Wednesday, August 8, 2012

Reading Nietzsche — On Scholars

For this is the truth:  I have moved from the house of the scholars and I even banged the door behind me.  My soul sat hungry at their table too long; I am not, like them, trained to pursue knowledge as if it were nutcracking.  I love freedom and the air over the fresh earth; rather would I sleep on ox hides than on their decorums and respectabilities.

I am too hot and burned by my own thoughts; often it nearly takes my breath away.  Then I must go out into the open and away from all dusty rooms.  But they sit cool in the cool shade: in everything they want to be mere spectators, and they beware of sitting where the sun burns on the steps.  Like those who stand in the street and gape at the people who pass by, they too wait and gape at thoughts that others have thought.

Thus spoke Zarathustra.


From Thus Spoke Zarathustra by Friedrich Nietzsche, translation by Walter Kaufmann

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