Everything _essential_ in human development happened in pre-historic
times, long before those four thousand years which we know something
of.... 1, 15
Everything has evolved; there are _no eternal facts,_ as there are
likewise no absolute truths. 1, 15
It is probable that the objects of religious, moral, æsthetic and
logical sentiment likewise belong only to the surface of things, while
man willingly believes that here, at least, he has touched the heart of
the world.... 1, 17
Nothing could be said of the metaphysical world but that it would be
a different condition, a condition inaccessible and incomprehensible
to us; it would be a thing of negative qualities. Were the existence
of such a world ever so well proved, the fact would nevertheless
remain that it would be precisely the most irrelevant of all forms of
knowledge.... 1, 21-22
Belief in the freedom of the will is an original error of everything
organic, as old as the existence of the awakenings of logic in it; the
belief in unconditioned substances and similar things is equally a
primordial as well as an old error of everything organic. 1, 33
A degree of culture, and assuredly a very high one, is attained when
man rises above superstitious and religious notions and fears, and,
for instance, no longer believes in guardian angels or in original
sin, and has also ceased to talk of the salvation of his soul,--if he
has attained to this degree of freedom, he has still also to overcome
metaphysics with the greatest exertion of his intelligence. 1, 35
Away with those wearisomely hackneyed terms Optimism and Pessimism!...
We must get rid of both the calumniating and the glorifying conception
of the world. 1, 43-44
_Error_ has made man so deep, sensitive, and inventive that he has put
forth such blossoms as religions and arts. Pure knowledge could not
have been capable of it. 1, 44-45
The usual false conclusions of mankind are these: a thing exists,
therefore it has a right to exist. Here there is inference from the
ability to live to its suitability; from its suitability to its
rightfulness. Then: an opinion brings happiness; therefore it is the
true opinion. Its effect is good; therefore it is itself good and true.
1, 45
Every belief in the value and worthiness of life is based on vitiated
thought; it is only possible through the fact that sympathy for the
general life and suffering of mankind is very weakly developed in the
individual. 1, 47-48
Science ... has no consideration for ultimate purposes, any more than
Nature has, but just as the latter occasionally achieves things of the
greatest suitableness without intending to do so, so also true science,
as the _imitator of nature in ideas,_ will occasionally and in many
ways further the usefulness and welfare of man,--_but also without
intending to do so._ 1, 58
All single actions are called good or bad without any regard to their
motives, but only on account of the useful or injurious consequences
which result for the community. But soon the origin of these
distinctions is forgotten, and it is deemed that the qualities "good"
or "bad" are contained in the action itself without regard to its
consequences.... 1, 59
The hierarchy of possessions ... is not fixed and equal at all times;
if any one prefers vengeance to justice he is moral according to the
standard of an earlier civilisation, but immoral according to the
present one. 1, 63
People who are cruel nowadays must be accounted for by us as the grades
of earlier civilisations which have survived.... 1, 63
Certainly we should _exhibit_ pity, but take good care not to _feel_
it, for the unfortunate are so _stupid_ that to them the exhibition of
pity is the greatest good in the world. 1, 68