OF READING AND WRITING 49
Courage that dispelleth ghosts createth goblins for itself, courage desireth to laugh.
I no longer feel as ye do : this cloud which I see beneath me, that blackness and heaviness at which I laugh, that is your thunder-cloud.
Ye look upward when longing to be exalted. And I look downward because I am exalted.
Which of you can at the same time laugh and be exalted ?
He who strideth across the highest mountains laugheth at all tragedies whether of the stage or of life.
Brave, unconcerned, scornful, violent, thus wisdom would have us to be : she is a women and ever loveth the warrior only.
Ye say unto me : ' Life is hard to bear.' But for what purpose have ye got in the morning your pride and in the evening your submission ?
Life is hard to bear. But do not pretend to be so frail ! We are all good he-asses and she-asses of burden.
What have we in common with the rose-bud that trembleth because a drop of dew lieth on its body ?
It is true : we love life, not because we are accus- tomed to life, but because we are accustomed to love.
There is always a madness in love. There is how- ever also always a reason in madness.
And to my thinking as a lover of life, butterflies,
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