in my own thoughts
Thinking about a bit I read in Steppenwolf almost fifty years ago. (47 years)
In context:‘Most men will not swim before they are able to.’ Is not that witty? Naturally, they won’t swim! They are born for the solid earth, not for the water. And naturally they won’t think. They are made for life, not for thought. Yes and he who thinks, what’s more, he who makes thought his business he may go far in it, but he has bartered the solid earth for the water all the same, and one day he will drown”
“Now, this morning I came on a passage in Novalis. May I show it you? It would delight you, I know”
He took me into his room, which smelt strongly of tobacco and took out a book from one of the heaps, turned the leaves and looked for the passage.
“This is good too, very good,” He said. “Listen to this: ‘A man should be proud of suffering. All suffering is a reminder of our high estate’ Fine! Eighty years before Nietzsche. But that is not the sentence I meant. Wait a moment, here I have it. This:
‘Most men will not swim before they are able to.’ Is not that witty? Naturally, they won’t swim! They are born for the solid earth, not for the water. And naturally they won’t think. They are made for life, not for thought. Yes and he who thinks, what’s more, he who makes thought his business he may go far in it, but he has bartered the solid earth for the water all the same, and one day he will drown”
Steppenwolf
