151

Here we must invent new ideals.  We ought not to be permitted to come to a decision affecting our life while we are in the condition of being in love, nor to determine once and for all the character of the company we keep on the basis of a violent whim: the oaths of lovers ought to be publicly declared invalid and marriage denied them:  the reason being that one ought to take marriage enormously more seriously! so that in precisely those cases in which marriages have hitherto taken place they would henceforth usually not take place! Are most marriages not of a kind that one would prefer not to be witnessed by a third party? But this third party is almost always present  the child  and he is more than a witness, he is a scapegoat!

152

Form of oath.  'If I am now lying I am no longer a decent human being and anyone may tell me so to my face.'  I recommend this form of oath in place of the judicial oath with its customary invocation of God: it is stronger. Even the pious person has no reason to oppose it: for as soon as the sanction of the oath hitherto in use begins to be applied vainly, the pious person must give ear to his catechism, which prescribes 'thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain!'

153

A malcontent.  This is one of those old-style fighting men: he has no love of civilisation, because he thinks the object of civilisation is to make all the good things of life  honours, plunder, beautiful women  accessible also to cowards.

154

Consolation of the imperilled.  The Greeks, in a way of life in which great perils and upheavals were always present, sought in knowledge and reflection a kind of security and ultimate refugium⁶⁸. We, in an incomparably more secure condition, have transferred this perilousness into knowledge and reflection, and we recover from it, and calm ourselves down, with our way of life.

155

A scepticism become extinct.  Bold and daring undertakings are rarer in the modern age than they were in ancient times or in the Middle Ages  probably because the modern age no longer believes in omens, oracles, soothsayers or the stars. That is to say: we have become incapable of believing in a future determined for us, as did the ancients: who  in this quite different from us  were far less sceptical in regard to what was coming than they were in regard to what is.