No More Learning

The Unassuming Man. —He who is unas-
suming towards persons manifests his presumption
all the more with regard to things (town, State,
society, time, humanity). That is his revenge.
503.
Envy and Jealousy. —Envy and jealousy
are the pudenda of the human soul. The com-
parison may perhaps be carried further.
504.
The Noblest Hypocrite. —It is a very noble
hypocrisy not to talk of one's self at all.
505.
VEXATION. —Vexation is a physical disease,
which is not by any means cured when its cause
is subsequently removed.
506.
The Champions of Truth. —Truth does not
find fewest champions when it is dangerous to
speak it, but when it is dull.


## p. 363 (#542) ############################################

36c HUMAN, ALL-TOO-HUMAN.
507.
More Troublesome even than Enemies.
—Persons of whose sympathetic attitude we are
not, in all circumstances, convinced, while for some
reason or other (gratitude, for instance) we are
obliged to maintain the appearance of unqualified
sympathy with them, trouble our imagination
far more than our enemies do.
508.
Free Nature. —We are so fond of being
out among Nature, because it has no opinions
about us.
509.
Each Superior in one Thing. —In civil-
ised intercourse every one feels himself superior to
all others in at least one thing; kindly feelings
generally are based thereon, inasmuch as every one
can, in certain circumstances, render help, and is
therefore entitled to accept help without shame.
510.
Consolatory Arguments. —In the case of
a death we mostly use consolatory arguments not
so much to alleviate the grief as to make excuses
for feeling so easily consoled.
511.
Persons Loyal to their Convictions. —
Whoever is very busy retains his general views
and opinions almost unchanged. So also does


## p. 363 (#543) ############################################

MAN ALONE BY HIMSELF. 361
every one who labours in the service of an idea;
he will nevermore examine the idea itself, he no
longer has any time to do so; indeed, it is
against his interests to consider it as still admit-
ting of discussion.
Si 2.
Morality and Quantity. — The higher
morality of one man as compared with that of
another, often lies merely in the fact that his
aims are quantitively greater. The other, living
in a circumscribed sphere, is dragged down by
petty occupations.
513-
"The Life" as the Proceeds of Life. —
A man may stretch himself out ever so far with
his knowledge; he may seem to himself ever so
objective, but eventually he realises nothing there-
from but his own biography.
5 14.
Iron Necessity. —Iron necessity is a thing
which has been found, in the course of history, to
be neither iron nor necessary.
515-
From Experience. — The unreasonableness
of a thing is no argument against its existence,
but rather a condition thereof.
Si6.
Truth. — Nobody dies nowadays of fatal
truths, there are too many antidotes to them.


## p. 363 (#544) ############################################

362 HUMAN, ALL-TOO-HUMAN.
<
■"
517-
A Fundamental Insight. — There is no
pre-established harmony between the promotion
of truth and the welfare of mankind.
518.
Man's Lot. —He who thinks most deeply
knows that he is always in the wrong, however
he may act and decide.
O
519-
TRUTH AS ClRCE. —Error has made animals
into men; is truth perhaps capable of making man
into an animal again?
520.
The Danger of Our Culture. — We
belong to a period of which the culture is in
danger of being destroyed by the appliances of
culture.
521.
Greatness Means Leading the Way. —
No stream is large and copious of itself, but
becomes great by receiving and leading on so
many tributary streams. It is so, also, with all
intellectual greatnesses. It is only a question of
some one indicating the direction to be followed
by so many affluents; not whether he was richly
or poorly gifted originally.


## p. 363 (#545) ############################################

MAN ALONE BY HIMSELF. 363
522.
A Feeble Conscience. —People who talk
about their importance to mankind have a feeble
conscience for common bourgeois rectitude, keep-
ing of contracts, promises, etc.
, S23.
Desiring to be Loved. —The demand to be
loved is the greatest of presumptions.
524.
Contempt for Men. —The most unequivocal
sign of contempt for man is to regard everybody
merely as a means to one's own ends, or of no
account whatever.
525.
Partisans through Contradiction. —
Whoever has driven men to fury against himself
has also gained a party in his favour.
526.
Forgetting Experiences. —Whoever thinks
much and to good purpose easily forgets his own
experiences, but not the thoughts which these
experiences have called forth.
527.
Sticking to an Opinion. — One person
sticks to an opinion because he takes pride in
having acquired it himself,—another sticks to it
because he has learnt it with difficulty and is


