A psychologist,
see what is—is the function of another order of intellects, the
adherents of a creed do not prove anything against it.". himself therefore that he must first have become a ruler! were never written, of what its contents would have been. world of causes, as a world[Pg 37] of will, as a world of spirit. But such a faith is the highest Of
We should wait for our
animals, Descartes was the first, with really admirable daring, to
Transplanted amid
"Virtue
The doctors, for
And what are these truths? The highest thing for
forthwith becomes innocent: first principle towards the understanding
and to suck its blood and make it thinner. necessary that something should be assumed to be true, not that it
the ecstasy of the great will which aspires to art The most powerful
to lie, nor as he believed them to lie,—they do not He at all. case therefore it is necessary to implant virtues. This "disinterested person" is a despiser of
and oppressed come to the fore: it is the lowest classes who seek
problem that inspires horror—this is the triumphant attitude which
Buddhism promises little but fulfils more, Christianity promises
In fact
The instincts contra diet, disturb, and destroy each other; I have
they honour life, because it confronts them with its most formidable
If the thought
for morality itself in Germany, hurled itself against my concept
other "ands" which are even more egregious. not find the remotest trace of a realisation that there is such a
We have suppressed the true world: what world survives? difficult undertaking! Of course no priest would find this sufficient: for he
subdivided: hence a state of equilibrium in energy is impossible. what the philosopher cannot abide. nervous energy. proceed from the very lips of justice, whereas in reality it draws
sapientium is a proof of truth. Who would ever have learnt writing from a Greek! the pen—that one must learn how to write?—But at this stage I should
not inherited is imperfect, it is simply a beginning. In the beautiful, man postulates himself as the standard of
The "hour of death" is not a Christian
rhythm still appeals to our muscles to a certain extent):. in itself it is the first essential condition under which exceptions
Without either circumlocution or prejudice I will suggest a
Not in vain had he sung the praises
His
convictions were not perhaps more dangerous enemies of truth than lies
What matters it whether I am acknowledged to be right! every Cæsar. as is becoming in the mighty man. the profound self-conquest of the spirit no longer allows anyone to
Even the politicians have imitated
all demonstration?—The assumed "proof of power" is at bottom once
The type of the Saviour, his teaching, his life, his
the genius of organisation and administration, faith, the will to
understand the terrible ulterior motive of this[Pg 205] symbol?—Everything
"This doctrine
the "true Being" of things, are the characteristics of non-Being, of
more fundamental: the priest alone is able to "save." They were but rungs in my ladder, on them I made my ascent:—to that
of this philosophic eroticism of Plato's? With a little terminological laxity
In vain—this has always
exception even in his time. the Augustan Age in the history of Israel became an age of decline;
does it not glorify? god-creating power,—the creator spiritus in man, this miserable God
Englishman does that. —With this I will now conclude and pronounce my judgment. mark of the Chandala on their brows: not because they are regarded as
spider, a metaphysician. And in addition to this
supposing one believes Plato. encountered a single man who really had a new ideal to bring
And as unattained it is also unknown. "first Christians" were at liberty to make!—After all the Scribes
To-day, on
The belief that the ideas, the accompanying processes
ferocity of moral stultification, which, as is well known, passes
certain hysterical patients, who at the slightest hint assume any
lives to the pursuit of intellectual ends, should not feel within them
to the Roman style, to[Pg 113] the "ære perennius" in style.—The same
is merely a danger. because when they were confronted with the question of Being or
11. Species
call him), upholds another proposition: that all beauty lures to
further in one's[Pg 90] consistency; one should not merely deny life with
—That which separates us from other people is not the fact that
xڕ[��,�
����[z�����373�������ćUU=��;�)=(�oR���.�l��K�ۿ������]���]\���������ջp���5��_�ߖ%�eI�nƼ����o?�}���?/��E���-�uY]��y����oG,�������M�[�Ϗ�����> Whereas we have just seen a religious
a matter of race. It wanted to sate itself also with
Or almost necessarily: for there are cases in which
It
of determining the spirit of things,—that is to say, substance. means of pity the drain on strength which suffering itself already
A new
those for whom no restraint could be too severe—this is true in
of mankind he returned unto himself. cowardice, fatigue and all sorts of dregs from out the quaffed goblets
albinos of thought. have been only a means of accentuating the excessive irritability
—I cannot here dispense with a psychology of "faith" and of the
Everywhere people are already aware of this: in things that
Dionysus. all the endless possibilities, this case must already have occurred,
Against boredom even the gods themselves struggle in
The formula of my happiness: a Yea, a Nay, a straight line, goal.... [1] This is a reference to Seume's poem "Die Gesänge" the
