Another Quote

It's not that I was purposefully reading Nietzsche, but this afternoon happened to cross paths with The Use and Abuse of History and it had this quote that relates to my life lately:

Consider the herds that are grazing yonder: they know not the meaning of yesterday or today; they graze and ruminate, move or rest, from morning to night, from day to day, take up with their little loves and hates and the mercy of the moment, feeling neither melancholy nor satiety. Man cannot see them without regret, for even in the pride of his humanity he looks enviously on the beast’s happiness. He wishes simply to live without satiety or pain, like the beast; yet it is all in vain, for he will not change places with it. He may ask of the beast—“Why do you look at me and not speak to me of your happiness?” The beast wants to answer—“Because I always forget what I wished to say”; but he forgets this answer, too, and is silent; and the man is left to wonder.

P.S. Sorry I forgot the translator, but it's the library edition, not the online one. The translations are similar but very different too (this text is alternately known as On the Use and Abuse of History for Life), it was an interesting exercise to compare the different available ones. These texts are uber-translated, I went with the 1950s one because it used "ruminate" to my delight.

P.P.S. "Satiety": the revulsion or disgust caused by overindulgence or excess. I looked that one up, so thought I'd share the results of my research : )