## p. 364 (#546) ############################################

364 HUMAN, ALL-TOO-HUMAN.
proud of having understood it; both of them,
therefore, out of vanity.
528.
Avoiding the Light. —Good deeds avoid the
light just as anxiously as evil deeds; the latter
fear that pain will result from publicity (as punish-
ment), the former fear that pleasure will vanish
with publicity (the pure pleasure per se, which
ceases as soon as satisfaction of vanity is added
to it).
529.
The Length of the Day. —When one has
much to put into them, a day has a hundred
pockets.
530.
The Genius of Tyranny. —When an invin-
cible desire to obtain tyrannical power has been
awakened in the soul, and constantly keeps up
its fervour, even a very mediocre talent (in poli-
ticians, artists, etc. ) gradually becomes an almost
irresistible natural force.
531-
y The Enemy's Life. —He who lives by fighting
with an enemy has an interest in the preservation
of the enemy's life. *
* This is why Nietzsche pointed out later on that he had
an interest in the preservation of Christianity, and that he
was sure his teaching would not undermine this faith—just
as little as anarchists have undermined kings; but have left
them seated all the more firmly on their thrones. —J. M. K.


## p. 365 (#547) ############################################

MAN ALONE BY HIMSELF. 365
532.
More Important. — Unexplained, obscure
matters are regarded as more important than
explained, clear ones.
533-
Valuation of Services Rendered. —We
estimate services rendered to us according to the
value set on them by those who render them, not
according to the value they have for us.
534-
UNHAPPINESS. —The distinction associated with
unhappiness (as if it were a sign of stupidity, un-
ambitiousness, or commonplaceness to feel happy)
is so great that when any one says to us, " How
happy you are! " we usually protest.
535-
Imagination in Anguish. — When one is
afraid of anything, one's imagination plays the
part of that evil spirit which springs on one's back
just when one has the heaviest load to bear.
536.
The Value of Insipid Opponents. —We
sometimes remain faithful to a cause merely
because its opponents never cease to be insipid.
537-
The Value of a Profession. —A profession
makes us thoughtless; that is its greatest blessing.


## p. 366 (#548) ############################################

366 HUMAN, ALL-TOO-HUMAN.

For it is a bulwark behind which we are permitted
to withdraw when commonplace doubts and cares
assail us.
538.
Talent. —Many a man's talent appears less
than it is, because he has always set himself too
heavy tasks.
539-
YOUTH. —Youth is an unpleasant period; for
then it is not possible or not prudent to be pro-
ductive in any sense whatsoever.
540.
Too Great Aims. —Whoever aims publicly at
great things and at length perceives secretly that
he is too weak to achieve them, has usually also
insufficient strength to renounce his aims publicly,
and then inevitably becomes a hypocrite.
541.
In the Current. —Mighty waters sweep
many stones and shrubs away with them; mighty
spirits many foolish and confused minds.
S42.
The Dangers of Intellectual Emanci-
pation. —In a seriously intended intellectual
emancipation a person's mute passions and crav-
ings also hope to find their advantage.


## p. 367 (#549) ############################################

MAN ALONE BY HIMSELF. 367
543-
The Incarnation of the Mind. —When any
one thinks much and to good purpose, not only
his face but also his body acquires a sage look.
544-
Seeing Badly and Hearing Badly. —The
man who sees little always sees less than there is
to see; the man who hears badly always hears
something more than there is to hear.
545-
Self-Enjoyment in Vanity. —The vain man
does not wish so much to be prominent as to feel
himself prominent; he therefore disdains none of
the expedients for self-deception and self-out-
witting. It is not the opinion of others that he
sets his heart on, but his opinion of their opinion.
546.
Exceptionally Vain. —He who is usually
self-sufficient becomes exceptionally vain, and
keenly alive to fame and praise when he is
physically ill. The more he loses himself the
more he has to endeavour to regain his position
by means of the opinion of others.
. 547-
The " Witty. "—Those who seek wit do not
possess it.


