Thursday, March 5, 2015

the illogical

Among the things which can bring a thinker to distraction is the knowledge that the illogical is necessary to mankind and that from the illogical springs much that is good. The illogical is so imbedded in the passions, in language, in art, in religion and, above all, in everything that imparts value to life that it cannot be taken away without irreparably injuring those beautiful things. Only men of the utmost simplicity can believe that the nature man knows can be changed into a purely logical nature. Yet were there steps affording approach to this goal, how utterly everything would be lost on the way! Even the most rational man needs nature again, from time to time, that is, his illogical fundamental relation (Grundstellung) to all things.

Nietzsche, Human, All Too Human (Of the First and Last Things 31)

the same reason

Let not the future trouble you; for you will come to it, if come you must, bearing with you the same reason which you are using now to meet the present.

Marcus Aurelius