MAXIMS AND MISSILES
Project Gutenberg EPUB3 edition
Nietzsche, Friedrich Wilhelm, Levy, Oscar, and Ludovici, Anthony M. (Anthony Mario)
41
Wilt thou go in company, or lead, or go by thyself?... A man should know what he desires, and that he desires something.—Fourth question of conscience.
42
They were but rungs in my ladder, on them I made my ascent:—to that end I had to go beyond them. But they imagined that I wanted to lay myself to rest upon them.
43
What matters it whether I am acknowledged to be right! I am much too right. And he who laughs best to-day, will also laugh last.
44
The formula of my happiness: a Yea, a Nay, a straight line, goal....
Source notes
[1] This is a reference to Seume’s poem “Die Gesänge,” the first verse of which is:—
“Wo man singet, lass dich ruhig nieder, Ohne Furcht, was man im Lande glaubt; Wo man singet, wird kein Mensch beraubt: Bösewichter haben keine Lieder.”
(Wherever people sing thou canst safely settle down without a qualm as to what the general faith of the land may be Wherever people sing, no man is ever robbed; rascals have no songs.) Popular tradition, however, renders the lines thus:—
“Wo man singt, da lass dich ruhig nieder; Base Menschen [evil men] haben keine Lieder.”