“What if a demon crept after thee into thy loneliest loneliness some day or night, and said to thee: "This life, as thou livest it at present, and hast lived it, thou must live it once more, and also innumerable times; and there will be nothing new in it, but every pain and every joy and every thought and every sigh, and all the unspeakably small and great in thy life must come to thee again, and all in the same series and sequence—and similarly this spider and this moonlight among the trees, and similarly this moment, and I myself. The eternal sand-glass of existence will ever be turned once more, and thou with it, thou speck of dust!"—Wouldst thou not throw thyself down and gnash thy teeth, and curse the demon that so spake? Or hast thou once experienced a tremendous moment in which thou wouldst answer him: "Thou art a God, and never did I hear anything so divine!" If that thought acquired power over thee as thou art, it would transform thee, and perhaps crush thee; the question with regard to all and everything: "Dost thou want this once more, and also for innumerable times?" would lie as the heaviest burden upon thy activity! Or, how wouldst thou have to become favourably inclined to thyself and to life, so as to long for nothing more ardently than for this last eternal sanctioning and sealing?”
Quote by Friedrich Nietzsche
Work
The Gay Science: With a Prelude in Rhymes and an Appendix of Songs
A seminal text that delves into the nature of science, ethics, and the human condition, featuring poetic prelude and musical appendices more
Author
You May Also Like
Source: Innocence
“True humility is a kind of self-annihilation; and this is the centre of all virtues.”
Source: A Plain Account of Christian Perfection
Source: Game Changer: Faith, Football, & Finding Your Way
Source: The Habit of Being: Letters of Flannery O'Connor
“[T]he more man accepts his limitations, the better is he enabled to know things truly.”
Source: Exodus: Commentaries on the Pentateuch
Source: 文豪ストレイドッグス 太宰治と黒の時代 [Bungō Stray Dogs - Dazai Osamu to kuro no jidai]
