his _own_ ideal and derive from it his laws, his pleasures and his
rights--_that_ has perhaps been hitherto regarded as the most monstrous
of all human aberrations, and as idolatry in itself; in fact, the
few who have ventured to do this have always needed to apologise to
themselves, usually in this wise: "Not I! not I! but _a God,_ through
my instrumentality!" It was in the marvellous art and capacity for
creating Gods--in polytheism--that this impulse was permitted to
discharge itself, it was here that it became purified, perfected, and
ennobled; for it was originally a commonplace and unimportant impulse,
akin to stubbornness, disobedience and envy. To be _hostile_ to this
impulse towards the individual ideal,--that was formerly the law of
every morality. There was then only one norm, "the man"--and every
people believed that it _had_ this one and ultimate norm. But above
himself, and outside of himself, in a distant over-world, a person
could see a _multitude of norms:_ the one God was not the denial
or blasphemy of the other Gods! It was here that individuals were
first permitted, it was here that the right of individuals was first
respected. The inventing of Gods, heroes, and supermen of all kinds,
as well as co-ordinate men and undermen--dwarfs, fairies, centaurs,
satyrs, demons, devils--was the inestimable preliminary to the
justification of the selfishness and sovereignty of the individual: the
freedom which was granted to one God in respect to other Gods, was at
last given to the individual himself in respect to laws, customs and
neighbours. Monotheism, on the contrary, the rigid consequence of the
doctrine of one normal human being--consequently the belief in a normal
God, beside whom there are only false, spurious Gods--has perhaps been
the greatest danger of mankind in the past: man was then threatened
by that premature state of inertia, which, so far as we can see, most
of the other species of animals reached long ago, as creatures who
all believed in one normal animal and ideal in their species, and
definitely translated their morality of custom into flesh and blood. In
polytheism man's free-thinking and many-sided thinking had a prototype
set up: the power to create for himself new and individual eyes, always
newer and more individualised: so that these are no _eternal_ horizons
and perspectives.
[1] This means that true love does not look for reciprocity.
144.
_Religious Wars._--The greatest advance of the masses hitherto has
been religious war, for it proves that the masses have begun to deal
reverently with conceptions of things. Religious wars only result
when human reason generally has been refined by the subtle disputes
of sects; so that even the populace becomes punctilious and regards
trifles as important, actually thinking it possible that the "eternal
salvation of the soul" may depend upon minute distinctions of concepts.
145.
_Danger of Vegetarians._--The immense prevalence of rice-eating impels
to the use of opium and narcotics, in like manner as the immense
prevalence of potato-eating impels to the use of brandy:--it also
impels, however, in its more subtle after-effects to modes of thought
and feeling which operate narcotically. This is in accord with the fact
that those who promote narcotic modes of thought and feeling, like
those Indian teachers, praise a purely vegetable diet, and would like
to make it a law for the masses: they want thereby to call forth and
augment the need which _they_ are in a position to satisfy.
146.
_German Hopes.--_Do not let us forget that the names of peoples are
generally names of reproach. The Tartars, for example, according to
their name, are "the dogs"; they were so christened by the Chinese.
_"Deutschen"_ (Germans) means originally "heathen": it is thus that the
Goths after their conversion named the great mass of their unbaptized
fellow-tribes, according to the indication in their translation of
the Septuagint, in which the heathen are designated by the word which
in Greek signifies "the nations." (See Ulfilas.)--It might still be
possible for the Germans to make an honourable name ultimately out
of their old name of reproach, by becoming the first _non-Christian_
nation of Europe; for which purpose Schopenhauer, to their honour,
regarded them as highly qualified. The work of _Luther_ would thus be
consummated,--he who taught them to be anti-Roman, and to say: "Here
_I_ stand! _I_ cannot do otherwise!"--
147.
_Question and Answer._--What do savage tribes at present accept
first of all from Europeans? Brandy and Christianity, the European
narcotics.--And by what means are they fastest ruined?--By the European
narcotics.
148.
_Where Reformations Originate._--At the time of the great corruption
of the church it was least of all corrupt in Germany: it was on
that account that the Reformation originated _here,_ as a sign that
even the beginnings of corruption were felt to be unendurable. For,
comparatively speaking, no people was ever more Christian than the
Germans at the time of Luther; their Christian culture was just about
to burst into bloom with a hundred-fold splendour,--one night only was
still lacking; but that night brought the storm which put an end to all.
