Tuesday, August 24, 2004

 

Back to School Thoughts

Friedrich Nietzsche, Twilight of the Idols (Götzen-Dämmerung), What the Germans Lack (Was den Deutschen abgeht), 5 (tr. Walter Kaufmann):
"Higher education" and huge numbers -- that is a contradiction to start with. All higher education belongs only to the exception: one must be privileged to have a right to so high a privilege. All great, all beautiful things can never be common property: pulchrum est paucorum hominum.

"Höhere Erziehung" und Unzahl - das widerspricht sich von vornherein. Jede höhere Erziehung gehört nur der Ausnahme: man muss privilegirt sein, um ein Recht auf ein so hohes Privilegium zu haben. Alle grossen, alle schönen Dinge können nie Gemeingut sein: pulchrum est paucorum hominum.
The Latin quotation means "What is beautiful belongs to a few." Some give the source as Horace, Satires 1.9.44, but this is incorrect, and I can't track down the origin of the phrase.

For more back to school thoughts, see this week's hilarious postings by the crack young staff at The Hatemonger's Quarterly entitled Official Back-to-School Week. So far:



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