Part One
Part Two
Aphorisms & Entr’Acts (Part Three)
from Beyond Good & Evil by Friedrich
Nietzsche
From the senses originate all trustworthiness, all good conscience, all
evidence of truth.
Pharisaism is not a deterioration of the good man; a considerable part of
it is rather an essential condition of being a god.
The one seeks an accouncheur for his thoughts, the other seeks some one
whom he can assist: a good conversation thus originates.
In intercourse with scholars and artists one readily makes mistakes of
opposite kinds: in a remarkable scholar one not infrequently finds a mediocre man; and
often even in a mediocre artist, one finds a very remarkable man.
We do the same when awake as when dreaming: we only invent and
imagine him with whom we have intercourse--and forget it immediately.
In revenge and in love woman is more barbarous than man.
Advice as a Riddle.--”If the band is not to break, bite it
first--secure to make!”
The belly is the reason why man does not so readily take himself for a
God.
The chastest utterance I ever heard: Dans le veritable amour c’est
l’ame qui enveloppe le corps.”
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.
When a woman has scholarly inclinations there is generally something
wrong with her sexual nature. Barrenness itself conduces to a certain virility of taste;
man, indeed, if I may say so, is “the barren animal.”
Comparing man and woman generally, one may say that woman would
not have the genius for adornment, if she had not the instinct for the secondary
role.
He who fights with monsters should be careful lest he thereby become a
monster. And if thou gaze into an abyss, the abyss will also gaze into thee.
From old Florentine novels--moreover, from life: Buona femmina e
mala femmina vuol bastone.--Sacchetti, Nov.86.
To seduce their neighbour to a favourable opinion, and afterwards to
believe implicitly in this opinion of their neighbour--who can do this conjuring trick so
well as women?
That which an age considers evil is usually an unseasonable echo of
what was formerly considered good--the atavism of an old ideal.
Around the hero everything becomes a tragedy; and around the
demigod everything becomes a satyr-play; and around God everything becomes--what?
perhaps a “world”?
It is not enough to possess a talent; one must also have your permission
to possess it;--eh, my friends?
”Where there is the tree of knowledge, there is always Paradise:” so
say the most ancient and the most modern of serpents.
What is done out of love always takes place beyond good and evil.
Objection, evasion, joyous distrust, and love of irony are signs of
health; everything absolute belongs to pathology.
The sense of the tragic increases and declines with sensuousness.
Insanity in individuals is something rare--but in groups, parties, nations,
and epochs it is the rule.
The thought of suicide is a great consolation: by means of it one gets
successfully through many a bad night.
Not only our reason, but also our conscience, truckles to our strongest
impulse--the tyrant in us.
One must repay good and ill; but why just to the person who did
us good or ill?
One no longer loves one’s knowledge sufficiently after one has
communicated it.
Poets act shamelessly towards their experiences: they exploit them.
”Our fellow-creature is not our neighbour, but our neighbour’s
neighbour:”--so thinks every nation.
Love brings to light the noble and hidden qualities of a lover--his rare and
exceptional traits: it is thus able to be deceptive as to his normal character.
Jesus said to his Jews: “The law was for servants;--love God as I love
him, as his Son! What have we Sons of God to do with morals!”
In Sight of Every Party.--A shepherd has always need of a
bellwether--or he has himself to be a wether occasionally.
One may indeed lie with the mouth; but with the accompanying grimace
one nevertheless tells the truth.
To vigorous men intimacy is a matter of shame--and something
precious.
Christianity gave Eros poison to drink; he did not die of it, certainly,
but degenerated to Vice.
To talk much about oneself may also be a means of concealing oneself.
In praise there is more obstrusiveness than in blame.
Pity has an almost ludicrous effect on a man of knowledge, like tender
hands on a Cyclops.
One occasionally embraces some one or other, out of love to mankind
(because one cannot embrace all); but this is what one must never confess to the
individual.
One does not hate as long as one disesteems, but only when one
esteems equal or superior.
Ye Utilitarians--ye, too, love the utile only as a vehicle
for your inclinations,--ye, too, really find the noise of its wheels insupportable!
One loves ultimately one’s desires, not the thing desired.
The vanity of others is only counter to our taste when it is counter to our
vanity.
With regard to what “truthfulness” is, perhaps nobody has ever been
sufficiently truthful.
One does not believe in the follies of clever men: what a forfeiture of
the rights of man!
The consequences of our actions seize us by the forelock, very indifferent
to the fact that we have meanwhile “reformed.”
There is an innocence in lying which is the sign of good faith in a cause.
It is inhuman to bless when one is being cursed.
The familiarity of superiors embitters one, but because it may not be
returned.
”I am affected, not because you have deceived me, but because I can no
longer believe in you.”
There is a haughtiness of kindness which has the appearance of
wickedness.
”I dislike him.”--Why?--”I am not a match for him.”--did any one ever
answer so!
Translated by Helen Zimmern.
Part One
Part Two