149.
_The Failure of Reformations._--It testifies to the higher culture of
the Greeks, even in rather early ages, that attempts to establish new
Grecian religions frequently failed; it testifies that quite early
there must have been a multitude of dissimilar individuals in Greece,
whose dissimilar troubles were not cured by a single recipe of faith
and hope. Pythagoras and Plato, perhaps also Empedocles, and already
much earlier the Orphic enthusiasts, aimed at founding new religions;
and the two first-named were so endowed with the qualifications for
founding religions, that one cannot be sufficiently astonished at their
failure: they just reached the point of founding sects. Every time that
the Reformation of an entire people fails and only sects raise their
heads, one may conclude that the people already contains many types,
and has begun to free itself from the gross herding instincts and
the morality of, custom,--a momentous state of suspense, which one is
accustomed to disparage as decay of morals and corruption, while it
announces the maturing of the egg and the early rupture of the shell.
That Luther's Reformation succeeded in the north, is a sign that the
north had remained backward in comparison with the south of Europe, and
still had requirements tolerably uniform in colour and kind; and there
would have been no Christianising of Europe at all, if the culture of
the old world of the south had not been gradually barbarized by an
excessive admixture of the blood of German barbarians, and thus lost
its ascendency. The more universally and unconditionally an individual,
or the thought of an individual, can operate, so much more homogeneous
and so much lower must be the mass that is there operated upon; while
counter-strivings betray internal counter-requirements, which also want
to gratify and realise themselves. Reversely, one may always conclude
with regard to an actual elevation of culture, when powerful and
ambitious natures only produce a limited and sectarian effect: this is
true also for the separate arts, and for the provinces of knowledge.
Where there is ruling there are masses: where there are masses there is
need of slavery. Where there is slavery the individuals are but few,
and have the instincts and conscience of the herd opposed to them.
150.
_Criticism of Saints._--Must one then, in order to have a virtue, be
desirous of having it precisely in its most brutal form?--as the
Christian saints desired and needed;--those who only _endured_ life
with the thought that at the sight of their virtue self-contempt might
seize every man. A virtue with such an effect I call brutal.
151.
_The Origin of Religion._--The metaphysical requirement is not the
origin of religions, as Schopenhauer claims, but only a _later sprout_
from them. Under the dominance of religious thoughts we have accustomed
ourselves to the idea of "another (back, under, or upper) world," and
feel an uncomfortable void and privation through the annihilation
of the religious illusion;--and then "another world" grows out of
this feeling once more, but now it is only a metaphysical world, and
no longer a religious one. That however which in general led to the
assumption of "another world" in primitive times, was _not_ an impulse
or requirement, but an _error_ in the interpretation of certain natural
phenomena, a difficulty of the intellect.
152.
_The greatest Change._--The lustre and the hues of all things have
changed! We no longer quite understand how earlier men conceived of the
most familiar and frequent things,--for example, of the day, and the
awakening in the morning: owing to their belief in dreams the waking
state seemed to them differently illuminated. And similarly of the
whole of life, with its reflection of death and its significance: our
"death" is an entirely different death. All events were of a different
lustre, for a God shone forth in them; and similarly of all resolutions
and peeps into the distant future: for people had oracles, and secret
hints, and believed in prognostication. "Truth" was conceived in quite
a different manner, for the insane could formerly be regarded as its
mouthpiece--a thing which makes _us_ shudder, or laugh. Injustice made
a different impression on the feelings: for people were afraid of
divine retribution, and not only of legal punishment and disgrace. What
joy was there in an age when men believed in the devil and tempter!
What passion was there when people saw demons lurking close at hand!
What philosophy was there when doubt was regarded as sinfulness of the
most dangerous kind, and in fact as an outrage on eternal love, as
distrust of everything good, high, pure, and compassionate!--We have
coloured things anew, we paint them over continually,--but what have we
been able to do hitherto in comparison with the _splendid colouring_ of
that old master!--I mean ancient humanity.
153.
