Beyond Good and Evil by Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche
Chapter 1
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Title: Beyond Good and Evil
Author: Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche
Translator: Helen Zimmern
Release date: August 1, 2003 [eBook #4363]
Most recently updated: January 9, 2019
Language: English
Other information and formats: www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/4363
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*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK BEYOND GOOD AND EVIL ***
Produced by John Mamoun, Charles Franks and the Online
Distributed Proofreading Team
BEYOND GOOD AND EVIL
By Friedrich Nietzsche
Translated by Helen Zimmern
TRANSCRIBER'S NOTE ABOUT THIS E-TEXT EDITION:
The following is a reprint of the Helen Zimmern translation from German
into English of "Beyond Good and Evil," as published in The Complete
Works of Friedrich Nietzsche (1909-1913). Some adaptations from the
original text were made to format it into an e-text. Italics in the
original book are capitalized in this e-text, except for most foreign
language phrases that were italicized. Original footnotes are put in
brackets "[]" at the points where they are cited in the text. Some
spellings were altered. "To-day" and "To-morrow" are spelled "today"
and "tomorrow." Some words containing the letters "ise" in the original
text, such as "idealise," had these letters changed to "ize," such as
"idealize." "Sceptic" was changed to "skeptic."
TABLE OF CONTENTS
PREFACE
BEYOND GOOD AND EVIL
Chapters
- Chapter 1 Ch.1
- CHAPTER IX: WHAT IS NOBLE? Ch.2
- 1. The Will to Truth, which is to tempt us to many a hazardous Ch.3
- 2. "HOW COULD anything originate out of its opposite? For example, truth Ch.4
- 3. Having kept a sharp eye on philosophers, and having read between Ch.5
- 4. The falseness of an opinion is not for us any objection to it: it is Ch.6
- 5. That which causes philosophers to be regarded half-distrustfully Ch.7
- 6. It has gradually become clear to me what every great philosophy up Ch.8
- 7. How malicious philosophers can be! I know of nothing more stinging Ch.9
- 8. There is a point in every philosophy at which the "conviction" of Ch.10
- 9. You desire to LIVE "according to Nature"? Oh, you noble Stoics, what Ch.11
- 10. The eagerness and subtlety, I should even say craftiness, with Ch.12
- 11. It seems to me that there is everywhere an attempt at present to Ch.13
- 12. As regards materialistic atomism, it is one of the best-refuted Ch.14
- 13. Psychologists should bethink themselves before putting down the Ch.15
- 14. It is perhaps just dawning on five or six minds that natural Ch.16
- 15. To study physiology with a clear conscience, one must insist on Ch.17
- 16. There are still harmless self-observers who believe that there are Ch.18
- 17. With regard to the superstitions of logicians, I shall never tire Ch.19
- 18. It is certainly not the least charm of a theory that it is Ch.20
- 19. Philosophers are accustomed to speak of the will as though it were Ch.21
- 20. That the separate philosophical ideas are not anything optional or Ch.22
- 21. The CAUSA SUI is the best self-contradiction that has yet been Ch.23
- 22. Let me be pardoned, as an old philologist who cannot desist from Ch.24
- 23. All psychology hitherto has run aground on moral prejudices and Ch.25
- 24. O sancta simplicitas! In what strange simplification and Ch.26
- 25. After such a cheerful commencement, a serious word would fain be Ch.27
- 26. Every select man strives instinctively for a citadel and a privacy, Ch.28
- 27. It is difficult to be understood, especially when one thinks and Ch.29
- 28. What is most difficult to render from one language into another Ch.30
- 29. It is the business of the very few to be independent; it is a Ch.31
- 30. Our deepest insights must--and should--appear as follies, and under Ch.32
- 31. In our youthful years we still venerate and despise without the art Ch.33
- 32. Throughout the longest period of human history--one calls it the Ch.34
- 33. It cannot be helped: the sentiment of surrender, of sacrifice for Ch.35
- 34. At whatever standpoint of philosophy one may place oneself nowadays, Ch.36
- 35. O Voltaire! O humanity! O idiocy! There is something ticklish in Ch.37
- 36. Supposing that nothing else is "given" as real but our world of Ch.38
- 37. "What? Does not that mean in popular language: God is disproved, but Ch.39
- 38. As happened finally in all the enlightenment of modern times with Ch.40
- 39. Nobody will very readily regard a doctrine as true merely because Ch.41
- 40. Everything that is profound loves the mask: the profoundest things Ch.42
