Careful meditation upon the past leads to the impression that we are a
multiplication of many pasts . so how can we be a final aim? But why
not? In most instances, however, we do not wish to be this. We take up
our positions again in the ranks, work in our own little corner, and
hope that what we do may be of some small profit to our successors. But
that is exactly the case of the cask of the Danae . and this is useless,
we must again set about doing everything for ourselves, and only for
ourselves--measuring science by ourselves, for example with the question
. What is science to us? not . what are we to science? People really
make life too easy for themselves when they look upon themselves from
such a simple historical point of view, and make humble servants of
themselves. "Your own salvation above everything"--that is what you
should say; and there are no institutions which you should prize more
highly than your own soul.--Now, however, man learns to know himself: he
finds himself miserable, despises himself, and is pleased to find
something worthy of respect outside himself. Therefore he gets rid of
himself, so to speak, makes himself subservient to a cause, does his
duty strictly, and atones for his existence. He knows that he does not
work for himself alone; he wishes to help those who are daring enough to
exist on account of themselves, like Socrates. The majority of men are
as it were suspended in the air like toy balloons; every breath of wind
moves them.--As a consequence the savant must be such out of
self-knowledge, that is to say, out of contempt for himself--in other
words he must recognise himself to be merely the servant of some higher
being who comes after him. Otherwise he is simply a sheep.

-- Friedrich Nietzsche