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natural to the highest and most successful type of man
into uncertainty, distress of conscience, and self-
destruction; forsooth, to invert all love of the earthly and
of supremacy over the earth, into hatred of the earth and
earthly things THAT is the task the Church imposed on
itself, and was obliged to impose, until, according to its
standard of value, unworldliness, unsensuousness, and
higher man fused into one sentiment. If one could
observe the strangely painful, equally coarse and refined
comedy of European Christianity with the derisive and
impartial eye of an Epicurean god, I should think one
would never cease marvelling and laughing; does it not
actually seem that some single will has ruled over Europe
for eighteen centuries in order to make a SUBLIME
ABORTION of man? He, however, who, with opposite
requirements (no longer Epicurean) and with some divine
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hammer in his hand, could approach this almost voluntary
degeneration and stunting of mankind, as exemplified in
the European Christian (Pascal, for instance), would he
not have to cry aloud with rage, pity, and horror: Oh,
you bunglers, presumptuous pitiful bunglers, what have
you done! Was that a work for your hands? How you
have hacked and botched my finest stone! What have you
presumed to do! I should say that Christianity has
hitherto been the most portentous of presumptions. Men,
not great enough, nor hard enough, to be entitled as artists
to take part in fashioning MAN; men, not sufficiently
strong and far-sighted to ALLOW, with sublime self-
constraint, the obvious law of the thousandfold failures
and perishings to prevail; men, not sufficiently noble to see
the radically different grades of rank and intervals of rank
that separate man from man: SUCH men, with their
equality before God, have hitherto swayed the destiny of
Europe; until at last a dwarfed, almost ludicrous species has
been produced, a gregarious animal, something obliging,
sickly, mediocre, the European of the present day.
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Beyond Good and Evil
CHAPTER IV: APOPHTHEGMS
AND INTERLUDES
63. He who is a thorough teacher takes things
seriously and even himself only in relation to his
pupils.
64. Knowledge for its own sake that is the last snare
laid by morality: we are thereby completely entangled in
morals once more.
65. The charm of knowledge would be small, were it
not so much shame has to be overcome on the way to it.
65A. We are most dishonourable towards our God: he
is not PERMITTED to sin.
66. The tendency of a person to allow himself to be
degraded, robbed, deceived, and exploited might be the
diffidence of a God among men.
67. Love to one only is a barbarity, for it is exercised at
the expense of all others. Love to God also!
68. I did that, says my memory. I could not have
done that, says my pride, and remains inexorable.
Eventually the memory yields.
69. One has regarded life carelessly, if one has failed to
see the hand that kills with leniency.
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Beyond Good and Evil
70. If a man has character, he has also his typical
experience, which always recurs.
71. THE SAGE AS ASTRONOMER. So long as
thou feelest the stars as an above thee, thou lackest the
eye of the discerning one.
72. It is not the strength, but the duration of great
sentiments that makes great men.
73. He who attains his ideal, precisely thereby surpasses
it.
73A. Many a peacock hides his tail from every eye
and calls it his pride.
74. A man of genius is unbearable, unless he possess at
least two things besides: gratitude and purity.
75. The degree and nature of a man s sensuality extends
to the highest altitudes of his spirit.
76. Under peaceful conditions the militant man attacks
himself.
77. With his principles a man seeks either to dominate,
or justify, or honour, or reproach, or conceal his habits:
two men with the same principles probably seek
fundamentally different ends therewith.
78. He who despises himself, nevertheless esteems
himself thereby, as a despiser.
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79. A soul which knows that it is loved, but does not
itself love, betrays its sediment: its dregs come up.
80. A thing that is explained ceases to concern us
What did the God mean who gave the advice, Know
thyself! Did it perhaps imply Cease to be concerned
about thyself! become objective! And Socrates? And
the scientific man ?
81. It is terrible to die of thirst at sea. Is it necessary that
you should so salt your truth that it will no longer
quench thirst?
82. Sympathy for all would be harshness and tyranny
for THEE, my good neighbour.
83. INSTINCT When the house is on fire one
forgets even the dinner Yes, but one recovers it from
among the ashes.
84. Woman learns how to hate in proportion as she
forgets how to charm.
85. The same emotions are in man and woman, but in
different TEMPO, on that account man and woman never
cease to misunderstand each other.
86. In the background of all their personal vanity,
women themselves have still their impersonal scorn for
woman".
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87. FETTERED HEART, FREE SPIRIT When
one firmly fetters one s heart and keeps it prisoner, one
can allow one s spirit many liberties: I said this once before
But people do not believe it when I say so, unless they
know it already.
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