_Homo poeta._--"I myself who have made this tragedy of tragedies
altogether independently, in so far as it is completed; I who have
first entwined the perplexities of morality about existence, and
have tightened them so that only a God could unravel them--so Horace
demands!--I have already in the fourth act killed all the Gods--for the
sake of morality! What is now to be done about the fifth act? Where
shall I get the tragic _dénouement!_ Must I now think about a comic
_dénouement_?"
154.
_Differences in the Dangerousness of Life._--You don't know at all what
you experience; you run through life as if intoxicated, and now and
then fall down a stair. Thanks however to your intoxication you still
do not break your limbs: your muscles are too languid and your head too
confused to find the stones of the staircase as hard as we others do!
For, us life is a greater danger: we are made of glass--alas, if we
should _strike against_ anything! And all is lost if we should _fall_!
155.
_What we Lack._--We love the _grandeur_ of Nature, and have discovered
it; that is because human grandeur is lacking in our minds. It was
the reverse with the Greeks: their feeling towards Nature was quite
different from ours.
156.
_The most Influential Person._--The fact that a person resists the
whole spirit of his age, stops it at the door and calls it to account,
_must_ exert an influence! It is indifferent whether he wishes to exert
an influence; the point is that he _can_.
157.
_Mentiri._--Take care!--he reflects: he will have a lie ready
immediately. This is a stage in the civilisation of whole nations.
Consider only what the Romans expressed by _mentiri!_
158.
_An Inconvenient Peculiarity._--To find everything deep is an
inconvenient peculiarity: it makes one constantly strain one's eyes, so
that in the end one always finds more than one wishes.
159.
_Every Virtue has its Time._--The honesty of him who is at present
inflexible often causes him remorse; for inflexibility is the virtue of
a time different from that in which honesty prevails.
160.
_In Intercourse with Virtues._--One can also be undignified and
flattering towards a virtue.
161.
_To the Admirers of the Age._--The runaway priest and the liberated
criminal are continually making grimaces; what they want is a look
without a past. But have you ever seen men who know that their looks
reflect the future, and who are so courteous to you, the admirers of
the "age," that they assume a look without a future?--
162.
_Egoism._--Egoism is the _perspective_ law of our sentiment, according
to which the near appears large and momentous, while in the distance
the magnitude and importance of all things diminish.
163.
_After a Great Victory._--The best thing in a great victory is that
it deprives the conqueror of the fear of defeat. "Why should I not be
worsted for once?" he says to himself, "I am now rich enough to stand
it."
164.
_Those who Seek Repose._--I recognise the minds that seek repose by the
many _dark_ objects with which they surround themselves: those who want
to sleep darken their chambers, or creep into caverns. A hint to those
who do not know what they really seek most, and would like to know!
165.
_The Happiness of Renunciation._--He who has absolutely dispensed with
something for a long time will almost imagine, when he accidentally
meets with it again, that he has discovered it,--and what happiness
every discoverer has! Let us be wiser than the serpents that lie too
long in the same sunshine.
166.
_Always in our own Society._--All that is akin to me in nature and
history speaks to me, praises me, urges me forward and comforts me--:
other things are unheard by me, or immediately forgotten. We are only
in our own society always.
167.
_Misanthropy and Philanthropy._--We only speak about being sick of men
when we can no longer digest them, and yet have the stomach full of
them. Misanthropy is the result of a far too eager philanthropy and
"cannibalism,"--but who ever bade you swallow men like oysters, my
Prince Hamlet?
168.
_Concerning an Invalid._--"Things go badly with him!"--What is
wrong?--" He suffers from the longing to be praised, and finds no
sustenance for it."--Inconceivable! All the world does honour to him,
and he is reverenced not only in deed but in word!--"Certainly, but he
is dull of hearing for the praise. When a friend praises him it sounds
to him as if the friend praised himself; when an enemy praises him,
it sounds to him as if the enemy wanted to be praised for it; when,
finally, some one else praises him--there are by no means so many of
these, he is so famous!--he is offended because they neither want him
for a friend nor for an enemy; he is accustomed to say: 'What do I care
for those who can still pose as the all-righteous towards me!'"
169.
_Avowed Enemies._--Bravery in presence of an enemy is a thing by
itself: a person may possess it and still be a coward and an irresolute
num-skull. That was Napoleon's opinion concerning the "bravest man" he
knew, Murat:--whence it follows that avowed enemies are indispensable
to some men, if they are to attain to _their_ virtue, to their
manliness, to their cheerfulness.