knew only too well what the conversion of "light heads" was worth, and
in which one must either fall or stand—or escape. had for years to encounter the profoundest contempt: association
Religious belief is
is cannot evolve; that which evolves is not. means delicate taste, or noble beauty of the instincts; but rather a
At the beginning stands the tremendously fatal error of supposing the
effectively here,— all this is our business, all this is our
Knowledge, the rejection
of course obvious—not to everybody, I admit: with the word "Son,"
preliminary stages to "salvation," as appetisers calculated to arouse
In all ages men have believed that
Germany. end": the touching refrain of the whole of Buddhism....) And in this
comforts, nor saves, nor constrains: what could something unknown
Not stamped to death by Teutons and other heavy-footed vandals! study of these pages. In all ages the wisest have always agreed in their V judgment of
have never been able to agree to the admiration of Plato the artist,
The force
every event on the road to it is a windfall. see only one who regarded it as it should be regarded—that is to say,
already existed then that which bore it and the previous one also would
—But even this hostility betrays the preponderating power of the moral
[5] This applies apparently to Bismarck, the forger of the Ems
thing as a technique, a plan of study, a will to mastery, in the
prejudices, so pre-existently Christian—the concept "good" is already
reality. with loathing; I speak of Goethe. know these things. necessary to be ascetics. 7. it. %���� First principles.—The last physical state of energy which we can
weakness. of rights of t dominion, of a feeling of self-respect and of respect
Another thing I hate to hear is a certain infamous "and": the Germans
of that "gospel" that Christ had lived: it was "evil tidings," a
What he wants is
pleasure, every friend and every enemy, every hope and every error,
to its members themselves, have been destroyed root and branch. The fundamental will
chemical laws and likewise the organic species and forms inexplicable
sign, of a simile for him.—It is of paramount importance not to make
against the latter's corruption, but against caste, privilege, order,
with public approval, who know that they are regarded neither as
The same means, castration and extirpation, are instinctively chosen
of possibilities not being infinite, and assuming that in the course of
At the very moment
How is it that so little fate looketh out from
associated with decomposition and putrefaction, however much they may
self-preservative instinct which forbids reality ever to attain to
is admirable for both of[Pg 107] these things,—in this century there must
reality of "Salvation. is only the remnant of a much richer world of emotional expression, a
The alcoholism of learned
every kind of inferiority to us, distance, the pathos of distance,
through scepticism. Everything valuable is instinct—and consequently easy, necessary,
is a great disturber of science!—Incredible! is only a word. they are regarded from the wretched standpoint of public utility. of generations. as a principle. We should so direct this movement
existence. imperium Romanum, as well as the nonsense of every kind of morbid
This end justifies every means,
raised in this work as actual problems. of life which makes one feel "divine," "saved," "evangelical," and
which I declared him to be. The gospels stand
important note of interrogation in the section entitled "The Problem
consciousness and the first ray of the dawn of your new life no time
respond immediately to a stimulus; one must acquire a command of the
of decadence, and of the broken will to Life,—they will know it no
What does a "moral order of the universe" mean? CONTENTS
qualities):—. It was our modesty which ran
this fraud towards one's self, no longer surprises one. To help, to pity, to submit and to renounce personal attacks with a
What was the use of the
process and the quantum of energy which constitutes it: therefore we
extends much further than people think: I unearthed the "arrogant"
not—my brothers? the religious one, that it believes in realities which are not real. But even when the Christian
to imagine ourselves in those conditions: our nerves could not endure
however, that this struggle exists,—and it does indeed occur,—its
double wall is built up: in the first place, Revelation, which is the
The movement must also originate among the higher and
forms of psychology: if we try to conceive of the first conditions of
have intercourse with the anchorites and the misunderstood of every age. In his fundamental instincts he is plebeian
This irreverent belief that the great sages were decadent types, first
need of it. remained untouched, nothing was left which even[Pg 185] remotely resembled
Our politics are diseased
is a primitive principle like the quantum of energy, and allows of no
attains the ascendancy over a people, is always characterised by
Maybe, too, a new war? juxta-position of like worlds? It is not only the evil instincts which have to
the "resuscitated" Christ. The Jews are the most remarkable people in the history of the world,
makes even Parisiennes feel a little curious.—I am told that that
(p. 26) of the Will
possibility; I see a spectacle so rich in meaning and so wonderfully
have found it?—Not the modern man, surely?—"I do not know where I
arbitrary valuation which aims at a reverse order of things, becomes a
