?
We hear only those questions –
for which we are in a position to find answers.
You have your way.
I have my way.
As for the right way, the correct way, and the only way,
it does not exist.
Whoever fights monsters should see to it
that in the process he does not become a monster.
And if you gaze long enough into an abyss,
the abyss will gaze back into you. Such are our hollow bibles.
To this, all things are subject to interpretation
as whichever interpretation prevails at a given time
is a function of power and not truth
for when a hundred men stand together,
each of them loses his mind and gets another one.
Thus, one should die proudly when it is no longer possible
to live proudly
for morality is the herd-instinct in the individual,
and the doer alone learneth,
and convictions are more dangerous foes of truth than lies.
Thus, to use the same words is not a sufficient guarantee
of understanding; one must use the same words
for the same genus of inward experience;
ultimately one must have one's experiences in common.
Thus, I conclude, we love life,
not because we are used to living
but because we are used to loving.
To live proudly then,
One must still have chaos in oneself
to be able to give birth to a dancing star – that is art.
The essence of all beautiful art, all great art, is gratitude.
But sleeping is by no means art:
for its sake one must stay awake all day.
Perhaps I know then, best why it is man alone who laughs:
he alone suffers so deeply that he had to invent laughter.
Thus, the most profound subject for a great poet
would be God's boredom after the seventh day of creation.
Here the ways of men divide.
If you wish to strive for peace of soul and happiness, then believe: if you wish to be a disciple of truth, then inquire into God’s death.