170.
_With, the Multitude._--He has hitherto gone with the multitude and is
its panegyrist; but one day he will be its opponent! For he follows
it in the belief that his laziness will find its advantage thereby:
he has not yet learned that the multitude is not lazy enough for him!
that it always presses forward! that it does not allow any one to stand
still!--And he likes so well to stand still!
171.
_Fame._--When the gratitude of many to one casts aside all shame, then
fame originates.
172.
_The Perverter of Taste._--A: "You are a perverter of taste--they say
so everywhere!" B: "Certainly! I pervert every one's taste for his
party:--no party forgives me for that."
173.
_To be Profound and to Appear Profound._--He who knows that he is
profound strives for clearness; he who would like to appear profound to
the multitude strives for obscurity. The multitude thinks everything
profound of which it cannot see the bottom; it is so timid and goes so
unwillingly into the water.
174.
_Apart._--Parliamentarism, that is to say, the public permission to
choose between five main political opinions, insinuates itself into
the favour of the numerous class who would fain _appear_ independent
and individual, and like to fight for their opinions. After all,
however, it is a matter of indifference whether one opinion is imposed
upon the herd, or five opinions are permitted to it.--He who diverges
from the five public opinions and goes apart, has always the whole herd
against him.
175.
_Concerning Eloquence._--What has hitherto had the most convincing
eloquence? The rolling of the drum: and as long as kings have this at
their command, they will always be the best orators and popular leaders.
176.
_Compassion._--The poor, ruling princes! All their rights now change
unexpectedly into claims, and all these claims immediately sound like
pretensions! And if they but say "we," or "my people," wicked old
Europe begins laughing. Verily, a chief-master-of-ceremonies of the
modern world would make little ceremony with them; perhaps he would
decree that "_les souverains rangent aux parvenus._"
177.
_On "Educational Matters."_--In Germany an important educational means
is lacking for higher men; namely, the laughter of higher men; these
men do not laugh in Germany.
178.
_For Moral Enlightenment_.--The Germans must be talked out of their
Mephistopheles--and out of their Faust also. These are two moral
prejudices against the value of knowledge.
179.
_Thoughts.--_Thoughts are the shadows of our sentiments--always however
obscurer, emptier and simpler.
180.
_The Good Time for Free Spirits._--Free Spirits take liberties even
with regard to Science--and meanwhile they are allowed to do so,--while
the Church still remains!--In so far they have now their good time.
181.
_Following and Leading._--A: "Of the two, the one will always follow,
the other will always lead, whatever be the course of their destiny.
_And yet_ the former is superior to the other in virtue and intellect."
B: "And yet? And yet? That is spoken for the others; not for me, not
for us!--_Fit secundum regulam._"
182.
_In Solitude._--When one lives alone one does not speak too loudly,
and one does not write too loudly either, for one fears the hollow
reverberation--the criticism of the nymph Echo.--And all voices sound
differently in solitude!
183.
_The Music of the Best Future._--The first musician for me would be he
who knew only the sorrow of the profoundest happiness, and no other
sorrow: there has not hitherto been such a musician.
184.
_Justice._--Better allow oneself to be robbed than have scarecrows
around one--that is my taste. And under all circumstances it is just a
matter of taste--and nothing more!
185.
_Poor._--He is now poor, but not because everything has been taken from
him, but because he has thrown everything away:--what does he care? He
is accustomed to find new things.--It is the poor who misunderstand his
voluntary poverty.
186.
_Bad Conscience._--All that he now does is excellent and proper--and
yet he has a bad conscience with it all. For the exceptional is his
task.
187.
_Offensiveness in Expression._--This artist offends me by the way in
which he expresses his ideas, his very excellent ideas: so diffusely
and forcibly, and with such gross rhetorical artifices, as if he
were speaking to the mob. We feel always as if "in bad company" when
devoting some time to his art.
188.
_Work._--How closely work and the workers now stand even to the most
leisurely of us! The royal courtesy in the words: "We are all workers,"
would have been a cynicism and an indecency even under Louis XIV.
189.
_The Thinker._--He is a thinker: that is to say, he knows how to take
things more simply than they are.
190.
