aphorisms192283 Ascolo Parodites 192. Unto man all speech is in vain. There the consultation of physicians is the best wisdom. Let folk ring the bells of physicians -- the physicians in the apothecary will outring them with the clanging of their pennies. 193. Faith often makes a liar of the most honest of men and of the liar an honest man. 194. You shall only be frightened, tried, and overburdened with the path of eternity- when you take it uphill. 195. That which fails to convince me makes me less suspicious- not more. 196. 'I have been injured,' says the conscience. 'It is impossible for me to have been injured,' says envy, and remains incorrigible. Eventually, the conscience yields: but even this struggle is precisely mentis inops, a delusion of envy. 197. I flaunteth, thou covereth thy eyes. If something is wrong with me-- I fear to ask what is wrong with you. 198. A woman who knows that she is beautiful, but out of her conceit does not allow herself to be moved by anything beautiful outside of herself, betrays her miasma: [ an unwholesome atmosphere] all of the faults that we would otherwise overlook in her descend and return to her ground and fore: nihil in robustam sapientia mentem sirenes omnes posse. [... Democritum me putate, & tacita saltem cachinni censura mollissimos pros -- Erycius in Comus, Phagesiposia Cimmeria] 199. He who is a good listener takes things in jest only in relation to the speaker: more importantly, the same rule he applies to himself, so that he knows exactly when to leave a conversation. 200. The value of knowledge-- is not that the 'ante ferit, quam flamma micet' of morals in the first place? 201. The charm of wisdom would be a mere nugae canorae, were it not that so much of our pity spoils on the long trek towards it. 202. If a woman genuinely possesses elegance, this simply means that she also keeps with her always her typical inclinations and ambitions- and also the means to fulfilling them. 203. The nature of a man's courtship descends into the lowest chambers of his spirit, and determines it- for a man courts with even his shames and miseries. 204. Solitary men become risible precisely by what disgusts and makes others uncomfortable-- by everything which speaks to the inner life, which speaks to the things we do only when we are alone, commonly the objects of shame, the 'obscene.' Yet their little alienis mensibus aestas may be seen to bring a greater relief to them than the most mirthful summers. 205. Cum prima tentant praelia. [Marullus, Michael Tarchaniota: Epigrammata et Hymni. P. 49] One may only trust a deeply saracastic individual in moments of great humiliation: either of their own or of the sarcastic person. 206. It is the destiny of the human creature, that soon or a later every instinct will enounter its ennui- its truth. 207. One seeks a Cephissus for his shames, so that he may make them appear to be mere weaknesses: so that he may not betray himself of his desires in the way he talks, behaves, etc. around his partner, the other is just gracious enough to have no qualms over taking advantage of a weak creature: a successful affair thus originates. 208. De non apparentibus, et non existentibus, eadem est ratio. The woman learns how to forgive a man in proportion as she- forgets what to expect of him. The riddle of woman-- what then is left to forgive? 209. Coelo adsimilis hominum fortuna videtur, nanque vices mutat, facieque est saepe serena. [Vadianus Joachim in Helvetii Aegloga] All philosophers suffer from the same deficiency, in that they think they can arrive at their goal of an honest and genuine life by analyzing their ideals, of 'truth,' 'justice,' or even more questionable- beauty. Instinctively they let their ideals hover before them as a laureum baculum gesto, a proof against all dangers, and a precaution against all spiritual corruptions. Yet, in precisely as this holds, it will be easy enough to make out the fact- that these noble 'analyses' of life are mere philosophical justifications of particular ways of living, philosophical confessions of particular ways of experiencing or receiving- life: like great suns do these ideals bestow verdure and solace, and do they relieve one of his dependence upon guilt and shame, or with a noble 'ridentem dicere verum quid vetat?' are all mortifications and disgrace even permitted to lay down unto the summer's flowerbeds. 210. Temptation sets bounds even to love. 211. Woman has hitherto been treated by men like butterflies, which, in their haphazard search for nectar, have come amidst them from an entirely different way of life: more delicate, gay, fragile, and sweet, where labor and toil are naturally absent-- but as something also which, though it may set to rest right upon your very hand, nonetheless cannot be touched or grasped. Prey that it comes to rest upon your hand, and when it does- hold your breath! 212. Rule for diplomats. -- Nobility means to have re-discovered the dignified innocence one had as a child when being scolded for doing something 'wrong.' 213. Every deep thinker is more afraid of being loved than of being neglected. The latter perhaps strikes his amour propre lame, and it may yet live for a number of years even with a limp-- but the former strikes his courage lame, his courage to live alone, to think, and like a noble horse, it must thereafter perish. 