Sunday, November 5, 2017

Knowledge-a form of asceticism

[caption id="attachment_5199" align="aligncenter" width="540"]James Arthur O_Connor. James Arthur O'Connor (1792-1841) A Moonlit Landscape[/caption]

The most spiritual men, as the strongest, find their happiness where others would find their destruction: in the labyrinth, in hardness against themselves and others, in experiments. Their joy is self-conquest: asceticism becomes in them nature, need, and instinct. Difficult tasks are a privilege to them; to play with burdens that crush others, a recreation. Knowledge-a form of asceticism. They are the most venerable kind of man: that does not preclude their being the most cheerful and the kindliest.

Friedrich Nietzsche

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