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...
Philology is that venerable art which demands of its votaries one thing
above all: to go aside, to take time, to become still, to become slow -
it is a goldsmith's art and connoisseurship of the word which
has nothing but delicate, cautious work to do and achieves nothing if
it does not achieve it lento.
But for precisely this reason it is more necessary than ever today, by
precisely this means does it entice and enchants us the most,
in the midst of an age of 'work', that is to say, of hurry, of indecent
and perspiring haste, which wants to 'get everything done' at once,
including every old or new book: this art does not easily get anything
done, it teaches to read well, that is to say, to read slowly,
deeply, looking cautiously before and aft, with reservations, with
doors left open, with delicate eyes and fingers ...
F. Nietzsche, Daybreak - Thoughts on the prejudices of morality, Translated by R. J. Hollingdale (Cambridge, 1982), p. 5. |
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