THE USE OF KNOWLEDGE IS POWER

In A Time Of Universal Deceit, Telling The Truth Becomes A Revolutionary Act. (Orwell)

ALL TRUTH PASSES THROUGH THREE STAGES; FIRST, IT IS RIDICULED, SECOND, IT IS VIOLENTLY OPPOSED, THIRD, IT IS ACCEPTED AS BEING SELF-EVIDENT. (Arthur Schopenhauer)

I WILL TELL YOU ONE THING FOR SURE. ONCE YOU GET TO THE POINT WHERE YOU ARE ACTUALLY DOING THINGS FOR TRUTH'S SAKE, THEN NOBODY CAN EVER TOUCH YOU AGAIN BECAUSE YOU ARE HARMONIZING WITH A GREATER POWER. (George Harrison)

THE WORLD ALWAYS INVISIBLY AND DANGEROUSLY REVOLVES AROUND PHILOSOPHERS. (Nietzsche)

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Tuesday, September 15, 2020

THE PREACHERS OF DEATH



There are preachers of death: and the earth is full of those to whom renunciation life must be preached.

Full is the earth of the superfluous; marred is life by the many-too- many. May they be lured out of this life by the "life eternal"!

"The yellow ones": so are called the preachers of death, or "the black ones." But I will show them to you in other colors besides.

There are the terrible ones who carry about in themselves the beast of prey, and have no choice except lusts or self-laceration. And even their lusts are self-laceration.

They have not yet become men, those terrible ones: may they preach desistance from life, and pass away themselves!

There are the spiritually decaying ones: hardly are they born when they begin to die, and long for doctrines of weariness and renunciation.

They would rather be dead, and we should approve of their wish! Let us beware of awakening those dead ones, and of damaging those living coffins!

They meet an invalid, or an old man, or a corpse - and immediately they say: "Life is refuted!"

But they only are refuted, and their eye, which sees only one aspect of existence.

Shrouded in thick melancholy, and eager for the little casualties that bring death: thus do they wait, and clench their teeth.

Or else, they grasp at candy, and mock at their childishness thereby: they cling to their straw of life, and mock at their still clinging to it.

Their wisdom speaks thus: "A fool, he who remains alive; but so far are we fools! And that is the most foolish thing in life!"

"Life is only suffering": so say others, and lie not. Then see to it that you cease! See to it that the life ceases which is only suffering!

And let this be the teaching of your virtue: "you shall slay yourself! you shall steal away from yourself!" -

"Lust is sin," - so say some who preach death - "let us go apart and be- get no children!"

"Giving birth is troublesome," - say others - "why still give birth? One bears only the unfortunate!" And they also are preachers of death.

"Pity is necessary," - so says a third party. "Take what I have! Take what I am! So much less does life bind me!"

Were they consistently pitiful, then would they make their neighbor sick of life. To be wicked - that would be their true goodness.

But they want to be rid of life; what care they if they bind others still faster with their chains and gifts!-

And you also, to whom life is rough labor and disquiet, are you not very tired of life? Are you not very ripe for the sermon of death?

All you to whom rough labor is dear, and the rapid, new, and strange - you put up with yourselves badly; your diligence is flight, and the will to self-forgetfulness.

If you believed more in life, then would you devote yourselves less to the momentary. But for waiting, you have not enough of capacity in you - nor even for idling!

Everywhere resounds the voices of those who preach death; and the earth is full of those to whom death has to be preached.

Or "life eternal"; it is all the same to me - if only they pass away quickly! -

Thus spoke Zarathustra.

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