For hundreds of years, pleasure and pain have been represented as the
_motives_ for every action. Upon reflection, however, we are bound to
concede that everything would have proceeded in exactly the same way,
according to precisely the same sequence of cause and effect, if the
states "pleasure" and "pain" had been entirely absent. 8-9
The _measure_ of the desire for knowledge depends upon the extent to
which _the Will to Power_ grows in a certain species: a species gets a
grasp of a given amount of reality, _in order to master it, in order to
enlist that amount in its service._ 12
It is our needs that _interpret the world;_ our instincts and their
impulses for and against. Every instinct is a sort of thirst for
power.... 13
That a belief, however useful it may be for the preservation of a
species, has nothing to do with the truth, may be seen from the fact
that we _must_ believe in time, space, and motion, without feeling
ourselves compelled to regard them as absolute realities. 16
_Truth is that hind of error_ without which a certain species of living
being cannot exist. 20
In the formation of reason, logic, and the categories, it was a _need_
in us that was the determining power: not the need "to know," but
to classify, to schematise, for the purpose of intelligibility and
calculation. 29
Logic is the attempt on our part to understand the actual world
according to a scheme of Being devised by ourselves; or, more exactly,
it is our attempt at making the actual world more calculable and more
susceptible to formulation, for our own purposes.... 33
"Truth" is the will to be master over the manifold sensations that
reach consciousness; it is the will to _classify_ phenomena according
to definite categories. In this way we start out with a belief in the
"true nature" of things (we regard phenomena as real).
The character of the world in the process of Becoming _is not
susceptible of formulation;_ it is "false" and "contradicts itself."
_Knowledge_ and the process of evolution exclude each other.
_Consequently,_ knowledge must be something else; it must be preceded
by a will to make things knowable, a kind of Becoming in itself must
create the _impression_ of _Being._ 33-34.
_The chief error of psychologists:_ they regard the indistinct idea
as of a lower _kind_ than the _distinct;_ but that which keeps at a
distance from our consciousness and which is therefore _obscure, may_
on that very account be quite clear in itself. _The fact that a thing
becomes obscure is a question of the perspective of consciousness._ 42
The criterion of truth lies in the enhancement of the feeling of power.
49
Logic was intended to be a method of facilitating thought: _a means of
expression,_--not truth.... Later on it got to _act_ like truth.... 50
In a world which was essentially false, truthfulness would be an
_anti-natural tendency:_ its only purpose would be to provide a means
of attaining to a _higher degree of falsity._ 51
We have absolutely no experience concerning _cause;_ viewed
psychologically we derive the whole concept from the subjective
conviction, that _we_ ourselves are causes. 55
"Truth" is not something which is present and which has to be found and
discovered; it is something _which has to be created_ and which _gives_
its name _to a process,_ or, better still, to the Will to overpower,
which in itself has no purpose.... 60
The absolute is even an absurd concept: an "absolute mode of existence"
is nonsense, the concept "being," "thing," is always _relative_ to us.
The trouble is that, owing to the old antithesis "apparent" and "real,"
the correlative valuations "little value" and "absolute value" have
been spread abroad. 83
Man seeks "the truth": a world that does not contradict itself, that
does not deceive, that does not change, a _real_ world--a world in
which there is no suffering: contradiction, deception, variability--the
causes of suffering. He does not doubt that there is such a thing as a
world as it ought to be; he would fain find a road to it.... Obviously,
the will to truth is _merely_ the longing for a _stable world._
The senses deceive; reason corrects the errors: _therefore,_ it was
concluded, reason is the road to a static state; the most _spiritual_
ideas must be nearest to the "real world." 88
The degree of a man's will-power may be measured from the extent to
which he can dispense with the meaning in things, from the extent to
which he is able to endure a world without meaning: _because he himself
arranges a small portion of it._ 90
There is no such thing as an established fact, everything fluctuates,
everything is intangible, yielding; after all, the most lasting of all
things are our opinions. 103
That the _worth of the world_ lies in our interpretations (that perhaps
yet other interpretations are possible somewhere, besides mankind's);
that the interpretations made hitherto were perspective valuations,
by means of which we were able to survive in life, _i. e._ in the Will
to Power and in the growth of power; that every _elevation of man_
involves the overcoming of narrower interpretations; that every higher
degree of strength or power attained, brings new views in its train,
and teaches a belief in new horizons--these doctrines lie scattered
through all my works. 107
The triumphant concept _"energy"_ with which our physicists created God
and the world, needs yet to be completer: it must be given an inner
will which I characterise as the "Will to Power"--that is to say, as an
insatiable desire to manifest power; or the application and exercise of
power as a creative instinct, etc.... 110
The unalterable sequence of certain phenomena does not prove any "law,"
but a relation of power between two or more forces. 115
A quantum of power is characterised by the effect it produces and
the influence it resists. The adiaphoric state which would be
thinkable in itself, is entirely lacking. It is essentially a will to
violence and a will to defend one's self against violence. It is not
self-preservation: every atom exercises its influence over the whole of
existence--it is thought out of existence if one thinks this radiation
of will-power away. That is why I call it a quantum of "Will to Power."
