Knew some of you would appreciate thia. Enjoy.

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Editor’s note: I couldn’t find a non downloadable link to the Walter Kaufmann translation of Nietzsche’s “Why I Am So Wise” anywhere online, which is weird given that Nietzsche’s most well known quote belongs to this text. To my knowledge, this is the only digital reprint available online. I had to type it out myself, word for word. Enjoy.

“An all too long series of years signifies recovery for me; sadly, it also signifies relapse, breakdown, periods of decadence. After this, need I say that I am experienced in questions of decadence? I have spelled them forward and backward. Even that little art of apprehension and comprehension in general, those fingers for nuances, that psychology of “looking around the corner,” and whatever else is characteristic of me, was learned only then, and is the specific gift of that period during which everything in me became subtler–observation itself, as well as all organs of observation. Seeing from the standpoint of the sick toward healthier concepts and values and, conversely, looking again from the fullness and self assurance of a rich life down into the secret work of the instinct of decadence–in this I have had the longest training, my truest experience; if in anything, I became master in this.

Full text.