"What an astonishing proposal, what a gift from the gods, this must have seemed to Nietzsche. He traveled to Rome and, on meeting Salome, bowed to her and said, 'From what stars have we fallen to meet here?' He was soon in love with her, and he proposed to her more than once - the final time through Ree, not knowing that Ree also was in love with her and also had a proposal rejected." Chapter Note, p. iv

"The above three paragraphs, which are meant only as a general guidepost, are of course a vast oversimplification. How, after all, can one synopsize Nietzsche? The nuggets of his thought are too many, too shining. His vision does not progress from A to B, but back and forth, up and down. He is not merely a logician, but a psychologist, a poet - most of all, a searcher...