... 117-118
My idea is that every specific body strives to become master of all
space, and to extend its power (its will to power), and to thrust
back everything that resists it. But inasmuch as it is continually
meeting the same endeavours on the part of other bodies, it concludes
by coming to terms with those (by "combining" with those) which are
sufficiently related to it--_and thus they conspire together for
power._ And the process continues. 121
The influence of "environment" is nonsensically _over-rated_ in Darwin:
the essential factor in the process of life is precisely the tremendous
inner power to shape and to create forms, which merely _uses, exploits_
"environment." 127
The _feeling of being surcharged,_ the feeling accompanying an
_increase in strength,_ quite apart from the utility of the struggle,
is the actual _progress:_ from these feelings the will to war is first
derived. 128
A living thing seeks above all to _discharge_ its strength:
_"self-preservation"_ is only one of the results thereof.... 128
The most fundamental and most primeval activity of a protoplasm cannot
be ascribed to a will to self-preservation, for it absorbs an amount
of material which is absurdly out of proportion with the needs of its
preservation: and what is more, it does _not_ "preserve itself" in the
process, but actually falls to _pieces ..._. The instinct which rules
here, must account for this total absence in the organism of a desire
to preserve itself.
The will to power can manifest itself only against _obstacles:_ it
therefore goes in search of what resists it--this is the primitive
tendency of the protoplasm when it extends its _pseudopodia_ and feels
about it. The act of appropriation and assimilation is, above all,
the result of an additional building and rebuilding, until at last
the subjected creature has become completely a part of the superior
creature's sphere of power, and has increased the latter.... 130
Why is all _activity,_ even that of a _sense,_ associated with
pleasure? Because, before the activity was possible, an obstacle or a
burden was done away with. Or, rather, because all action is a process
of overcoming, of becoming master of, and of _increasing_ the _feeling
of power?_ 135
Man is _not_ only an individual, but the continuation of collective
organic life in one definite line. The fact that _man_ survives,
proves that a certain species of interpretations (even though it still
be added to) has also survived; that, as a system, this method of
interpreting has not changed. 152
The fundamental phenomena: _innumerable individuals are sacrificed for
the sake of a few,_ in order to make the few possible.--One must not
allow one's self to be deceived; the case is the same with _peoples_
and _races:_ they produce the "body" for the generation of isolated and
valuable _individuals,_ who continue the great process. 153
Life is _not_ the continuous adjustment of internal relations to
external relations, but will to power, which, proceeding from inside,
subjugates and incorporates an ever-increasing quantity of "external"
phenomena. 153-154
Man as a species is not progressing. Higher specimens are indeed
attained; but they do not survive. The general level of the species is
not raised.... Man as a species does not represent any sort of progress
compared with any other animal. 157
The domestication (culture) of man does not sink very deep. When it
does sink far below the skin it immediately becomes degeneration (type:
the Christian). The "wild" man (or, in moral terminology, the _evil_
man) is a reversion to Nature--and, in a certain sense, he represents a
recovery, a _cure_ from the effects of "culture."... 158
The strong always have to be upheld against the weak; and the
well-constituted against the ill-constituted, the healthy against
the sick and physiologically botched. If we drew our morals from
reality, they would read thus: the mediocre are more valuable than the
exceptional creatures, and the decadent than the mediocre; the will to
nonentity prevails over the will to life.... 159
That species show an ascending tendency, is the most nonsensical
assertion that has ever been made: until now they have only manifested
a dead level. There is nothing whatever to prove that the higher
organisms have developed from the lower. 160
Man as he has appeared up to the present is the embryo of the man
of the future; _all_ the formative powers which are to produce the
latter, already lie in the former: and owing to the fact that they are
