Note 408 — Chapter V

‘A Greek life, to which he said, No.’ ‘A pessimist who not merely says, No, wishes No [!] but who ... does No’ [!!]. ‘An inward saying No to this or that thing.’ ‘Free for death, and free in death, a holy No-sayer.’ Then as a complementary counterpart: ‘Pregnant with lightnings, who say, Yes! laugh Yes!’ ‘While all noble morality grows to itself out of a triumphant saying Yea.’ (He feels himself to be something) ‘at least saying Yea to life.’ ‘To be able to say Yea to yourself, that is ... a ripe fruit.’ (Disinterested wickedness is felt by primitive humanity to be something) ‘to which conscience valiantly says Yea.’ We see what use Nietzsche makes of his saying ‘Nay’ and ‘Yea.’ It stands in the place of nearly all verbs joining subject with predicate. The thought ‘I am thirsty’ would, by Nietzsche, be thus expressed, ‘I say Yes to water.’ Instead of ‘I am sleepy,’ he would say, ‘I say Nay to wakefulness,’ or, ‘I say Yes to bed,’ etc. This is the way in which invalids in incomplete aphasia are in the habit of paraphrasing their thoughts.