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Full Idea
One can dispose of one's drives like a gardener and, though few know it, cultivate the shoots of anger, pity, curiosity, vanity as productively and profitably as a beautiful fruit tree on a trellis; one can do it with the good or bad taste of a gardener.
Gist of Idea
We can cultivate our drives, of anger, pity, curiosity, vanity, like a gardener, with good or bad taste
Source
Friedrich Nietzsche (Dawn (Daybreak) [1881], 560)
Book Ref
Nietzsche,Friedrich: 'Daybreak (Dawn)', ed/tr. Clark,M /Leiter,B [CUP 1997], p.561
A Reaction
This sort of existentialism I find very appealing. You take what you are given, the cards you are dealt, and try to make something nice out of it. This is quite different from the crazy freedom of later existentialists.
Related Ideas
Idea 20136 There is an extended logic to a great man's life, achieved by a sustained will [Nietzsche]
Idea 20275 Most people think they are already complete, but we can cultivate ourselves [Nietzsche]
| 19373 | A 'conatus' is an initial motion, experienced by us as desire or aversion [Hobbes, by Arthur,R] |
| 20307 | As far as possible, everything tries to persevere [Spinoza] |
| 21803 | The conatus (striving) of mind and body together is appetite, which is the essence of man [Spinoza] |
| 21869 | Our own force of persevering is nothing in comparison with external forces [Spinoza] |
| 13193 | Active force is not just potential for action, since it involves a real effort or striving [Leibniz] |
| 19364 | Volition automatically endeavours to move towards what it sees as good (and away from bad) [Leibniz] |
| 13183 | Primitive forces are internal strivings of substances, acting according to their internal laws [Leibniz] |
| 20355 | The ranking of a person's innermost drives reveals their true nature [Nietzsche] |
| 20131 | We can cultivate our drives, of anger, pity, curiosity, vanity, like a gardener, with good or bad taste [Nietzsche] |
| 23213 | The greatest drive of life is to discharge strength, rather than preservation [Nietzsche] |
| 21867 | Conatus is brain circuits seeking survival and well-being [Damasio] |
| 21866 | Hobbes and Spinoza use 'conatus' to denote all endeavour for advantage in nature [Lord] |