To give style to one’s character!

"Nietzsche thinks of self-mastery as a kind of art. He says, “Only one thing is needful; to give style to one’s character — a great and rare art!” In a sense, when you strive to be an individual, you are at the same time the artist and the mound of clay. You fashion yourself into a sculpture. You look at the desires that compose you (the clay) and decide what goal or aim you want to posit for your life (what shape you want this clay to take on). This self-formation requires choice. You have to decide that the clay should take on some particular shape as opposed to some other. The self-as-artist then imposes upon his desires a sense of style by making them conform to that self-chosen shape. Of course, by style Nietzsche doesn’t mean the imposition of some contemporary style or fad, but a notion of style as expressive of one’s individual creative and aesthetic nature."