## p. 367 (#550) ############################################

366 HUMAN, ALL-TOO-HUMAN.

For it is a bulwark behind which we are permitted
to withdraw when commonplace doubts and cares
assail us.
538.
TALENT. —Many a man's talent appears less
than it is, because he has always set himself too
heavy tasks.
539-
Youth. —Youth is an unpleasant period; for
then it is not possible or not prudent to be pro-
ductive in any sense whatsoever.
540.
Too Great Aims. —Whoever aims publicly at
great things and at length perceives secretly that
he is too weak to achieve them, has usually also
insufficient strength to renounce his aims publicly,
and then inevitably becomes a hypocrite.
541.
In the Current. —Mighty waters sweep
many stones and shrubs away with them; mighty
spirits many foolish and confused minds.
542.
The Dangers of Intellectual Emanci-
pation. —In a seriously intended intellectual
emancipation a person's mute passions and crav-
ings also hope to find their advantage.


## p. 367 (#551) ############################################

MAN ALONE BY HIMSELF. 367
543-
The Incarnation of the Mind. —When any
one thinks much and to good purpose, not only
his face but also his body acquires a sage look.
544-
Seeing Badly and Hearing Badly. —The
man who sees little always sees less than there is
to see; the man who hears badly always hears
something more than there is to hear.
545-
Self-Enjoyment in Vanity. —The vain man
does not wish so much to be prominent as to feel
himself prominent; he therefore disdains none of
the expedients for self-deception and self-out-
witting. It is not the opinion of others that he
sets his heart on, but his opinion of their opinion.
546.
Exceptionally Vain. —He who is usually
self-sufficient becomes exceptionally vain, and
keenly alive to fame and praise when he is
physically ill. The more he loses himself the
more he has to endeavour to regain his position
by means of the opinion of others.
'547-
The " Witty. "—Those who seek wit do not
possess it.


## p. 368 (#552) ############################################

368 HUMAN, ALL-TOO-HUMAN.
548.
A Hint to the Heads of Parties. —When
one can make people publicly support a cause they
have also generally been brought to the point of
inwardly declaring themselves in its favour, be-
cause they wish to be regarded as consistent.
549-
Contempt. —Man is more sensitive to the
contempt of others than to self-contempt.
5SO.
The Tie of Gratitude. . —There are servile
souls who carry so far their sense of obligation for
benefits received that they strangle themselves with
the tie of gratitude.
551.
The Prophet's Knack.
—In predicting before-
hand the procedure of ordinary individuals, it must
be taken for granted that they always make use
of the smallest intellectual expenditure in freeing
themselves from disagreeable situations.
552.
Man's Sole Right. —He who swerves from
the traditional is a victim of the unusual; he who
keeps to the traditional is its slave. The man is
ruined in either case.


## p. 369 (#553) ############################################

MAN ALONE BY HIMSELF. 369
553-
Below the Beast. —When a man roars with
laughter he surpasses all the animals by his
vulgarity.
554-
Partial Knowledge. —He who speaks a
foreign language imperfectly has more enjoyment
therein than he who speaks it well. The enjoy-
ment is with the partially initiated.
555-
Dangerous Helpfulness. —There are people
who wish to make human life harder for no other
reason than to be able afterwards to offer men
their life-alleviating recipes—their Christianity, for
example.
556.
Industriousness and Conscientiousness.
—Industriousness and conscientiousness are often
antagonists, owing to the fact that industrious-
ness wants to pluck the fruit sour from the tree
while conscientiousness wants to let it hang too
long, until it falls and is bruised.
557-
Casting Suspicion. —We endeavour to cast
suspicion on persons whom we cannot endure.
vol. 1. 2A


## p. 370 (#554) ############################################

370 HUMAN, ALL-TOO-HUMAN.
558.
The Conditions are Lacking. —Many people
wait all their lives for the opportunity to be good
in their own way.
5 59-
Lack of Friends. —Lack of friends leads to
the inference that a person is envious or presump-
tuous. Many a man owes his friends merely to the
fortunate circumstance that he has no occasion
for envy.
560.
Danger in Manifoldness. —With one talent
more we often stand less firmly than with one less;
just as a table stands better on three feet than on
561.
An Exemplar for Others. —Whoever wants
to set a good example must add a grain of folly
to his virtue; people then imitate their exemplar
and at the same time raise themselves above him,
a thing they love to do.
562.
Being a Target. —The bad things others say
about us are often not really aimed at us, but are
the manifestations of spite or ill-humour occasioned
by quite different causes.


