On the mountains of truth you can never climb in vain: either you will reach a point higher up today, or you w... — Friedrich Nietzsche

On the mountains of truth you can never climb in vain: either you will reach a point higher up today, or you will be training your powers so that you will be able to climb higher tomorrow.

Author: Friedrich Nietzsche

Insight: There's a sneaky comfort in this idea, especially when you're stuck. You might be wrestling with a difficult book, a skill that won't click, or a persistent problem at work. Nothing seems to be working. But Nietzsche's point cuts through that frustration: even "failed" attempts count. They're not wasted effort—they're actually building your capacity for the next attempt. This matters today because we live in a results-obsessed culture that treats every effort as either a win or a loss. But the truth is messier and more forgiving than that. The person who struggles through calculus homework and doesn't quite get it is still strengthening their problem-solving muscles. The writer who fills three notebooks with bad ideas is developing judgment and instinct. These aren't consolation prizes—they're the actual mechanism of growth. The slightly radical part: this reframes what we call "failure" entirely. You're not climbing and falling back down. You're climbing and settling at a slightly higher camp each time, even when it doesn't feel that way. Some days the progress is invisible, but it's happening in the background. That's not motivational fluff—it's how learning actually works.

Source: Thus Spoke Zarathustra, Part 3, 'Of Old and New Tablets,' 1885