- 41. One must subject oneself to one's own tests that one is destined Ch.43
- 42. A new order of philosophers is appearing; I shall venture to baptize Ch.44
- 43. Will they be new friends of "truth," these coming philosophers? Very Ch.45
- 44. Need I say expressly after all this that they will be free, VERY Ch.46
- 45. The human soul and its limits, the range of man's inner experiences Ch.47
- 46. Faith, such as early Christianity desired, and not infrequently Ch.48
- 47. Wherever the religious neurosis has appeared on the earth so far, Ch.49
- 48. It seems that the Latin races are far more deeply attached to their Ch.50
- 49. That which is so astonishing in the religious life of the ancient Ch.51
- 50. The passion for God: there are churlish, honest-hearted, and Ch.52
- 51. The mightiest men have hitherto always bowed reverently before Ch.53
- 52. In the Jewish "Old Testament," the book of divine justice, there are Ch.54
- 53. Why Atheism nowadays? "The father" in God is thoroughly refuted; Ch.55
- 54. What does all modern philosophy mainly do? Since Descartes--and Ch.56
- 55. There is a great ladder of religious cruelty, with many rounds; but Ch.57
- 56. Whoever, like myself, prompted by some enigmatical desire, has long Ch.58
- 57. The distance, and as it were the space around man, grows with the Ch.59
- 58. Has it been observed to what extent outward idleness, or Ch.60
- 59. Whoever has seen deeply into the world has doubtless divined what Ch.61
- 60. To love mankind FOR GOD'S SAKE--this has so far been the noblest and Ch.62
- 61. The philosopher, as WE free spirits understand him--as the man of Ch.63
- 62. To be sure--to make also the bad counter-reckoning against such Ch.64
- 63. He who is a thorough teacher takes things seriously--and even Ch.65
- 64. "Knowledge for its own sake"--that is the last snare laid by Ch.66
- 65. The charm of knowledge would be small, were it not so much shame has Ch.67
- 66. The tendency of a person to allow himself to be degraded, robbed, Ch.68
- 67. Love to one only is a barbarity, for it is exercised at the expense Ch.69
- 68. "I did that," says my memory. "I could not have done that," says my Ch.70
- 69. One has regarded life carelessly, if one has failed to see the hand Ch.71
- 70. If a man has character, he has also his typical experience, which Ch.72
- 71. THE SAGE AS ASTRONOMER.--So long as thou feelest the stars as an Ch.73
- 72. It is not the strength, but the duration of great sentiments that Ch.74
- 73. He who attains his ideal, precisely thereby surpasses it. Ch.75
- 74. A man of genius is unbearable, unless he possess at least two things Ch.76
- 75. The degree and nature of a man's sensuality extends to the highest Ch.77
- 77. With his principles a man seeks either to dominate, or justify, Ch.78
- 78. He who despises himself, nevertheless esteems himself thereby, as a Ch.79
- 79. A soul which knows that it is loved, but does not itself love, Ch.80
- 80. A thing that is explained ceases to concern us--What did the God Ch.81
- 81. It is terrible to die of thirst at sea. Is it necessary that you Ch.82
- 82. "Sympathy for all"--would be harshness and tyranny for THEE, my good Ch.83
- 83. INSTINCT--When the house is on fire one forgets even the Ch.84
- 85. The same emotions are in man and woman, but in different TEMPO, on Ch.85
- 86. In the background of all their personal vanity, women themselves Ch.86
- 87. FETTERED HEART, FREE SPIRIT--When one firmly fetters one's heart Ch.87
- 88. One begins to distrust very clever persons when they become Ch.88
- 89. Dreadful experiences raise the question whether he who experiences Ch.89
- 90. Heavy, melancholy men turn lighter, and come temporarily to their Ch.90
- 91. So cold, so icy, that one burns one's finger at the touch of him! Ch.91
- 92. Who has not, at one time or another--sacrificed himself for the sake Ch.92
- 93. In affability there is no hatred of men, but precisely on that Ch.93
- 94. The maturity of man--that means, to have reacquired the seriousness Ch.94
- 95. To be ashamed of one's immorality is a step on the ladder at the end Ch.95
- 96. One should part from life as Ulysses parted from Nausicaa--blessing Ch.96
- 97. What? A great man? I always see merely the play-actor of his own Ch.97
- 99. THE DISAPPOINTED ONE SPEAKS--"I listened for the echo and I heard Ch.98
- 100. We all feign to ourselves that we are simpler than we are, we thus Ch.99
- 101. A discerning one might easily regard himself at present as the Ch.100
- 102. Discovering reciprocal love should really disenchant the lover with Ch.101
- 103. THE DANGER IN HAPPINESS.--"Everything now turns out best for me, I Ch.102
