Now, everything is false from the root, words and nothing but words, confused, feeble, or overstrained. 25 Modern Pessimism is an expression of the uselessness only of the _modern_ world, not of the world and existence as such. 29 The "preponderance of _pain over pleasure_" or the reverse (Hedonism); both of these doctrines are already signposts to Nihilism.... For here, in both cases, no other final purpose is sought than the phenomenon pleasure or pain. 29 "Life is not worth living"; "Resignation"; "what is the good of tears?"--this is a feeble and sentimental attitude of mind. 29-30 People have not yet seen what is so terribly obvious--namely, that Pessimism is not a problem but a _symptom,_--that the term ought to be replaced by "Nihilism,"--that the question, "to be or not to be," is itself an illness, a sign of degeneracy, an idiosyncrasy. The Nihilistic movement is only an expression of physiological decadence. 32 _Decay, decline,_ and _waste,_ are, _per se,_ in no way open to objection; they are the natural consequences of life and vital growth. The phenomenon of decadence is just as necessary to life as advance or progress is: we are not in a position which enables us to _suppress_ it. On the contrary, reason _would have it retain its rights._ It is disgraceful on the part of socialist-theorists to argue that circumstances and social combinations could be devised which would put an end to all vice, illness, crime, prostitution, and poverty.... But that is tantamount to condemning _Life._ 33 Decadence itself is not a thing _that can be withstood:_ it is absolutely necessary and is proper to all ages and all peoples. That which must be withstood, and by all means in our power, is the spreading of the contagion among the sound parts of the organism. 33-34 All those things which heretofore have been regarded as the _causes of degeneration,_ are really its effects. 34 If Nature have no pity on the degenerate, it is not therefore immoral: the growth of physiological and moral evils in the human race, is rather the _result of morbid and unnatural morality._ 44 The whole of our sociology knows no other instinct than that of the herd, _i.e.,_ of a _multitude of mere ciphers_--of which every cipher has "equal rights," and where it is a virtue to be--naught. 45 Nihilism is a sign that the botched and bungled have no longer any consolation, that they destroy in order to be destroyed, that, having been deprived of morality, they no longer have any reason to "resign themselves," that they take up their stand on the territory of the opposite principle, and _will also exercise power_ themselves, by compelling the powerful to become their hangmen. 52 Our age, with its indiscriminate endeavours to mitigate distress, to honour it, and to wage war in advance with unpleasant possibilities, is an age of the _poor._ 57 Overwork, curiosity and sympathy--our _modern vices._ 64