aphorismsbookthefifth Ascolo Parodites BOOK 5 192. 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. 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 metnis 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 bear witness to anything beautiful outside of herself, betrays her miasma: [ an unwholesome atmosphere] all the fiery and noxious poisons which naturally rise up, through, and out of her return to the surface and ground of her soul: 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. Suspicions are more dangerous adversaries of love than lies. 207. One seeks a Cephissus for his shames, for his perverse desires, so that he may make them appear to be mere weaknesses: so that he may not betray himself of those 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. 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. There are two species of idiocy: one which destroys and above all seeks to destroy- one which brings the profound down to its own level, and another which intentionally lets itself be pacified and comforted, and brings forth spavined thoughts: thoughts valuable only to the individual, on the basis of his 'personal comfort.' 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 as 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. Truly profound lovers, in the case of men, have ever favored their mothers over their fathers. Must they needs have their mother always around them- so that they may acquire those hints and forebodings as to how great or how modest their shames and deviances are? Must a boy look down on his mother today or fear her? Or will the hour return when she again looks up at one- in fear? This will serve as the guide and principle of his every relationship, if one would replace the word 'mother' with 'lover.' 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. One should part from ones friend as Arethusa from Alpheus. For thou parteth from a friend in the most shameful of ways by driving him to parteth from thee. For he will always leave his waters in us- prey that we do not allow them to be stained, but freely offer them from ourselves. 222. The eye of renunciation declares: "I watched for a beggar, an ascetic, a great renouncer- 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. The sin in love. -- It is only when thou lovest a beast, that thou permitteth the beast to love thee. 226. What a person honestly 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 for those beliefs loses its importance. See, Job. 227. Love brings into the shadows all of the worldly and common-place traits of our character: it is, like a noble seductress, thus prone to be misleading with respect to our truly rare, exceptional traits. In what way? It might have us believe that they are genuinely desirable traits, when in fact they are simply odd, destructive, or, in the least, pedantic and unseasonal. Perhaps this is the origin of poetry: it is certainly the origin of a good many poets! 228. The sense of comedy ebbs and flows with inquietude. A great witticism is but the ebb of a great tide of apprehensions: laughter breaks upon this crest. 229. Success with women has almost a self-condemning effect upon the genuine and profound lover, like tender hands upon a Lamia. 230. It is only in receiving a gift that man is more humane than woman. 231. The only reason women enjoy unexpected gifts is because it is a matter of their personal vanity- that they are always expecting gifts. 232. One no longer enjoys his fantasy after he has communicated it. Even still, it often becomes a matter of shame when it is actually carried out. What?- Now women, who cannot keep a thing hidden within themselves, but take pleasure even in expressing it around their friends- still take pleasure in fantasizing, perhaps even more than men. 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. I am dispirited, not because you have disrespected me, but because I can longer make you laugh without bringing a sense of shame upon myself. 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. Great money to be had in hypochondria. -- A lucrative apothecary has always need of a bell to announce his customers- or he has to himself become a bell occasionally. Must he not ring unto us with his suggestiveness? 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, in the absence of pride. -- A peacock is not amused by 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. Self-reproach is often a fence we put up on behalf of our neighbors or friends, and is meant to prevent our pride from freely grazing over their fields. Even more often is it this fence itself which makes their field ugly. 244. Many a scorpion stings nearly everything it sees with its tail and calls it is his envy- even though he has no and indeed needs no reason to sting. 245. A half-falsehood is often more comforting and sensual than a truth and more shameless than a falsehood. 246. A great deal of woman's curiosity may be accounted for with the fact: that she is as a little bird who spent her life in a household 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 a heroic interpretation of an act that may either be good or evil. 249. The man that cannot cross the distance which separates him from his woman, lives more immodestly than the man without a woman. 250. In friendship we sleep and wake as in the world of dreams: we only invent and imagine him whom we call 'comrade' and eventually forget him when the fantasy of something to endure together disappears. 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. In auspicious circumstances and amongst his many trinkets and fineries, a thief steals the most valuable thing from himself: his time. 253. The most useful knowledge, that would allow a philosopher to see through and through all ages and peoples (that of the fact that there are no heroic acts, only heroic interpretations of acts- in heroism of venturing an interpretation of the act as good or evil) is nonetheless the most powerless knowledge: for there is no knowledge that can be put to use without first putting the knowledge of good and evil to use. 254. The most appealing knowledge (a half-truth) is nonetheless the least successful in winning over people: for it always has to deal with the severest modesty: falsehood, and the severest chastity: truth. 090620 what's it to you? who go blather from