- 104. Not their love of humanity, but the impotence of their love, Ch.103
- 105. The pia fraus is still more repugnant to the taste (the "piety") Ch.104
- 107. A sign of strong character, when once the resolution has been Ch.105
- 108. There is no such thing as moral phenomena, but only a moral Ch.106
- 109. The criminal is often enough not equal to his deed: he extenuates Ch.107
- 110. The advocates of a criminal are seldom artists enough to turn the Ch.108
- 111. Our vanity is most difficult to wound just when our pride has been Ch.109
- 112. To him who feels himself preordained to contemplation and not to Ch.110
- 113. "You want to prepossess him in your favour? Then you must be Ch.111
- 114. The immense expectation with regard to sexual love, and the coyness Ch.112
- 115. Where there is neither love nor hatred in the game, woman's play is Ch.113
- 116. The great epochs of our life are at the points when we gain courage Ch.114
- 117. The will to overcome an emotion, is ultimately only the will of Ch.115
- 118. There is an innocence of admiration: it is possessed by him to whom Ch.116
- 119. Our loathing of dirt may be so great as to prevent our cleaning Ch.117
- 120. Sensuality often forces the growth of love too much, so that its Ch.118
- 121. It is a curious thing that God learned Greek when he wished to turn Ch.119
- 122. To rejoice on account of praise is in many cases merely politeness Ch.120
- 124. He who exults at the stake, does not triumph over pain, but because Ch.121
- 125. When we have to change an opinion about any one, we charge heavily Ch.122
- 126. A nation is a detour of nature to arrive at six or seven great Ch.123
- 127. In the eyes of all true women science is hostile to the sense of Ch.124
- 128. The more abstract the truth you wish to teach, the more must you Ch.125
- 129. The devil has the most extensive perspectives for God; on that Ch.126
- 130. What a person IS begins to betray itself when his talent Ch.127
- 131. The sexes deceive themselves about each other: the reason is that Ch.128
- 133. He who cannot find the way to HIS ideal, lives more frivolously and Ch.129
- 134. From the senses originate all trustworthiness, all good conscience, Ch.130
- 135. Pharisaism is not a deterioration of the good man; a considerable Ch.131
- 136. The one seeks an accoucheur for his thoughts, the other seeks some Ch.132
- 137. In intercourse with scholars and artists one readily makes mistakes Ch.133
- 138. We do the same when awake as when dreaming: we only invent and Ch.134
- 140. ADVICE AS A RIDDLE.--"If the band is not to break, bite it Ch.135
- 141. The belly is the reason why man does not so readily take himself Ch.136
- 142. The chastest utterance I ever heard: "Dans le veritable amour c'est Ch.137
- 143. Our vanity would like what we do best to pass precisely for what is Ch.138
- 144. When a woman has scholarly inclinations there is generally Ch.139
- 145. Comparing man and woman generally, one may say that woman would Ch.140
- 146. He who fights with monsters should be careful lest he thereby Ch.141
- 147. From old Florentine novels--moreover, from life: Buona femmina e Ch.142
- 148. To seduce their neighbour to a favourable opinion, and afterwards Ch.143
- 149. That which an age considers evil is usually an unseasonable echo of Ch.144
- 150. Around the hero everything becomes a tragedy; around the Ch.145
- 151. It is not enough to possess a talent: one must also have your Ch.146
- 152. "Where there is the tree of knowledge, there is always Paradise": Ch.147
- 154. Objection, evasion, joyous distrust, and love of irony are signs of Ch.148
- 156. Insanity in individuals is something rare--but in groups, parties, Ch.149
- 157. The thought of suicide is a great consolation: by means of it one Ch.150
- 158. Not only our reason, but also our conscience, truckles to our Ch.151
- 159. One MUST repay good and ill; but why just to the person who did us Ch.152
- 160. One no longer loves one's knowledge sufficiently after one has Ch.153
- 162. "Our fellow-creature is not our neighbour, but our neighbour's Ch.154
- 163. Love brings to light the noble and hidden qualities of a lover--his Ch.155
- 164. Jesus said to his Jews: "The law was for servants;--love God as I Ch.156
- 165. IN SIGHT OF EVERY PARTY.--A shepherd has always need of a Ch.157
- 166. One may indeed lie with the mouth; but with the accompanying Ch.158
- 167. To vigorous men intimacy is a matter of shame--and something Ch.159
- 168. Christianity gave Eros poison to drink; he did not die of it, Ch.160
- 169. To talk much about oneself may also be a means of concealing Ch.161
- 171. Pity has an almost ludicrous effect on a man of knowledge, like Ch.162