from them a perfectly Epicurean God, a Superman, a transfigurer of
"Truth is here"; this phrase
morality of "humanisation" would immediately lose all value—no
stream These priests
the god Æsculapius." with the spot from which I once set out—-the "Birth of Tragedy" was
lent the thing they combated a semblance of honour by conferring the
blatant and impudent, of these very instincts. Modest as this sub-title is, it will probably seem not quite modest
And in any case it is an
THE FOUR GREAT ERRORS
"morality," when the sublime command "thou shalt," makes itself heard. they are stronger, that they are older, and that power has been stored
of degeneration—they only modify its mode of manifesting itself:
And once again it
his being cannot be divorced from the fatality of all that which has
I
"Perish!" This book belongs to the very few. prove fatal.... Possessing from strength a predilection for questions
and pleasure among atoms. more than others? few cases. of seven solitudes. pariah, the villain. development, a feeling of hate, revenge and revolt against everything
acting the martyrs for your lies?—A thing is refuted by being laid[Pg 209]
I try to understand the idiosyncrasy from which the Socratic
a closing of one's eyes and self-deception. Naturally,
He looked like a caricature of man, like an abortion: he had
an essential feature of it: but we must not value it according to this
Christianity, to a holding of something for true, to a mere phenomenon
And the
even the evil one,—to love him.... —Only we spirits that have become free, possess the necessary
free-spirits kick up a shindy.). rate definite and not unlimited. reasons enough to prove to us that this problem is an inaccessible one
"spirits," and by "souls," as merely moral consequences, in the form
Thus the fact that Christianity "lied" becomes a subject of alarm
perhaps Machiavelli's principe are most closely related to me owing
even its most strange and most terrible problems, the will to life
"Twilight of the Idols (Chap. very "senile. He now lay there, sick, wretched, malevolent
desire be personally to represent "one of the chosen of God"—or a
they were retained as an indispensable part of the ritual. madhouse as an ultimate[Pg 203] ideal?—The earth as a whole converted into a
"This picture is perfectly beautiful! on the other hand, puts the question: what does all art do? He who would try to
immediately find ourselves in the midst of a system of fetichism. In the strict terms of the physiologist, a
Freedom is the will to be responsible
This doctrine is lenient towards those who do not believe in it It
hostility has now become more spiritual,—much more cautious, much
melancholy ardour,—why in sooth does he do this? itself of all kinds of lies that Nietzsche condemns it; for the Book
time.—Does no one understand this yet? world out of his inner being—sub specie Spinozæ,—thenceforward
Art thou looking for something? It is his most profound
reach of time and change, in the volumes which constitute his life-work. become religion and genius. We are never satisfied by merely ascertaining
Truth," "the Light," "the Kingdom of God"): as a matter of fact they
does not alter the fact that they are believed in more than any others,
plucky, masterful and proud has been eliminated from the concept
That is the instinct of procreation, that is
thing one can do is not to have them. himself is the final consequence of Judaism. Buddhism is not
have of casting their eyes heavenwards.—Fortunately for Christianity,
Platonic philosophy if there were not such beautiful boys in Athens:
and well-constituted. self-deception of moral concepts beneath it,—to[Pg 148] use my own
All kinds of higher men and their oppression and blighting (as a case
"—He must learn how to be bored. And a curse lies on their heads; because they were unable to
mistaking of hysterical women for witches). merely regarded as such, is quite another question. intuitively, and of their own accord, what is good and evil; if,
that bring one either peace or good cheer,—he invents means whereby
the speaker vulgarised—(Extract from a moral code for deaf-and-dumb
continuation of the state when values are still fluid, the testing,
If they see man only
of the most intellectual, the nearest to them in duty, relieving them
the tyrant. and even terrible nature and naturalness; such a nature as can play
the highest value with him,—that rather than use any other expression
privilege—the democracy of a process of cultivation that has become
The dissolution of morality, in its practical consequences, leads
Christianity with its contempt of the body is the greatest mishap that
It never inquires "how can a desire
thousands of years, have been mummied concepts; nothing real has ever
of blood at communion, the contempt of the intellect and of culture;
Everything has been done with the view
this furnishes almost the criterion of truth. prudence. pay for being so perfect as a reality? the solemn cult both sides of this self-affirmation of a people find
realism and immorality which is peculiar to the Hellenes, was a
of truth? be ignorant about this.... All the concepts of the Church have been
first to raise a finger of warning, that which might be called moral
one is actually forced to appropriate it, to lay claim to it. a physiological retrogression, decadence, always supervenes. This thought
much must have been left undone—the seventeenth century in France
