The Idea (n.) is a mask that always hides something. It is able to attain this degree of transformational power over the body only if it is couched in a linguistic form of great beauty and pithiness.
The Idea (n.) is less capable of reaching men's ears and hearts than music, for any seedling of a doctrine, to become a tree, has to be believed for a long while as irrefutable, and only music is capable of seducing men to every error and every truth in such a way.
Idea (n.) we treat as persons: we fight the autocratic ones, nurse the weak ones, arrange marriages between judgements, crown one king and later hurl it from the throne — so much for a 'drive to knowledge in itself'.
Idea (n.) hold men far more than their most beloved beloved — which is why they die for state, church and God.
An Idea (n.) rises cold and engenders its heat only gradually: it is hottest, most influential, when belief in it is already declining.
An Idea (n.) struggles with other ideas not for existence but for dominion: the overcome idea is not annihilated, only driven back — there is no annihilation in the sphere of spirit.
An Idea (n.) that is overcome is not annihilated but driven back or subordinated: ideas struggle not for existence but for mastery, and in the mind there is no annihilation.