/lit/ - Literature

http://oregonstate.edu/instruct/phl201/modules/Philosophers/Nietzsche/Truth_and_Lie_in_an_Extra-Moral_Sense.htm

>In some remote corner of the universe, poured out and glittering in innumerable solar systems, there once was a star on which clever animals invented knowledge. That was the highest and most mendacious minute of "world history"—yet only a minute. After nature had drawn a few breaths the star grew cold, and the clever animals had to die.

One might invent such a fable and still not have illustrated sufficiently how wretched, how shadowy and flighty, how aimless and arbitrary, the human intellect appears in nature. There have been eternities when it did not exist; and when it is done for again, nothing will have happened. For this intellect has no further mission that would lead beyond human life. It is human, rather, and only its owner and producer gives it such importance, as if the world pivoted around it. But if we could communicate with the mosquito, then we would learn that he floats through the air with the same self-importance, feeling within itself the flying center of the world. There is nothing in nature so despicable or insignificant that it cannot immediately be blown up like a bag by a slight breath of this power of knowledge; and just as every porter wants an admirer, the proudest human being, the philosopher, thinks that he sees on the eyes of the universe telescopically focused from all sides on his actions and thoughts.

I am not very familiar with Nietzsche to be honest. What does he mean by this essay? Is it nihilistic thinking? Is he basically saying that humans are insignificant in contrast to the size of the universe?

Can someone please explain this quote from Pascal to me?

“The only thing that which consoles us for our miseries is diversion and yet this is the greatest of our miseries. For it is this which principally hinders us from reflecting upon ourselves and which makes us insensibly ruin ourselves. Without this we should be in a state of weariness and this weariness would spur us to seek a more solid means of escaping from it. But diversion amuses us and leads us unconsciously to death."

He does not mean a literal death but rather a symbolic one in which our "soul" dies and we do not think deeply about ourselves as human beings right?

Can someone please explain to me the significance of this existentialist passage? I simply don't get it because I am stupid.

>"The Knight of faith is assigned solely to himself; he feels the pain of being unable to make himself understandable to others but he has no vain desire to instruct others. The pain is his assurance; vain desire he does not know-for that his soul is too earnest...The true knight of faith is a witness, never the teacher, and therein lies the profound humanity...he who desires only to be a witness confesses thereby that no man, not even the most unimportant man, needs another's participation or to be devalued by it in order to raise another's value."

>>8924357

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>>8576733

Out of some complicated moral obligation I know that part of me should say don't do it and there is a lot of live for. But if you have really had enough and will do this, good luck man. I wish I had the courage to do it as well. This world is corrupt, filthy and full of suffering, and it will never change. See you on the other side if there is such a thing.

Hi /lit/. Won't make a big fucking song and dance about it but for as long as I can remember I have been not doing well due to family and personal reasons. It's led to me essentially alienating almost everyone I know, declining social events, drinking almost daily, and impacting my performance in many areas including academically. I have to force myself to do basic chores and leave my apartment. Just in general I can't remember a time I have been doing worse.

Are there any books you could please recommend that might just change my entire outlook on life and improve my current state? Thanks.