We have been up all night, my friends and I, beneath mosque lamps whose brass cupolas are bright as our souls, because like them they were illuminated by the internal glow of electric hearts. And trampling underfoot our native sloth on opulent Persian carpets, we have been discussing right up to the limits of logic [...]
Posts from ‘August, 2002’
On Heroes, Hero-Worship, and the Heroic in History (Thomas Carlyle)
May 5, 1840 LECTURE I. THE HERO AS DIVINITY. ODIN. PAGANISM: SCANDINAVIAN MYTHOLOGY. We have undertaken to discourse here for a little on Great Men, their manner of appearance in our world’s business, how they have shaped themselves in the world’s history, what ideas men formed of them, what work they did;–on Heroes, namely, and [...]
What is philosophy? (Jose Ortega y Gasset)
One might begin by defining philosophy as knowledge of the Universe. But this definition, while accurate enough, allows the very thing that is specific to escape from us, namely the peculiar dramatic quality and the tone of intellectual heroism peculiar to philosophy and only philosophy. In effect, that definition seems to balance the one we [...]
On Truth and Lie in an Extramoral Sense (Friedrich Nietzsche)
1 Once upon a time, in some out of the way corner of that universe which is dispersed into numberless twinkling solar systems, there was a star upon which clever beasts invented knowing. That was the most arrogant and mendacious minute of “world history,” but nevertheless, it was only a minute. After nature had drawn [...]
Noble and Slave Moralities (Friedrich Nietzsche)
1. Nobility. The noble type of man experiences itself as determining values; it does not need approval; it judges, “what is harmful to me is harmful in itself”; it knows itself to be that which first accords honor to things; it is value-creating. Everything it knows as part of itself it honors: such a morality [...]
Eternal recurrence (Friedrich Nietzsche)
1. The Will to Eternal Recurrence. What, if some day or night a demon were to steal after you into your loneliest loneliness and say to you: “This life as you now live it and have lived it, you will have to live once more and innumerable times more; and there will be nothing new [...]
The Will to Power (Friedrich Nietzsche)
1. Will to Power vs. Self-Preservation. Physiologists should think before putting down the instinct of self-preservation as the cardinal instinct of an organic being. A living thing seeks above all to discharge its strength — life itself is will to power; self-preservation is only one of the indirect and most frequent results. (Beyond Good and [...]
Happiness is having Power (Friedrich Nietzsche)
Section 257 through 261 appear in Friedrich Nietzsche’s Beyond Good and Evil, written in 1886. translation by Walter Kaufmann 257 Every enhancement of the type “man” has so far been the work of an aristocratic society – and it will be so again and again – a society that believes in the long ladder of [...]
Of the Divine Influence in Political Constitutions (Joseph de Maistre)
Chapter VI of Considerations on France by Joseph de Maistre Man can modify everything in the sphere of his activity, but he creates nothing: such is the law binding him in the physical as in the moral world. No doubt a man can plant a seed, raise a tree, perfect it by grafting, and prune [...]
Between the Gods and the Titans (Alain de Benoist)
Alain de Benoist considers the achievement of the writer Ernst Juenger and his ideal of the Worker in the context of the Conservative Revolution. This article first appeared as part of the central theme in Nouvelle Ecole No.40 (41, rue Barrault, 13 arr. 75 Paris) under the title Ernst Juenger: La Figure du Travailleur entre [...]
