Source: Fashionable Nihilism (2002), p. 4
“To become what one is, one must not have the faintest idea what one is.”
Daß man wird, was man ist, setzt voraus, daß man nicht im entferntesten ahnt, was man ist.
"Why I am So Clever", 9.
Variant translations:
Becoming what you are presupposes that you have not the slightest inkling what you are.
Ecce Homo (1888)
“What one means one day, you know, one may not mean the next. Circumstances change, opinions alter.”
Source: Northanger Abbey
Source: 1980s, The Ecstasy of Communication (1987), p. 30
Source: Dearly Devoted Dexter
The Analects, The Doctrine of the Mean
Context: It is the way of the superior man to prefer the concealment of his virtue, while it daily becomes more illustrious, and it is the way of the mean man to seek notoriety, while he daily goes more and more to ruin. It is characteristic of the superior man, appearing insipid, yet never to produce satiety; while showing a simple negligence, yet to have his accomplishments recognized; while seemingly plain, yet to be discriminating. He knows how what is distant lies in what is near. He knows where the wind proceeds from. He knows how what is minute becomes manifested. Such a one, we may be sure, will enter into virtue.
