never-never lan

When a real storm cloud thunders above him, he wraps himself in his cloak, and with slow steps he walks from beneath it

-and this is what the honest Athenian believed- then, as in a dream, anything is possible at each moment

waking man, so that it will be as colorful, irregular, lacking in results and coherence, charming, and eternally new as the world of dreams. Indeed, it is only by means of the rigid and regular web of concepts that the waking man clearly sees that he is awake; and it is precisely because of this that he sometimes thinks that he must be dreaming when this web of concepts is torn by art

Against this, the following must be said: if each us had a different kind of sense perception-if we could only perceive things now as a bird, now as a worm, now as a plant, or if one of us saw a stimulus as red, another as blue, while a third even heard the same stimulus as a sound-then no one would speak of such a regularity of nature, rather, nature would be grasped only as a creation which is subjective in the highest degree.

At bottom, what the investigator of such truths is seeking is only the metamorphosis of the world into man

his construction must be like one constructed of spiders' webs: delicate enough to be carried along by the waves, strong enough not to be blown apart by every wind

Truths are illusions which we have forgotten are illusions- they are metaphors that have become worn out and have been drained of sensuous force, coins which have lost their embossing and are now considered as metal and no longer as coins.

we believe that we know something about the things themselves when we speak of trees, colors, snow, and flowers; and yet we possess nothing but metaphors for things--metaphors which correspond in no way to the original entities

This creator only designates the relations of things to men, and for expressing these relations he lays hold of the boldest metaphors

if he will not be content with empty husks, then he will always exchange truths for illusions

Is language the adequate expression of all realities

man now wants nothing but truth: he desires the pleasant, life-preserving consequences of truth. He is indifferent toward pure knowledge which has no consequences; toward those truths which are possibly harmful and destructive he is even hostilely inclined

What men avoid by excluding the liar is not so much being defrauded as it is being harmed by means of fraud

bellum omni contra omne

What does man actually know about himself?

Deception, flattering, lying, deluding, talking behind the back, putting up a false front, living in borrowed splendor, wearing a mask, hiding behind convention, playing a role for others and for oneself-in short, a continuous fluttering around the solitary flame of vanity-is so much the rule and the law among men

It is remarkable that this was brought about by the intellect, which was certainly allotted to these most unfortunate, delicate, and ephemeral beings merely as a device for detaining them a minute within existence. For without this addition they would have every reason to flee this existence as quickly as Lessing's son.

And just as every porter wants to have an admirer, so even the proudest of men, the philosopher, supposes that he sees on all sides the eyes of the universe telescopically focused upon his action and thought

For prudence is not a moral virtue but a virtue of the intelligence and mind. Therefore rhetoric will not be a moral virtue.

Rhetoric should demonstrate the embellishment of speech first in tropes and figures, second in dignified delivery

The grammarian is defined as skilled in speaking and writing cor-rectly; he is not defined as skilled in speaking, writing, and singing. Why not? Because gram-mar provides no precepts about the last. The geometrician is not defined as skilled in mea-surement and medicine. Why not? Because there is no precept in geometry which teaches how to cure illnesses.

dialectic, the mentor of speaking with truth and constanc

Yet I add the observation that if they had applied as many months as I have years to judg-ing these precepts accurately and to arranging them in order, I certainly do not doubt that they would have left us arts that are far truer and more distinct.

I wish I had not known the wretched-ness of wasting so much of my youth in this way

unwavering reaso

we shall sep-arate its true properties, remove weak and useless subtleties, and point out the things that are miss-ing

my close colleague Audomarus Ta-laeus cast light on style and delivery and pointed out their deficiencie

rather I feel ashamed to look back upon them due to the very meager results they produced