motto lotto

Tuesday, July 14, 2009

Nietzsche on sympathy

Not that I'm ready to tackle his discussions of pity and generosity of spirit but Kaufmann's note in The Gay Science (p. 249) was really intriguing to me.
Nietzsche's letter to Gast, August 20, 1880: "... To this day, my whole philosophy totters after an hour's conversation with total strangers: it seems so foolish to me to wish to be right at the price of love, and not be able to communicate what one considers most valuable lest one destroy the sympathy. Hinc meae lacrimae [hence my tears]."