This indisputable happiness of aristocratic culture, based as it is on the feeling of superiority, is now beginning to rise to ever higher levels; for now, thanks to the free spirits, it is henceforth permissible and not dishonourable for people who have been born and reared in aristocratic circles to enter the domain of knowledge, where they may secure more intellectual consecrations and learn chivalric services even higher than those of former times, and where they may look up to that ideal of victorious wisdom which as yet no age has been able to set before itself with so good a conscience as the period which is about to dawn. 203-205 What induces one man to use false weights, another to set his house on fire after having insured it for more than its value, a third to take part in counterfeiting, while three-fourths of our upper classes indulge in legalised fraud, and suffer from the pangs of conscience that follow speculation and dealings on the Stock Exchange: what gives rise to all this? It is not real want,--for their existence is by no means precarious; perhaps they have even enough to eat and drink without worrying--but they are urged on day and night by a terrible impatience at seeing their wealth pile up so slowly, and by an equally terrible longing and love for these heaps of gold. In this impatience and love, however, we see re-appear once more that fanaticism of the desire for power which was stimulated in former times by the belief that we were in the possession of truth, a fanaticism which bore such beautiful names that we could dare to be inhuman with a good conscience (burning Jews, heretics, and good books, and exterminating entire cultures superior to ours, such as those of Peru and Mexico). The means of this desire for power are changed in our day, but the same volcano is still smouldering, impatience and intemperate love call for their victims, and what was once done "for the love of God" is now done for the love of money, _i.e.,_ for the love of that which at present affords us the highest feeling of power and a good conscience. 209-210 "Enthusiastic sacrifice," "self-immolation"--these are the catch-words of your morality.... In reality ... you only _appear_ to sacrifice yourselves; for your imagination turns you into gods and you enjoy yourselves as such. 226-227 Ceremonies, official robes and court dresses, grave countenances, solemn aspects, the slow pace, involved speech--everything, in short, known as dignity--are all pretences adopted by those who are timid at heart: they wish to make themselves feared (themselves or the things they represent). The fearless (_i.e.,_ originally those who naturally inspire others with awe) have no need of dignity and ceremonies.... 230 A strange thing, this punishment of ours! It does not purify the criminal; it is not a form of expiation; but, on the contrary, it is even more defiling than the crime itself. 235