For there to be art, for there to be any aesthetic activity and observation, one physiological prerequisite is indispensable: intoxication. [...] the intoxication of the will, the intoxication of an overloaded and swollen will. – What is essential in intoxication is the feeling of increased strength and fullness. This feeling leads us to donate to things, to make them take from us, to force ourselves on them – this process is called idealizing. Let’s get rid of a prejudice at this point: idealizing does not consist, as is commonly thought, in taking away or subtracting what is small and incidental. Instead, what is decisive is an immense drive to bring out the principal traits, so that the others disappear in the process.