Full Idea
This beauty and sublimity of nature, before which every human being seems small, was first imposed on nature by us.
Gist of Idea
The sublimity of nature which dwarfs us was a human creation
Source
Friedrich Nietzsche (Unpublished Notebooks 1881-82 [1882], 12[38])
A Reaction
I was struck when I was 10 with how indifferent to a landscape I was, when my mother told me it was 'beautiful'. Five years later I saw it differently. I assume nature is not intrinsically sublime. Dwarfed by our own concept is a bit odd.
Book Reference
Nietzsche,Friedrich: 'The Joyful Science, and 1881-82 fragments (v 6)', ed/tr. Del Caro,Adrian [Stanford 2023], p.428