still reading gaudeamus but would like to read insel by loy next
here are some quotes -
The purpose of life is not happiness, but rather heroic accomplishment. Every soul encompasses potential heroism, I thought. But every soul flickers for a few adolescent years with heroic visions, before resigning itself to mediocre values, before submitting to the lives of others, shrivelling & finally perishing. Why should I not be a soul, which no matter what the sacrifice required, attained heroism? Who could know? Perhaps I would be victorious in my pursuit of heroism. But then the victory itself would no longer have any meaning, but only the tireless striving toward it.
works & days, p60
ethics should crystallise as a result of lived experience
niska, p76
One who struggles with all his might to make certain spiritual values that greatly transcend the common spirituality become tangible, flourish & spread. One who goes beyond the human. One who renouces the way others live, in order to live ascetically, like a saint, all because he has sworn to achieve those things he has set out to do.
hermitage, p91
Why should I not […] master the asceticism of universal erudition? Of course, it is not possible to master everything; but it is possible to gather & assimilate the essence of human genius. I will require five, ten, fifty years. And then I will be able to say: I have recreated myself, through assiduous labour, toiling in obscurity; I have transcended my species, because in my soul & mind are gathered together all the fruits of human labour; from whose seeds will grow forests, fields of crops, gardens.
mysteries, p117
no one finds salvation but the insane
nemesis, p148
