Conatus

ثم اعلموا أن المعنى الحقير الفاسد والدنيَّ الساقطَ يُعشِّشُ في القلب ثم يَبيض ثم يفرِّخ، فإذا ضَرب بِجِرانه ومكَّن لعُروقه، استفحَل الفساد وبَزَل، وتمكَّن الجهل وقَرَح، فعند ذلك يَقوى داؤه ويمتنع دواؤه، لأن اللفظَ الهجين الرديء والمستكرَه الغبيَّ أَعْلقُ باللسان وآلف للسمع وأشد التحامًا بالقلب من اللفظ النبيل الشريف والمعنى الرفيع الكريم، ولو جالست الجُهَّال والنَّوْكى والسخفاء والحمقى شهرًا فقط، لم تَنْقَ من أَوْضار كلامهم وخَبَال معانيهم بمجالسة أهل البيان والعقل دهرًا، لأن الفساد أسرع إلى الناس وأشد التحامًا بالطبائع.. والإنسان بالتعلُّم والتكلُّف، وبطول الاختلاف إلى العلماء ومدارسة كتب الحكماء، يجُود لفظه ويحسُن أدبه، وهو لا يحتاج في الجهل إلى أكثر من ترك التعلُّم، وفي فساد البيان إلى أكثر من ترك التخيُّر. — الجاحظ، البيان والتبيين

Help yourself, then everyone will help you. Principle of brotherly love. — Friedrich Nietzsche, Twilight of Idols.

وأنت إِذا لم تَجد من نفسك وهي أخصُّ الأشياء بك- مساعدةٌ لك على رضاك، ولا من أخلاط بدنك وهي أقرب الأُمور إِلَيك- موَافقَةٌ لهواك، فكَيفَ تَلْتمسهَا من غيرك. — أَبو حيان التَّوحيدي، الهوامل والشُّوامل

Venus and Adonis by an Unknown Artist.

The morning after Goethe's death, a deep desire seized me to look once again upon his earthly garment. His faithful servant, Frederick, opened for me the chamber in which he was laid out. Stretched upon his back, he reposed as if asleep; profound peace and security reigned in the features of his sublimely noble countenance. The mighty brow seemed yet to harbour thoughts. I wished for a lock of his hair; but reverence prevented me from cutting it off. The body lay naked, only wrapped in a white sheet; large pieces of ice had been placed near it, to keep it fresh as long as possible. Frederick drew aside the sheet, and I was astonished at the divine magnificence of the limbs. The breast was powerful, broad, and arched; the arms and thighs were elegant, and of the most perfect shape; nowhere, on the whole body, was there a trace of either fat or of leanness and decay. A perfect man lay in great beauty before me; and the rapture the sight caused me made me forget for a moment that the immortal spirit had left such an abode. I laid my hand on his heart – there was a deep silence – and I turned away to give free vent to my suppressed tears. — Johann Rckermann, a Passage From "Conversations with Goethe"

I have no patience with the hypothesis occasionally expressed, and often implied, especially in tales written to teach children to be good, that babies are born pretty much alike, and that the sole agencies in creating differences between boy and boy, and man and man, are steady application and moral effort. It is in the most unqualified manner that I object to pretensions of natural equality. The experiences of the nursery, the school, the University, and of professional careers, are a chain of proofs to the contrary. — Francis Galton, Hereditary Genius

Frederic Leighton, 1st Baron Leighton - Perseus and Andromeda, 1891, Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool, UK

On the metaphysics of laughter

Study of a Seated Woman Seen from Behind (Marie-Gabrielle Capet) by Adélaïde Labille-Guiard (c. 1789)

“Consider the herds that are feeding yonder: they know not the meaning of yesterday or to-day, they graze and ruminate, move or rest, from morning to night, from day to day, taken up with their little loves and hates, at the mercy of the moment, feeling neither melancholy nor satiety. Man cannot see them without regret, for even in the pride of his humanity he looks enviously on the beast's happiness. He wishes simply to live without satiety or pain, like the beast; yet it is all in vain, for he will not change places with it. He may ask the beast—“Why do you look at me and not speak to me of your happiness?” The beast wants to answer—“Because I always forget what I wished to say”: but he forgets this answer too, and is silent; and the man is left to wonder.” —Friedrich Nietzsche, Thoughts out of Season, The Use and Abuse of History, §1.

in Search of the Waters of Oblivion - John Martin

“if the progressive casts himself into the future, and the conservative into the past, the reactionary does not measure his anxieties with the history of yesterday or with the history of tomorrow. The reactionary does not extol what the next dawn must bring, nor is he terrified by the last shadows of the night. His dwelling rises up in that luminous space where the essential accosts him with its immortal presence. The reactionary escapes the slavery of history because he pursues in the human wilderness the trace of divine footsteps. Man and his deeds are, for the reactionary, a servile and mortal flesh that breathes gusts from beyond the mountains. To be reactionary is to champion causes that do not turn up on the notice board of history, causes where losing does not matter. To be reactionary is to know that we only discover what we think we invent; it is to admit that our imagination does not create, but only lays bares smooth bodies. To be reactionary is not to espouse settled cases, nor to plead for determined conclusions, but rather to submit our will to the necessity that does not constrain, to surrender our freedom to the exigency that does not compel; it is to find sleeping certainties that guide us to the edge of ancient pools. The reactionary is not a nostalgic dreamer of a canceled past, but rather a hunter of sacred shades upon the eternal hills.” — Nicolás Gómez Dávila

“if the progressive casts himself into the future, and the conservative into the past, the reactionary does not measure his anxieties with the history of yesterday or with the history of tomorrow. The reactionary does not extol what the next dawn must bring, nor is he terrified by the last shadows of the night. His dwelling rises up in that luminous space where the essential accosts him with its immortal presence. The reactionary escapes the slavery of history because he pursues in the human wilderness the trace of divine footsteps. Man and his deeds are, for the reactionary, a servile and mortal flesh that breathes gusts from beyond the mountains. To be reactionary is to champion causes that do not turn up on the notice board of history, causes where losing does not matter. To be reactionary is to know that we only discover what we think we invent; it is to admit that our imagination does not create, but only lays bares smooth bodies. To be reactionary is not to espouse settled cases, nor to plead for determined conclusions, but rather to submit our will to the necessity that does not constrain, to surrender our freedom to the exigency that does not compel; it is to find sleeping certainties that guide us to the edge of ancient pools. The reactionary is not a nostalgic dreamer of a canceled past, but rather a hunter of sacred shades upon the eternal hills.” — Nicolas Gomez Davila

Rinaldo and Armida by Antonio Zucchi.