_Against Eulogisers._--A: "One is only praised by one's equals!" B:
"Yes! And he who praises you says: 'You are my equal!'"
191.
_Against many a Vindication._--The most perfidious manner of injuring a
cause is to vindicate it intentionally with fallacious arguments.
192.
_The Good-natured._--What is it that distinguishes the good-natured,
whose countenances beam kindness, from other people? They feel quite
at ease in presence of a new person, and are quickly enamoured of him;
they therefore wish him well; their first opinion is: "He pleases me."
With them there follow in succession the wish to appropriate (they make
little scruple about the person's worth), rapid appropriation, joy in
the possession, and actions in favour of the person possessed.
193.
_Kant's Joke._--Kant tried to prove, in a way that dismayed
"everybody," that "everybody" was in the right:--that was his secret
joke. He wrote against the learned, in favour of popular prejudice; he
wrote, however, for the learned and not for the people.
194.
_The "Open-hearted" Man._--That man acts probably always from concealed
motives; for he has always communicable motives on his tongue, and
almost in his open hand.
195.
_Laughable!_--See! See! He runs _away_ from men--: they follow him,
however, because he runs _before_ them,--they are such a gregarious lot!
196.
_The Limits of our Sense of Hearing._--We hear only the questions to
which we are capable of finding an answer.
197.
_Caution therefore!_--There is nothing we are fonder of communicating
to others than the seal of secrecy--together with what is under it.
198.
_Vexation of the Proud Man._--The proud man is vexed even with those
who help him forward: he looks angrily at his carriage-horses.
199.
_Liberality._--Liberality is often only a form of timidity in the rich.
200.
_Laughing._--To laugh means to love mischief, but with a good
conscience.
201.
_In Applause._--In applause there is always some kind of noise: even in
self-applause.
202.
_A Spendthrift._--He has not yet the poverty of the rich man who
has counted all his treasure,--he squanders his spirit with the
irrationalness of the spendthrift Nature.
203.
_Hic niger est_.--Usually he has no thoughts,--but in exceptional cases
bad thoughts come to him.
204.
_Beggars and Courtesy._--"One is not discourteous when one knocks at a
door with a stone when the bell-pull is awanting"--so think all beggars
and necessitous persons, but no one thinks they are in the right.
205.
_Need._--Need is supposed to be the cause of things; but in truth it is
often only the result of things.
206.
_During the Rain._--It rains, and I think of the poor people who now
crowd together with their many cares, which they are unaccustomed to
conceal; all of them, therefore, ready and anxious to give pain to one
another, and thus provide themselves with a pitiable kind of comfort,
even in bad weather. This, this only, is the poverty of the poor!
207.
_The Envious Man._--That is an envious man--it is not desirable that he
should have children; he would be envious of them, because he can no
longer be a child.
208.
_A Great Man!_--Because a person is "a great man," we are not
authorised to infer that he is a man. Perhaps he is only a boy, or a
chameleon of all ages, or a bewitched girl.
209.
_A Mode of Asking for Reasons._--There is a mode of asking for our
reasons which not only makes us forget our best reasons, but also
arouses in us a spite and repugnance against reason generally:-a very
stupefying mode of questioning, and really an artifice of tyrannical
men!
210.
_Moderation in Diligence._--One must not be anxious to surpass the
diligence of one's father--that would make one ill.
211.
_Secret Enemies._--To be able to keep a secret enemy--that is a luxury
which the morality even of the highest-minded persons can rarely afford.
212.
_Not Letting oneself be Deluded._--His spirit has bad manners, it is
hasty and always stutters with impatience; so that one would hardly
suspect the deep breathing and the large chest of the soul in which it
resides.
213.
_The Way to Happiness._--A sage asked of a fool the way to happiness.
The fool answered without delay, like one who had been asked the way
to the next town: "Admire yourself, and live on the street!" "Hold,"
cried the sage, "you require too much; it suffices to admire oneself!"
The fool replied: "But how can one constantly admire without constantly
despising?"
214.
_Faith Saves._--Virtue gives happiness and a state of blessedness only
to those who have a strong faith in their virtue:--not, however, to
the more refined souls whose virtue consists of a profound distrust of
themselves and of all virtue. After all, therefore, it is "faith that
saves" here also!--and be it well observed, _not_ virtue!
215.