Friedrich_Nietzsche - Untimely_Meditations_(Cambridge_Texts_in_the_History_of_Philosophy__1997)

Untimely Meditationssure, since they all imitate him and his defects then seem disproportionatelygreat and exaggerated because they appear in such tinyindividuals, while it is the opposite with his virtues, which are proportionatelydiminished when these same individuals display them.- Seventh, routine continuation along the path on to which thescholar has been pushed, a conception of truth determined byunthinking subjection to an acquired habit. Such natures are collectors,explainers, compilers of indices and herbariums; they studyand prowl around a single domain simply because it never occurs tothem that other domains exist. Their industriousness possessessomething of the tremendous stupidity of the force of gravity: whichis why they often achieve a great deal. - Eighth, flight from boredom.While the genuine thinker longs for nothing more than he longs forleisure, the ordinary scholar flees from it because he does not knowwhat to do with it. His consolation lies in books: that is to say, he listensto what someone else thinks, and in this way he lets himself be entertainedthroughout the long day. He chooses especially books whichin some way or other excite his persojal sympathies, which permithim, through the arousal oflike or dislike, to feel some emotion: thatis to say, books in which he himself, or his class, his political oraesthetic or even merely grammatical dogmas, are the subject of discussion;and if there is a field of study in which he specializes henever lacks means of entertainment or fly-swatters against boredom.Ninth, the motive of breadwinning, that is to say at bottom thecelebrated 'borborygm of an empty stomach'. Truth is served whenit is in a position directly to procure salaries and advancement, or atleast to win the favour of those who have bread and honours to distribute.But it is only this truth which is served: which is why a frontiercan be drawn between the profitable truths served by many and theunprofitable truths: only a very fewprinciple ingenii largitor venter*those who do not act on theare devotees of the latter. - Tenth,recognition by fellow scholars, fear of lacking their recognition; ararer and higher motive than the previous one, yet still very common.All the members of the guild keep a very jealous watch on oneanother, so that the truth upon which so much - bread, office, honours- depends shall be baptized with the name ofits real discoverer. Onegives punctual recognition to the discoverer of a truth, so that onecan demand it in return if one should happen to discover a truthoneself. Untruth, error, is resoundingly exploded, so that the number"ingenii largitor venter: "the stomach is the squanderer of talent", from the prologueto the Satires of Persius.172