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The statue of humanity. The cultural genius acts like Cellini,12 when he made the cast of his statue of Perseus: the fluid mass threatened not to suffice, but it had to; so he threw in bowls and dishes and whatever else came into his hands. And in just the same way does the cultural genius throw in errors, vices, hopes, delusions, and other things of baser as well as nobler metal, for the statue of humanity must emerge and be finished. What does it matter if, here and there, an inferior material was used?

12. Benvenuto Cellini (1500-71), Italian sculptor.

Friedrich Nietzsche - Human, All Too Human
Section Five: Signs of Higher and Lower Culture - Aphorism # 258

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