denny: (Gentleman)
Denny ([personal profile] denny) wrote2007-06-11 10:41 pm
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Thought for the day

"You know what everyone's greatest fear is? It is that all the dreams we have, all the crazy ideas and aspirations, all the impossible romantic longings and utopian visions can come true, that the world can grant us our wishes... No weight could be harder to bear than the possibility that everything we want is possible. If that is true, then there really are things at stake in this life, things to be truly won or lost." -- Nietzsche

(Anonymous) 2007-06-11 10:21 pm (UTC)(link)
Nietzsche is saying that if everything were possible then it would be agonising trying - at every juncture of our lives - to find the right path to get there. An alternative approach is to accept it is possible, but not to strive for it and find happiness in what we have.

That alternative approach might change what we want, leading us to find that what we want can be possible.

[identity profile] dennyd.livejournal.com 2007-06-12 12:10 am (UTC)(link)
Hrm. I read it more as 'better to try and fail, than fail to try'.

[identity profile] ninneviane.livejournal.com 2007-06-12 11:25 am (UTC)(link)
Either or - if I read this on a 'the cup is half full' day, I draw the conclusion you did. If I read it on a 'the cup is half empty' day I take something different from it.

One of my favourite Nietzsche quotes is "The consequences of our actions grab us by the scruff of our necks, quite indifferent to our claim that we have "gotten better" in the meantime."
That's always struck a chord for me :)

[identity profile] wildeabandon.livejournal.com 2007-06-11 10:21 pm (UTC)(link)
It scares me that there are people who this could be true for. And then it saddens me.

All the dreams we have can come true, and life is glorious because of those dreams, even the ones that are never realised.

[identity profile] kynetik.livejournal.com 2007-06-11 11:59 pm (UTC)(link)
*sob* I love him so much!

[identity profile] cokephreak.livejournal.com 2007-06-12 07:16 am (UTC)(link)
The only thing that stops us achieving our goals and dreams is our own fears and insecurities

(not entirely true, but it is the first and hardest hurdle to get to over)

[identity profile] hythloday.livejournal.com 2007-06-13 12:04 pm (UTC)(link)
I love the chatty, fireside-conversation style that translations of Nietzsche are rendered in.

"Hey, folks..."