_The root of all evil:_ that the slave morality of modesty, chastity, selfishness, and absolute obedience should have triumphed. Dominating natures were thus condemned (1) to hypocrisy, (2) to qualms of conscience,--creative natures regarded themselves as rebels against God, uncertain and hemmed in by eternal values. 309 That which _men of power and will are able to demand of themselves_ gives them the standard for what they may also allow themselves. Such natures are the very opposite of the _vicious_ and the _unbridled:_ although under certain circumstances they may perpetrate deeds for which an inferior man would be convicted of vice and intemperance. In this respect the concept, _"all men are equal before God"_ does an extraordinary amount of harm; actions and attitudes of mind were forbidden which belonged to the prerogative of the strong alone, just as if they were in themselves unworthy of man. All the tendencies of strong men were brought into disrepute by the fact that the defensive weapons of the most weak (even of those who were weakest towards themselves) were established as a standard of valuation. 311 _The degeneration of the ruler and of the ruling classes_ has been the cause of all the great disorders in history! 312 The solitary type should not be valued from the standpoint of the gregarious type, or _vice versa._ 320 Who would dare to disgust the mediocre of their mediocrity! As you observe, I do precisely the reverse: every step away from mediocrity--thus do I teach--leads to _immorality._ 324 What I combat: that an exceptional form should make war upon the rule--instead of understanding that the continued existence of the rule is the first condition of the value of the exception. 325 One should not suppose the mission of a higher species to be the _leading_ of inferior men (as Comte does, for instance); but the inferior should be regarded as the _foundation_ upon which a higher species may live their higher life--upon which alone they _can stand._ 329 My consolation is, that the nature of man is _evil,_ and this guarantees his _strength!_ 332 There is no true scholar who has not the instincts of a true soldier in his veins. To be able to command and to be able to obey in a proud fashion; to keep one's place in rank and file, and yet to be ready at any moment to lead; to prefer danger to comfort; not to weigh what is permitted and what is forbidden in a tradesman's balance; to be more hostile to pettiness, slyness, and parasitism than to wickedness. What is it that one _learns_ in a hard school?--to _obey_ and to _command._ 335 _The means by which a strong species maintains itself:--_ It grants itself the right of exceptional actions, as a test of the power of self-control and of freedom. It abandons itself to states in which a man is not allowed to be anything else than a barbarian. It tries to acquire strength of will by every kind of asceticism.