Today · updated 18 min ago

1 It is not the answer, but the spirit in which we answer, that gets it right; and with this we are not saying enough: the spirit in which we respond is what allows us to «answer without depending on the answer»¹.

It precedes even intention, which, formed «in its entirety» by «the will to power of different instincts, includes the relation each instinct has to the others.»

2 In this respect, definition should not be separated from framing and «demarcating a plot in search of gold»²; whoever still does so is being romantic, decadent, and pedantic, since intransigence and dogmatism have more to do with our dependence on what we define than with any separation between them. When we separate them, what we are doing is abdicating our rights, prerogatives, and responsibility.

3 Let’s not make things as easy for ourselves as the separatists do, since that way we make them impossible for ourselves. «We must not split the world in two»; that is to deny the nature of things, the innate, our duty, and the true challenge.

4 Whoever sets things in place but does not depend on what he sets in place is, at the same time, the one who can not only «correctly divide and define»³, but also the one who can remember the spirit in which he defined things.

5 It is precisely conquering them that this freedom makes possible. This shows an obvious relation, but one we often pass over (over, here, means on the surface), between «originality, honesty, authenticity, and speaking from the heart,” «and» having prepared ourselves well for something.

6 By remembering the spirit in which we define something, we free ourselves from materialism. This is very important, since it shows the depth of that human principle that, by «starting well, ends well.» It is also where the strength of goodwill comes from, and it makes clear that nothing is less generous than superficial, belated goodwill: it aspires to little and gives little back.

A situation is made still worse when someone who aspires to little, spent, disillusioned, and tired, can now only «wring something out of others.» There are few things clumsier than overvaluing the answer.

7 The other is not only a friend or an enemy; he is also the brother of our answers.

8 «Distinction» belongs to the spirit: it is to the spirit that there corresponds, as a preeminent and firstborn singularity, «the title of nobility that every human being carries within them».