enormous, the more _promising for the future_ the modern individual
happens to be, the more _suffering_ falls to his lot. 161
The will to power is the primitive motive force out of which all other
motives have been derived. 162
From a psychological point of view the idea of "cause" is our feeling
of power in the act which is called willing--our concept "effect" is
the superstition that this feeling of power is itself the force which
moves things.... 163
Life as an individual case (a hypothesis which may be applied to
existence in general) strives after the maximum feeling of power; life
is essentially a striving after more power; striving itself is only a
straining after more power; the most fundamental and innermost thing
of all is this will. 165
Man does not seek happiness and does not avoid unhappiness. Everybody
knows the famous prejudices I here contradict. Pleasure and pain are
mere results, mere accompanying phenomena--that which every man, which
every tiny particle of a living organism will have, is an increase of
power. In striving after this, pleasure and pain are encountered; it is
owing to that will that the organism seeks opposition and requires that
which stands in its way.... Pain as the hindrance of its will to power
is therefore a normal feature, a natural ingredient of every organic
phenomenon; man does not avoid it; on the contrary, he is constantly
in need of it; every triumph, every feeling of pleasure, every event
presupposes an obstacle overcome. 172
Man is now master of the forces of nature, and master too of his own
wild and unbridled feelings (the passions have followed suit, and have
learned to become useful)--in comparison with primeval man, the man of
to-day represents an enormous quantum of power, but not an increase
in happiness. How can one maintain, then, that he has striven after
happiness? 174
"God" is the culminating moment: life is an eternal process of deifying
and undeifying. _But withal there is no zenith of values,_ but only a
zenith of _power._ 181
Man has one terrible and fundamental wish; he desires power, and this
impulse, which is called freedom, must be the longest restrained. Hence
ethics has instinctively aimed at such an education as shall restrain
the desire for power; thus our morality slanders the would-be tyrant,
and glorifies charity, patriotism, and the ambition of the herd. 186
When the instincts of a society ultimately make it give up war and
renounce conquest, it is decadent: it is ripe for democracy and the
rule of shopkeepers. 189
The maintenance of the military State is the last means of adhering to
the great tradition of the past; or, where it has been lost, to revive
it. By means of it the superior or strong type of man is preserved, and
all institutions and ideas which perpetuate enmity and order of rank in
States such as national feeling, protective tariffs, etc., may on that
account seem justified. 190
_Concerning the future of marriage._--A supertax on inherited property,
a longer term of military service for bachelors of a certain minimum
age within the community.
Privileges of all sorts for fathers who lavish boys upon the world, and
perhaps plural votes as well.
A medical certificate as a condition of any marriage, endorsed by the
parochial authorities, in which a series of questions addressed to the
parties and the medical officers must be answered ("family histories").
As a counter-agent to prostitution, or as its ennoblement, I would
recommend leasehold marriages (to last for a term of years or months),
with adequate provision for the children.
Every marriage to be warranted and sanctioned by a certain number of
good men and true, of the parish, as a parochial obligation. 193
Society ... should in many cases actually prevent the act of
procreation, and may, without any regard for rank, descent, or
intellect, hold in readiness the most rigorous forms of compulsion
and restriction, and, under certain circumstances, have recourse to
castration. 194
The idea of punishment ought to be reduced to the concept of the
suppression of revolt, a weapon against the vanquished (by means of
long or short terms of imprisonment). But punishment should not be
associated in any way with contempt. A criminal is at all events a man
who has set his life, his honour, his freedom at stake; he is therefore
a man of courage. Neither should punishment be regarded as penance or
retribution, as though there were some recognised rate of exchange
between crime and punishment. Punishment does not purify, simply
because crime does not sully. 198