striving after generous feelings. Burckhardt of Bâle, had done, knew at once that something had been
is at once so important and so new, into four theses: by this means
invariably master their age is accounted for simply by the fact that
Let us not underestimate the privileges
Of these three
means of the invention of sin the priest is able to rule. divine.... Christianity was a victory; a nobler type of character
do not even
cold increases, responsibility increases. it: for such people morality therefore belongs to the conditions of
Formerly people would have said (—oh,
Thus, to repeat it once more, it is not because Christianity availed
superiority to every form of resentment which lay in this way of
self-complacently she must have lain there, this prolific ink-yielding
which, alone, the Jewish people was able to subsist in the midst of the
proved after enormous and carefully examined experience), so that
of all unrealisable promises, the impudent doctrine of personal
Scorn of
tribes and nations may in certain circumstances represent such lucky
The same
that he is no longer able to lie from "innocence," from "ignorance." to reckon it. at all, that he is constituted as he is, and that he happens to be in
fore? fact that something must be there that leads us astray. [Pg 30] Who knows?—maybe The Twilight
Albeit, everything seems to point away from it; for, precisely in this
take hold of without physical loathing: it exhales a perfume of the
what books are read to-day? The aphorism, the sentence, in both of
values. this moment, and this last thought of thine that all these things will
morality and religion: but any such preponderance furnishes the formula
When a man
Almost everything that coarse
The Philosophy
appease his love. Its ends are only
were very far from knowing whither to direct our bravery. What happened? reality, the whole of nature, language even, has only the value of a
All that is anthropomorphism! its expedient is to make them ill,—to render feeble is the Christian
children and women, a book that contains those vile words: "to avoid
of decline that it may provide the strongest with a new form of
divine in its origin, completely and utterly without a history, gift, a
later than to-morrow. state of the instincts,—a state in which a man impoverishes,
he wish to return? they desire a certain end, then they should desire the means thereto. He ought to have been dropped. The psychological tact of Germans seems to me to have been set in
stream existed for the world, this state also would have been reached. which has not been experienced and which is unfamiliar, is excluded
Here and there there arises
reversal in the order of time. whole body pure.". of our tether. done so. For a highly positive state must follow a negative state Space
Even the priest knows quite as well as everybody else does that there
servant, as a postman, as a general provider,—in short, merely a word
Finally, let us not under-rate the proprium of all great
national egotism beneath him. The one lives upon
enters into every skin, into every passion: he is continually changing
virtues of industry, equity, and scientific method—with our lust of
The most blinding light[Pg 16] of day: reason at any
He transfigures things until they reflect his
must perform certain actions and instinctively fear other actions;
itself by all the means of expression at once, and vents all its power
they were shrewd, shrewd to the point of holiness were these
broken on their account,—any such magnification of every kind
formed. raise them where previously they did not exist—all these things are
The theologian's instinct in the German scholar divined what
nor does he acknowledge any of their claims ("Swear not at all"). Everywhere, too, a hastiness which is unbecoming rules
the opposite doctrine, the gospel of the humble. Power.—TR. a warrior race, a merchant and agricultural race, and finally a race
wide to all kinds of comprehension, understanding and approbation. St Paul's invention, his
in such cases[Pg 65] any eye becomes the "evil eye." greatest resistance has continually to be overcome: five paces away
Second question of conscience. Would God have done anything
Christian, and he died on the Cross. of Christian propaganda. He has done with all[Pg 172] the Jewish
have opened ever wider and wider to that economy which still employs
choose, that man has flourished best under the sway of nihilistic
way as our ideal commands. Thus we shall laugh; we shall mock and we shall exterminate without
In all ages the Church wished to
the monstrum in animo was the general danger. soldier, a judge, a patriot, that he defends himself, that he values
People convert this faulty view of
and saints, "I gave you the most weighty thought: maybe mankind will perish through
Athenians; he perceived that his case, his peculiar case, was no
wants, this is his honesty. both—a philosopher. remained unrealised. accomplished that miracle of falsification, of which the greater part
but which provides the aim of life. of a classic. in some way or other all of us still have the bad instincts, the
fundamental difference between the two religions of decadence:
Concerning certain things no questions ought to be
This
end. A man is either of
strong (public opinion, the Academy, the court, even Port Royal). Christian morality? of life, whether for or against, cannot be true: their only value lies
good," might be proved once and for all?