Philosophers on Self..

Kierkegaard (The Sickness Unto Death):

Man is spirit. But what is spirit? Spirit is the self. But what is the self? The self is a relation which
relates itself to its own self, or it is that in the relation [which accounts for it] that the relation relates
itself to its own self; the self is not the relation but [consists in the fact] that the relation relates itself to
its own self. Man is a synthesis of the infinite and the finite, of the temporal and the eternal, of freedom
and necessity, in short it is a synthesis. A synthesis is a relation between two factors. So regarded, man
is not yet a self.


Cassirer (Language and Myth):

It was a long evolutionary course which the human mind had to traverse, to pass from the belief in a physico-magical power comprised in the Word to a realization of its spiritual power. Indeed, it is the Word, it is language that reveals to man that world which is closer to him than any world of natural objects and touches his weal and woe more directly than physical nature. For it is language that makes his existence in a community possible; and only in society, in relation to a "Thee," can his subjectivity assert itself as a "Me."
But here again the creative act, while it is in progress, is not recognized as such; all the energy of that spiritual achievement is projected into the result of it, and seems bound up in that object from which it seems to emanate as by reflection. Here, too, as in the case of tools and instruments, all spontaneity is felt as receptivity, all creativity as being and every product of subjectivity as so much substantiality.

Nietzsche (On Truth and Lies in a Nonmoral Sense):

Deze komt nog...

Cassirer

It was a long evolutionary course which the human mind had to traverse, to pass from the belief in a physico-magical power comprised in the Word to a realization of its spiritual power. Indeed, it is the Word, it is language that reveals to man that world which is closer to him than any world of natural objects and touches his weal and woe more directly than physical nature. For it is language that makes his existence in a community possible; and only in society, in relation to a "Thee," can his subjectivity assert itself as a "Me."
But here again the creative act, while it is in progress, is not recognized as such; all the energy of that spiritual achievement is projected into the result of it, and seems bound up in that object from which it seems to emanate as by reflection. Here, too, as in the case of tools and instruments, all spontaneity is felt as receptivity, all creativity as being and every product of subjectivity as so much substantiality. And yet, this very hypostatization of the Word is of crucial importance in the development of human mentality. For it is the first form in which the spiritual power inherent in language can be apprehended at all; the Word has to be conceived in the mythic mode, as a substantive being and power, before it can be comprehended as an ideal instrument, an organon of the mind, and as a fundamental function in the construction and development of spiritual reality.

Nietzsche!

Beyond Good and Evil

69

One has watched life badly if one has not also seen the hand that considerately -- kills.

87

Tethered heart, free spirit.-- If one tethers one's heart severely and imprisons it, one can give one's spirit many liberties: I have said that once before. But one does not believe me, unless one already knows it--

94

A man's maturity -- consists in having found again the seriousness one had as a child, at play.

96

One should part from life as Odysseus parted from Nausicaa -- blessing it rather than in love with it.

97

What? A great man? I always see only the actor of his own ideal.

108

There are no moral phenomena at all, but only a moral interpretation of phenomena--

117

The will to overcome an affect is ultimately only the will of another, or of several other, affects.

125

When we have to change our mind about a person, we hold the inconvenience he causes us very much against him.

128

The more abstract the truth is that you would teach, the more you have to seduce the senses to it.

134

All credibility, all good conscience, all evidence of truth come only from the senses.

136

One seeks a midwife for his thoughts, another someone whom he can help: origin of a good conversation.

138

When we are awake we also do what we do in our dreams: we invent and make up the person with whom we associate -- and immediately forget it.

154

Objections, digressions, gay mistrust, the delight in mockery are signs of health: everything unconditional belongs in pathology.

158

To our strongest drive, the tyrant in us, not only our reason bows, but also our conscience.

164

Jesus said to his Jews: "The law was for servants -- love God as I love him, as his son! What are morals to us sons of God!"

167

In men who are hard, intimacy involves shame -- and is precious.

172

From love of man one occasionally embraces someone at random ( because one can not embrace all ): but one must not tell him this--

175

In the end one loves one's desire and not what is desired.

176

The vanity of other offends our taste only when it offends our vanity.

183

"Not that you lied to me, but that I no longer believe you, has shaken me" --

185

"I don't like him," -- Why? -- "I am not equal to him." -- Has any human being ever answered that way?

Aphorisms by FM Alexander and the like

"Trying is only emphasizing the thing we know already."
-- FM Alexander

Rumi!

Eaten by flame and
smoked out into the sky

This is most fortunate

What's unlucky is not to change
and disappear

---

This being human is a guest house.
Every morning a new arrival.

A joy, a depression, a meanness,
some momentary awareness comes
as an unexpected visitor.

Welcome and entertain them all!
Even if they are a crowd of sorrows,
who violently sweep your house
empty of its furniture,
still, treat each guest honorably.
He may be clearing you out
for some new delight.

The dark thought, the shame, the malice.
meet them at the door laughing and invite them in.

Be grateful for whatever comes.
because each has been sent
as a guide from beyond.

---

Look at your hand
Closing your fist always preceding opening it
A hand that is always closed or open
Is a crippled hand.
So your heart always contracts and expands,
Just like a bird needs to close and open
its wings to fly.

---

Come, come again
Whoever you are
Whether you are infidel, idolater or wanderer
Whether you have broken your vows a hundred times
Ours is not a caravan of despair
This is the gate of hope
Come, come yet again, come.

---

This is now. Now is,
all there is. Don't wait for Then;
strike the spark, light the fire.

Sit at the Beloved's table,
feast with gusto, drink your fill

then dance
the way branches
of jasmine and cypress
dance in a spring wind.

The green earth
is your cloth;
tailor your robe
with dignity and grace.

---

If your knowledge of fire has been turned
to certainty by words alone,
then seek to be cooked by the fire itself.
Don't abide in borrowed certainty.
There is no real certainty until you burn;
if you wish for this, sit down in the fire.