Thursday, March 09, 2006

Quote for the day

"Philology is that venerable art which requires of those who honor her one thing above all: to turn aside, to take one's time, to become still and slow.... Precisely for this reason, she is more necessary today than ever, precisely on this account, she attracts and enchants us most powerfully, in an age of "work," which is to say, haste, the unseemly and sweating hurry that wants to be "done" with everything right away, even with every old and new book. She herself will not so easily be done with anything, she instructs reading well, that means, slowly, deeply, carefully, regardfully, looking forward and backward, with second thoughts, with doors left open, reading with delicate fingers and eyes..." F. Nietzsche, Morgenröte

Compliments of John Cook, acquisitions editor, Eisenbrauns.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

A gem. There are lots of such gems in Nietzsche, in fact, whose earliest work was done as a Classical philologist at the University of Basel.