I had an odd thought about this the other day: what about Nietzsche? In particular, Thus Spoke Zarathustra has tons of quotes that are useful because they're written in a semi-religious style. Here's a few:
“Man is a rope, tied between beast and overman–a rope over an abyss. A dangerous across, a dangerous on-the-way, a dangerous looking-back, a dangerous shuddering and stopping. What is great in man is that he is a bridge and not an end: what can be loved in man is that he is an overture and a going under. I love those who do not know how to live, for they are those who cross over.”
"I tell you: one must still have chaos within oneself, to give birth to a dancing star."
'Then will he who goes under bless himself for being one who goes over and beyond; and the sun of his knowledge will stand at high noon for him.
"Dead are all gods: now we want the overman to live" — on that great noon, let this be our last will.'
When power becomes gracious and descends into the visible — such descent I call beauty. And there is nobody from whom I want beauty as much as from you who are powerful: let your kindness be your final self-conquest. Of all evil I deem you capable: therefore I want the good from you. Verily, I have often laughed at the weaklings who thought themselves good because they had no claws.
O my brothers, I dedicate and direct you to a new nobility: you shall become procreators and cultivators and sowers of the future — verily, not to a nobility that you might buy like shopkeepers and with shopkeepers' gold: for whatever has its price has little value. Not whence you came shall henceforth constitute your honor, but whither you are going! Your will and your foot which has a will to go over and beyond yourselves — that shall constitute your new honor.
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Friedrich Nietzsche is a fellow that, while I don't agree with his philosophy, I cannot dismiss it out of hand. There's too much truth there. I haven't read the book though. I've heard it is dense.
But RGU, though. I mean, we have a dead guy literally named Dios, an arena to show who has the greatest will to power, and thus become the overman. I know it's supposed to be Demian but if this fic is supposed to have apotheosis, it's going to be a little more than overcoming illusion.
The obligatory Hermann Hesse quote, though:
The bird fights its way out of the egg. The egg is the world. Who would be born must first destroy a world. The bird flies to God. The God's name is Abraxas.
“Man is a rope, tied between beast and overman–a rope over an abyss. A dangerous across, a dangerous on-the-way, a dangerous looking-back, a dangerous shuddering and stopping. What is great in man is that he is a bridge and not an end: what can be loved in man is that he is an overture and a going under. I love those who do not know how to live, for they are those who cross over.”
"I tell you: one must still have chaos within oneself, to give birth to a dancing star."
'Then will he who goes under bless himself for being one who goes over and beyond; and the sun of his knowledge will stand at high noon for him.
"Dead are all gods: now we want the overman to live" — on that great noon, let this be our last will.'
When power becomes gracious and descends into the visible — such descent I call beauty. And there is nobody from whom I want beauty as much as from you who are powerful: let your kindness be your final self-conquest. Of all evil I deem you capable: therefore I want the good from you. Verily, I have often laughed at the weaklings who thought themselves good because they had no claws.
O my brothers, I dedicate and direct you to a new nobility: you shall become procreators and cultivators and sowers of the future — verily, not to a nobility that you might buy like shopkeepers and with shopkeepers' gold: for whatever has its price has little value. Not whence you came shall henceforth constitute your honor, but whither you are going! Your will and your foot which has a will to go over and beyond yourselves — that shall constitute your new honor.
----
Friedrich Nietzsche is a fellow that, while I don't agree with his philosophy, I cannot dismiss it out of hand. There's too much truth there. I haven't read the book though. I've heard it is dense.
But RGU, though. I mean, we have a dead guy literally named Dios, an arena to show who has the greatest will to power, and thus become the overman. I know it's supposed to be Demian but if this fic is supposed to have apotheosis, it's going to be a little more than overcoming illusion.
The obligatory Hermann Hesse quote, though:
The bird fights its way out of the egg. The egg is the world. Who would be born must first destroy a world. The bird flies to God. The God's name is Abraxas.
"Kitto daijoubu da yo." - Sakura Kinomoto