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over the eternal original text, HOMO NATURA; to bring
it about that man shall henceforth stand before man as he
now, hardened by the discipline of science, stands before
the OTHER forms of nature, with fearless Oedipus-eyes,
and stopped Ulysses-ears, deaf to the enticements of old
metaphysical bird-catchers, who have piped to him far too
long: ‘Thou art more! thou art higher! thou hast a different
origin!’—this may be a strange and foolish task, but that it
is a TASK, who can deny! Why did we choose it, this foolish
task? Or, to put the question differently: ‘Why knowledge
at all?’ Every one will ask us about this. And thus pressed,
we, who have asked ourselves the question a hundred times,
have not found and cannot find any better answer….

231. Learning alters us, it does what all nourishment does
that does not merely ‘conserve’—as the physiologist knows.
But at the bottom of our souls, quite ‘down below,’ there is
certainly something unteachable, a granite of spiritual fate,
of predetermined decision and answer to predetermined,
chosen questions. In each cardinal problem there speaks
an unchangeable ‘I am this”; a thinker cannot learn anew
about man and woman, for instance, but can only learn
fully—he can only follow to the end what is ‘fixed’ about
them in himself. Occasionally we find certain solutions of
problems which make strong beliefs for us; perhaps they
are henceforth called ‘convictions.’ Later on—one sees in
them only footsteps to self-knowledge, guide-posts to the
problem which we ourselves ARE—or more correctly to
the great stupidity which we embody, our spiritual fate, the

1 Beyond Good and Evil