214. Lessons from childhood. All aestheticism begins in forgetfulness. What? Are all beauties- objects of the memory? 215. When the land is flooded one forgets even the hunt. Yes- but one recovers his food amongst the drowning beasts. 216. In the background of all their personal naivete, poets themselves still have their great, impersonal humor- for 'poetry.' 217. A rule for the lover: with respect to woman, insofar as she is out and about, or around her friends most especially- never assume you are being shown something. Always assume that you are merely observing this part in her hair, this exposed shoulder, this fold in her dress. 218. From a sermon. -- Possessed with the spirit of god, a member of the congress cries out: my good preacher, I have proclaimed for so long and so furiously that I have gone hoarse- I could not utter, much less sing, another word. The preacher answers him with his shame: Good! Then our God stands glorified. For now we may at last cease proclaiming his 'works!' 219. Beware: for he whom suffers you to censure him, there is nothing new you can teach him. 220. Reason immediately evaporates from all transient experiences and feeling- from all which, like insects, pass away in the course of a breath, so that its rational origins become improbable. After all, does not every scientific account of our origins, seem contradictory and ridiculous to our feelings? What? Has metaphysics survived on the basis of this mere antipathy to feelings? 221. Danger in renouncers. -- "I have sacrified it" sayeth my renunciation. I could not have sacrificed it- so sayeth my vengeance and remains implacable. Finally- my renunciation gives up. 222. The eye of renunciation declares: "I watched for a mendicant and saw only those content to eat my scraps." 223. The danger in loneliness-- "All women now are beatified for me, I now love every atropos- which pretty girl now would like to be my atropos?" 224. There is an innocence in profound hatred of men: it is possessed by that solitary and lonesome man to whom it has not occurred, because he has not yet grown lonesome enough, has not spent quite enough time in solitude, that he is at the liberty to hate himself. 225. 226. What a person truly believes only begins to betray itself when his spirits, his happiness, decline- when he ceases to show to what degree he is willing to 'believe:' in the midst of great trial, when the esteem of his friends and family which he has earned by adopting those beliefs loses all significance. 227. Rule for diplomats. -- Nobility means to have re-discovered the dignity and innocent smile one displayed as a child while being scolded for wrong doing. 228. The sense of comedy ebbs and flows with apprehension. A great witticism is but the ebb of a great tide of apprehensions: laughter breaks upon this crest. 229. That need for remorse which precedes a wrongdoing, in a tragic genius, seems almost laughable- like tender hands on a Lamia. For it actually creates it. 230. Alcestis. -- It is only in receiving a gift that man is more humane than woman. 231. To praise a moralist for what he is lacking in, is a way of reprimanding him without the fear of provoking his conscience, that would deafen him to any censure. 232. Objection to theodicy: the ways of God do not deserve to be vindicated. 233. It is easy enough to become a despiser of truth. Merely share the truth with other men. 234. Not only our happiness, but also our fear, truckles with our lighest and most remote impulse-- the lock and key within us. 235. Whoever is fundamentally a philosopher takes all things gravely only in relation to what can be endured- even himself. 236. Woman might grant the prideful man a knowledge of the highest civility: shamefulness. Indeed, upon the first glance it would seem that is the sole reason why woman exists at all, and also would seem to account for her role in the preservation of humanity. Yet, with respect to what "shamefulness" is- perhaps no woman has ever been sufficiently shameful to tell. 237. Hypochondria. -- Let us inquire into the mother of invention. A lucrative apothecary has always need of a symptom- or he has to himself become a symptom occasionally. 238. From Horace. One may indeed speak the truth- but with the accompanying smile one nevertheless tells a lie. But only a women could accomplish this thaumaturgy. For only a woman is capable of making jest at the truth, that is to say, is capable of being impersonal with the truth. 239. What makes one a great comic? - At the same time, to retreat from ones highest happiness and greatest fear. 240. If a woman was not so disposed to shame- we would often be forced to put her to death. 241. In the absence of women. -- A peacock does not envy his fellow peacock's feather, no matter how beautiful it is. 242. It is only when our pride performs badly, that a spectator is disposed to envy us. 243. 244. The life of man is too long for our love: the life of beasts too short for our attachment. 245. A half-truth is often more comforting and sensual than a truth and more shameless than a falsehood. 246. A great deal of our curiosity for woman may be accounted for with the fact: that she is as a little bird who spent her life in a little cage and upon meeting a man for the first time was suddenly hurled into the open sky. Thus- she jumps around a lot and turns somersaults in the air. 247. Most of the vice in pride lies simply in the fact that it must be renewed constantly. 