- 172. One occasionally embraces some one or other, out of love to mankind Ch.163
- 173. One does not hate as long as one disesteems, but only when one Ch.164
- 174. Ye Utilitarians--ye, too, love the UTILE only as a VEHICLE for Ch.165
- 176. The vanity of others is only counter to our taste when it is Ch.166
- 177. With regard to what "truthfulness" is, perhaps nobody has ever been Ch.167
- 178. One does not believe in the follies of clever men: what a Ch.168
- 179. The consequences of our actions seize us by the forelock, very Ch.169
- 180. There is an innocence in lying which is the sign of good faith in a Ch.170
- 182. The familiarity of superiors embitters one, because it may not be Ch.171
- 183. "I am affected, not because you have deceived me, but because I can Ch.172
- 184. There is a haughtiness of kindness which has the appearance of Ch.173
- 185. "I dislike him."--Why?--"I am not a match for him."--Did any one Ch.174
- 186. The moral sentiment in Europe at present is perhaps as subtle, Ch.175
- 187. Apart from the value of such assertions as "there is a categorical Ch.176
- 188. In contrast to laisser-aller, every system of morals is a sort of Ch.177
- 189. Industrious races find it a great hardship to be idle: it was a Ch.178
- 190. There is something in the morality of Plato which does not really Ch.179
- 191. The old theological problem of "Faith" and "Knowledge," or more Ch.180
- 192. Whoever has followed the history of a single science, finds in Ch.181
- 193. Quidquid luce fuit, tenebris agit: but also contrariwise. What we Ch.182
- 194. The difference among men does not manifest itself only in the Ch.183
- 195. The Jews--a people "born for slavery," as Tacitus and the whole Ch.184
- 196. It is to be INFERRED that there are countless dark bodies near the Ch.185
- 197. The beast of prey and the man of prey (for instance, Caesar Borgia) Ch.186
- 198. All the systems of morals which address themselves with a view to Ch.187
- 199. Inasmuch as in all ages, as long as mankind has existed, there have Ch.188
- 200. The man of an age of dissolution which mixes the races with Ch.189
- 201. As long as the utility which determines moral estimates is only Ch.190
- 202. Let us at once say again what we have already said a hundred Ch.191
- 203. We, who hold a different belief--we, who regard the democratic Ch.192
- 204. At the risk that moralizing may also reveal itself here as that Ch.193
- 205. The dangers that beset the evolution of the philosopher are, in Ch.194
- 206. In relation to the genius, that is to say, a being who either Ch.195
- 207. However gratefully one may welcome the OBJECTIVE spirit--and Ch.196
- 208. When a philosopher nowadays makes known that he is not a skeptic--I Ch.197
- 209. As to how far the new warlike age on which we Europeans have Ch.198
- 210. Supposing, then, that in the picture of the philosophers of the Ch.199
- 211. I insist upon it that people finally cease confounding Ch.200
- 212. It is always more obvious to me that the philosopher, as a man Ch.201
- 213. It is difficult to learn what a philosopher is, because it cannot Ch.202
- 214. OUR Virtues?--It is probable that we, too, have still our virtues, Ch.203
- 215. As in the stellar firmament there are sometimes two suns which Ch.204
- 216. To love one's enemies? I think that has been well learnt: it takes Ch.205
- 217. Let us be careful in dealing with those who attach great importance Ch.206
- 218. The psychologists of France--and where else are there still Ch.207
- 219. The practice of judging and condemning morally, is the favourite Ch.208
- 220. Now that the praise of the "disinterested person" is so popular Ch.209
- 221. "It sometimes happens," said a moralistic pedant and Ch.210
- 222. Wherever sympathy (fellow-suffering) is preached nowadays--and, Ch.211
- 223. The hybrid European--a tolerably ugly plebeian, taken all in Ch.212
- 224. The historical sense (or the capacity for divining quickly Ch.213
- 225. Whether it be hedonism, pessimism, utilitarianism, or eudaemonism, Ch.214
- 226. WE IMMORALISTS.--This world with which WE are concerned, in which Ch.215
- 227. Honesty, granting that it is the virtue of which we cannot rid Ch.216
- 228. I hope to be forgiven for discovering that all moral philosophy Ch.217
- 229. In these later ages, which may be proud of their humanity, there Ch.218
- 230. Perhaps what I have said here about a "fundamental will of the Ch.219
- 231. Learning alters us, it does what all nourishment does that does not Ch.220
- 232. Woman wishes to be independent, and therefore she begins to Ch.221
- 233. It betrays corruption of the instincts--apart from the fact that Ch.222
