L28 · Lens
Tragic joy and affirmation
Affirm life including its tragedy; joy grounded in reality outlasts joy dependent on good fortune.
Use: Despair, pessimism, grief after the acute wave.
Boundary: Earned through honesty with suffering, never forced cheerfulness.
Cues
Showing 9 of 9 cues
“I want to learn more and more to see as beautiful what is necessary in things; then I shall be one of those who makes things beautiful. Amor fati: let that be my love henceforth! I do not want to wage war against what is ugly. I do not want to accuse; I do not even want to accuse those who accuse. Looking away shall be my only negation. And all in all and on the whole: some day I wish to be only a Yes-sayer.”
“I would rather be ashes than dust! I would rather that my spark should burn out in a brilliant blaze than it should be stifled by dry-rot. I would rather be a superb meteor, every atom of me in magnificent glow, than a sleepy and permanent planet. The function of man is to live, not to exist. I shall not waste my days trying to prolong them. I shall use my time.”
“I took myself in hand, I made myself healthy again ... I discovered life anew, including myself; I tasted all good and even little things, as others cannot easily taste them, I turned my will to health, to life, into a philosophy.”
“And when I saw my devil, I found him serious, thorough, profound, solemn: he was the spirit of gravity - through him all things are ruined. Not by wrath, but by laughter do we slay. Come, let us slay the spirit of gravity! I learned to walk; since then I have run. I have learned to fly: since then I do not have to be pushed in order to move. Now I am nimble, now I fly, now I see myself under myself, now a god dances within me.”
“From such abysses [of suffering] one returns newborn, having shed one’s skin ... with a more delicate taste for joy, with a tenderer tongue for all good things, with merrier senses ... more childlike and yet a hundred times subtler than one has ever been before.”
“Climb the mountains and get their good tidings. Nature’s peace will flow into you as sunshine flows into trees. The winds will blow their own freshness into you, and the storms their energy, while cares will drop off like autumn leaves. As age comes on, one source of enjoyment after another is closed, but Nature’s sources never fail.”
“In the presence of nature, a wild delight runs through the man, in spite of real sorrows. Nature says, he is my creature, and [in spite of] all his impertinent griefs, he shall be glad with me.”
“You must live in the present, launch yourself on every wave, find your eternity in each moment. Fools stand on their island of opportunities and look toward another land. There is no other land; there is no other life but this.”
“Crossing a bare common, in snow puddles, at twilight, under a clouded sky, without having in my thoughts any occurrence of special good fortune, I have enjoyed a perfect exhilaration. I am glad to the brink of fear.”