Beyond Good and Evil by Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche
143. Our vanity would like what we do best to pass precisely for what is
most difficult to us.--Concerning the origin of many systems of morals.
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