- 234. Stupidity in the kitchen; woman as cook; the terrible Ch.223
- 235. There are turns and casts of fancy, there are sentences, little Ch.224
- 236. I have no doubt that every noble woman will oppose what Dante and Ch.225
- 238. To be mistaken in the fundamental problem of "man and woman," to Ch.226
- 239. The weaker sex has in no previous age been treated with so Ch.227
- 240. I HEARD, once again for the first time, Richard Wagner's overture Ch.228
- 241. We "good Europeans," we also have hours when we allow ourselves a Ch.229
- 242. Whether we call it "civilization," or "humanising," or "progress," Ch.230
- 243. I hear with pleasure that our sun is moving rapidly towards the Ch.231
- 244. There was a time when it was customary to call Germans "deep" Ch.232
- 245. The "good old" time is past, it sang itself out in Mozart--how Ch.233
- EPISODE of German music. But with regard to Robert Schumann, who took Ch.234
- 246. What a torture are books written in German to a reader who has a Ch.235
- 247. How little the German style has to do with harmony and with the Ch.236
- 248. There are two kinds of geniuses: one which above all engenders and Ch.237
- 249. Every nation has its own "Tartuffery," and calls that its Ch.238
- 250. What Europe owes to the Jews?--Many things, good and bad, and above Ch.239
- 251. It must be taken into the bargain, if various clouds and Ch.240
- 252. They are not a philosophical race--the English: Bacon represents an Ch.241
- 253. There are truths which are best recognized by mediocre minds, Ch.242
- 254. Even at present France is still the seat of the most intellectual Ch.243
- 255. I hold that many precautions should be taken against German music. Ch.244
- 256. Owing to the morbid estrangement which the nationality-craze has Ch.245
- 257. EVERY elevation of the type "man," has hitherto been the work of an Ch.246
- 258. Corruption--as the indication that anarchy threatens to break out Ch.247
- 259. To refrain mutually from injury, from violence, from exploitation, Ch.248
- 260. In a tour through the many finer and coarser moralities which have Ch.249
- 261. Vanity is one of the things which are perhaps most difficult for Ch.250
- 262. A SPECIES originates, and a type becomes established and strong in Ch.251
- 263. There is an INSTINCT FOR RANK, which more than anything else is Ch.252
- 264. It cannot be effaced from a man's soul what his ancestors have Ch.253
- 265. At the risk of displeasing innocent ears, I submit that egoism Ch.254
- 266. "One can only truly esteem him who does not LOOK OUT FOR Ch.255
- 267. The Chinese have a proverb which mothers even teach their children: Ch.256
- 268. What, after all, is ignobleness?--Words are vocal symbols for Ch.257
- 269. The more a psychologist--a born, an unavoidable psychologist Ch.258
- 270. The intellectual haughtiness and loathing of every man who has Ch.259
- 271. That which separates two men most profoundly is a different sense Ch.260
- 272. Signs of nobility: never to think of lowering our duties to the Ch.261
- 273. A man who strives after great things, looks upon every one whom Ch.262
- 274. THE PROBLEM OF THOSE WHO WAIT.--Happy chances are necessary, and Ch.263
- 275. He who does not WISH to see the height of a man, looks all the Ch.264
- 276. In all kinds of injury and loss the lower and coarser soul is Ch.265
- 277. It is too bad! Always the old story! When a man has finished Ch.266
- 279. Men of profound sadness betray themselves when they are happy: they Ch.267
- 280. "Bad! Bad! What? Does he not--go back?" Yes! But you misunderstand Ch.268
- 283. If one wishes to praise at all, it is a delicate and at the Ch.269
- 284. To live in a vast and proud tranquility; always beyond... To have, Ch.270
- 285. The greatest events and thoughts--the greatest thoughts, however, Ch.271
- 286. "Here is the prospect free, the mind exalted." [FOOTNOTE: Goethe's Ch.272
- 287. What is noble? What does the word "noble" still mean for us Ch.273
- 288. There are men who are unavoidably intellectual, let them turn Ch.274
- 289. In the writings of a recluse one always hears something of the echo Ch.275
- 290. Every deep thinker is more afraid of being understood than of being Ch.276
- 291. Man, a COMPLEX, mendacious, artful, and inscrutable animal, uncanny Ch.277
- 292. A philosopher: that is a man who constantly experiences, sees, Ch.278
- 293. A man who says: "I like that, I take it for my own, and mean to Ch.279
- 294. THE OLYMPIAN VICE.--Despite the philosopher who, as a genuine Ch.280
- 295. The genius of the heart, as that great mysterious one possesses Ch.281
- 296. Alas! what are you, after all, my written and painted thoughts! Not Ch.282