Re: Quoting Nietzsche is a perilous business

From: Eliezer S. Yudkowsky (sentience@pobox.com)
Date: Sat Jan 05 2002 - 22:27:57 MST


Jacques Du Pasquier wrote:
>
> Amara Graps wrote (5.1.2002/15:47) :
> > "If you gaze for long into the abyss, the abyss also gazes into
> > you." - -Nietzsche
>
> What do you think he meant ?
>
> Here's another quote from the same page of your quote :
>
> "When a woman has an interest for science, it is most often the sign
> that her sexuality is troubled." [my translation]
>
> Do you agree with that ? :-)

"The world's biggest fool can say the sun is shining, but that doesn't
make it dark out."
        -- Robert M. Pirsig, "Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance"

Corollary: If a philosopher says that it is daytime and that it is
raining, and it is actually nighttime, this does not prove that it is not
raining.

I close with some other quotes from famous individuals, which I have made
up out of thin air especially for this occasion.

"The square of the hypotenuse is equal to the sum of the squares of the
other two sides."
        -- Osama bin Laden, in geometry class

"Two plus two equals four."
        -- Adolf Hitler, in kindergarten

"Child abuse is wrong."
        -- Joseph Stalin, high school debating team

-- -- -- -- --
Eliezer S. Yudkowsky http://singinst.org/
Research Fellow, Singularity Institute for Artificial Intelligence



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