What is it which gives a meaning, a value, an importance to things? It is the creative heart which yearns and which created out of this yearning. It created joy and woe. It wanted to sate itself also with woe. Every kind of pain that man or beast has suffered, we must take upon ourselves and bless, and have a goal whereby such suffering would acquire some meaning.
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Principal doctrine: the transfiguration of pain into a blessing, and of poison into food, lies in our power. The will to suffering.
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Concerning heroic greatness as the only state of pioneers. (A yearning for utter ruin as a means of enduring one’s existence.)
We must not desire one state only; we must rather desire to be periodical creatures—like existence.
Absolute indifference to other people’s opinions (because we know their weights and measures), but their opinions of themselves should be the subject of pity.
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Disciples must unite three qualities in themselves: they must be true, they must be able and willing to be communicative, they must have profound insight into each other.
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