Nietzsche, Friedrich Wilhelm, 1844-1900; Nietzsche, Friedrich Wilhelm, 1844-1900 -- Criticism and interpretation; Philosophy
The noble type of man regards _himself_ as a determiner of values;
he does not require to be approved of; he passes the judgment: "What
is injurious to me is injurious in itself"; he knows that it is he
himself only who confers honour on things; he is a _creator_ of
values. He honours whatever he recognises in himself: such morality
is self-glorification. In the foreground there is the feeling of
plenitude, of power, which seeks to overflow, the happiness of high
tension, the conscientiousness of a wealth which would fain give
and bestow:--the noble man also helps the unfortunate, but not--or
scarcely--out of pity, but rather from an impulse generated by the
superabundance of power. The noble man honours in himself the powerful
one, him also who has power over himself, who knows how to speak and
how to keep silence, who takes pleasure in subjecting himself to
severity and hardness, and has reverence for all that is severe and
hard. 229
A morality of the ruling class ... is ... especially foreign and
irritating to present-day taste in the sternness of its principle
that one has duties only to one's equals; that one may act towards
beings of a lower rank, towards all that is foreign, just as seems
good to one, or "as the heart desires," and in any case "beyond good
and evil": it is here that sympathy and similar sentiments can have a
place. The ability and obligation to exercise prolonged gratitude and
prolonged revenge--both only within the circle of equals,--artfulness
in retaliation, _raffinement_ of the idea in friendship, a certain
necessity to have enemies as outlets for the emotions of envy,
quarrelsomeness, arrogance--in fact, in order to be a good _friend:_
all these are typical characteristics of the noble morality. 229-230
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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