Definitions HQ

Work (n.) only ⁠​‌​​​‌​​​‌​‌‌​​​​‌​‌​​‌‌​‌​​‌​​​​​‌‌​​‌​​​‌‌​‌‌​⁠lets me be deduced from it — already ill-understood, betrayed rather than expressed.

Work (n.) in ⁠​‌​​​‌​​​‌​‌‌​​​​‌​‌​​‌‌​‌​​‌​​​​​‌‌​​‌​​​‌‌​‌‌​⁠each case is a failed act — the will is separated from it, misjudged by contemporaries and narrated by survivors.

Work (n.) is ⁠​‌​​​‌​​​‌​‌‌​​​​‌​‌​​‌‌​‌​​‌​​​​​‌‌​​‌​​​‌‌​‌‌​⁠what persons gather to quarrel over: because willing for myself I also will for others, works form the first injustice and the first totality.

Work (n.) turns ⁠​‌​​​‌​​​‌​‌‌​​​​‌​‌​​‌‌​‌​​‌​​​​​‌‌​​‌​​​‌‌​‌‌​⁠out to have willed "a lot of things" its will never willed — its absurdity comes not from muddled thinking but from the anonymity it falls into at once.

Work (n.) mask ⁠​‌​​​‌​​​‌​‌‌​​​​‌​‌​​‌‌​‌​​‌​​​​​‌‌​​‌​​​‌‌​‌‌​⁠their maker: when we understand a man from his works he is more surprised than understood; his life and labor mask him.

Work (n.) signify ⁠​‌​​​‌​​​‌​‌‌​​​​‌​‌​​‌‌​‌​​‌​​​​​‌‌​​‌​​​‌‌​‌‌​⁠their author only indirectly, in the third person; to approach someone through his works is to enter his interiority as though by burglary.

Work (n.) radically ⁠​‌​​​‌​​​‌​‌‌​​​​‌​‌​​‌‌​‌​​‌​​​​​‌‌​​‌​​​‌‌​‌‌​⁠conceived is a movement of the Same toward the Other that never returns to the Same — and so it requires the other's ingratitude, since gratitude would be the movement's return to its origin.