248. There is no such thing as a heroic act- but only the heroism of a moral interpretation of the act. 249. The man that cannot cross the distance which separates him from his woman, lives more immodestly than the man without a woman. 250. The aegis of self-pity may protect one against the furies and the throws of fortune, against the tragedies of life- but not against the pinpricks of men. 251. Maenads-- A purely intellectual curiosity, as opposed to one owing merely to personal vanity, in a woman is rare- but in a group of woman, especially when they have been provoked by a lone man that has wondered by accident into their midst, to become the object of their amusement, it is the rule. 252. 'Principle' for argumentation. -- If a moralist has shame, we should take leave from argument with him: for if a moralist is shameless- he will take leave from us. 253. Truth and lie are essentially levelers; the first intellectually, the second effectively. 254. There is an accumulative vanity in a number of women, though none in particular are prideful. 255. What is the meaning of this? If one desires to sleep he does not reminisce: he makes plans for the next day. 256. One must be a God to be able to tell apart, with respect to history, catastrophes and blessings, without causing a catastrophe. 257. Ars Saltandi. -- One must pay dearly for his omniscience; to enjoy one beauty he has to ignore several horrible things. 258. The sunspots in the light of conscience are so large that in time they will obscure its light. 259. One finds another man's pride endurable not when it accords to his patience, but to his pride. 260. It is the pointed word which bringeth on a storm: a dull arrow is useless no matter how well it is shot. 261. My taste knows more about the consciousness of a moralist than his consciousness knows of my taste. 262. We only envy a writer when he says something with which we find ourselves in agreement. -- For that is the only thing that we cannot steal from him. 263. Tact in immorality consists in being weary of going beyond the mark- not in failing to attain it. 264. Tragic paradox of free-thinking: the mediocre philosophers who alone make the exercise of thought possible cannot gurantee its duration. 265. One who lives for the sake of making an image for himself sees to it that the image is never completed. 266. You have fell into the back of the herd? Are you doing it as a wolf? Or because you are wounded? A third case would be- the wolf has found you. 267. Iconoclasm consolidates rituals by the sacred fear which it inspires. 268. I am moral only above or beneath myself, in temptation or prostration; on the level of my habitual existence I am unaware that I exist. This lack of awareness is called 'sin.' 269. Our aversion to blood may be so terrible that we are prevented from- doctoring our wounds. 270. Danger in aphorisms. -- A thought, until it is the truth, is a mere melody, with beginning and end: and once it is the truth it is inaudible- as the motions of the stars and planets, the music of the spheres. 271. Sickness saves one from turgidity and thereby also from the effrontery, the shamelessness in knowledge by which the philosopher demeans and extenuates himself. For this reason, sickness may be taken as a precondition for the writing of aphorisms. 272. Almost every man feels comfortable speaking well of his intentions: yet the man who is comfortable with speaking well of his reasons is called 'prideful.' Once more, a man who is not comfortable with speaking well of his reasons- is called indecisive. 273. I have done that!- Sayeth my virtue. I am incapable of it!- So sayeth my vice. Eventually my vice learns the art of flattery- and I become a hypocrite. 274. Some Philomelas have an art for hiding their tapestries from all eyes and call it their- eloquence. 275. Even the most courageous amongst us often exhibits cowardice in face of what he has already endured- yea, thereby we have invented punishment. 276. I continue to live only because animals cannot speak, rivers do not sing songs, and beetles do not laugh. The passion for the absurd can appear only in the kenosis of life, and of a man that is moreover still capable of undergoing extreme Raphaelism, perisseia, and transfiguration in the midst of exhaustion. 277. On the shamelessness of philosophers. -- Being unable to sanitize knowledge, we have demeaned it and made of knowledge a mere means to sanitation. 278. The abulic, leaving aphorisms alone, should be the only one given access to them. When men of action deal with aphorisms, our sweet little joys are organized into- a world. 279. The aphorism is cultivated only by those who have known fear in the midst of a battle, - a place where fear is nearly impossible: that fear of collapsing with the battle, with the shaking earth. 280. Theodicy is more dishonourable towards God than any evil: it supposes that he DESERVES to be vindicated. 281. We are forbidden of becoming devils through other peoples virtues. 282. Love, with respect to women, is in truth neither a passion or a madness, but an art. Its success consists in abandoning the nothingness of boredom for the dynamism of remorse- at will. 283. The most important value- the value of the effort we put in a thing, is precisely the last value to be realized. 090702 what's it to you? who go blather from