## p. 371 (#555) ############################################

MAN ALONE BY HIMSELF. 371
563.
Easily Resigned. —We suffer but little on
account of ungratified wishes if we have exercised
our imagination in distorting the past.
S64.
In Danger. —One is in greatest danger of
being run over when one has just got out of
the way of a carriage.
S65.
The R6le According to the Voice. —
Whoever is obliged to speak louder than he
naturally does (say, to a partially deaf person
or before a large audience), usually exaggerates
what he has to communicate. Many a one
becomes a conspirator, malevolent gossip, or
intriguer, merely because his voice is best suited
for whispering.
566.
Love and Hatred. —Love and hatred are
not blind, but are dazzled by the fire which they
carry about with them.
567.
Advantageously Persecuted. —People who
cannot make their merits perfectly obvious to
the world endeavour to awaken a strong hostility
against themselves. They have then the consola-
tion of thinking that this hostility stands between
their merits and the acknowledgment thereof—


## p. 372 (#556) ############################################

372 HUMAN, ALL-TOO-HUMAN.
and that many others think the same thing,
which is very advantageous for their recognition.
568.
Confession. —We forget our fault when we
have confessed it to another person, but he does not
generally forget it.
569.
Self-Sufficiency. —The Golden Fleece of
self-sufficiency is a protection against blows, but
not against needle-pricks.
570.
Shadows in the Flame. —The flame is not
so bright to itself as to those whom it illuminates,
—so also the wise man.
571-
OUR Own Opinions. —The first opinion that
occurs to us when we are suddenly asked about
anything is not usually our own, but only the
current opinion belonging to our caste, position,
or family; our own opinions seldom float on
the surface.
572.
The Origin of Courage. —The ordinary
man is as courageous and invulnerable as a hero
when he does not see the danger, when he has
no eyes for it. Reversely, the hero has his one
vulnerable spot upon the back, where he has
no eyes.


## p. 373 (#557) ############################################

MAN ALONE BY HIMSELF. 373
573-
The Danger in the Physician. —One must
be born for one's physician, otherwise one comes
to grief through him.
574-
Marvellous Vanity. —Whoever has cour-
ageously prophesied the weather three times and
has been successful in his hits, acquires a certain
amount of inward confidence in his prophetic gift.
We give credence to the marvellous and irrational
when it flatters our self-esteem.
575-
A Profession. —A profession is the backbone
of life.
576.
The Danger of Personal Influence. —
Whoever feels that he exercises a great inward
influence over another person must give him a
perfectly free rein, must, in fact, welcome and
even induce occasional opposition, otherwise he
will inevitably make an enemy.
577-
Recognition of the Heir. —Whoever has
founded something great in an unselfish spirit
is careful to rear heirs for his work. It is the
sign of a tyrannical and ignoble nature to see
opponents in all possible heirs, and to live in a
state of self-defence against them.


## p. 374 (#558) ############################################

374 HUMAN, ALL-TOO-HUMAN.
578.
Partial Knowledge. —Partial knowledge is
more triumphant than complete knowledge; it
takes things to be simpler than they are, and
so makes its theory more popular and convincing.
579-
Unsuitable for a Party-Man. —Whoever
thinks much is unsuitable for a party-man; his
thinking leads him too quickly beyond the party.
580.
A Bad MEMORY. —The advantage of a bad
memory is that one enjoys several times the
same good things for the first time.
581.
Self-Affliction. —Want of consideration is
often the sign of a discordant inner nature, which
craves for stupefaction.
582.
MARTYRS. —The disciples of a martyr suffer
more than the martyr.
583.
Arrears of Vanity. —The vanity of many
people who have no occasion to be vain is the
inveterate habit, still surviving from the time
when people had no right to the belief in them-


## p. 375 (#559) ############################################

MAN ALONE BY HIMSELF. 375
selves and only begged it in small sums from
others.
584.
Punctum Saliens of Passion. —A person
falling into a rage or into a violent passion of
love reaches a point when the soul is full like
a hogshead, but nevertheless a drop of water has
still to be added, the good will for the passion
(which is also generally called the evil will).
This item only is necessary, and then the hogs-
head overflows.
585.
A Gloomy Thought. —It is with men as
with the charcoal fires in the forest. It is only
when young men have cooled down and have
got charred, like these piles, that they become
useful. As long as they fume and smoke they
are perhaps more interesting, but they are useless
and too often uncomfortable. Humanity ruthlessly
uses every individual as material for the heating
of its great machines; but what then is the purpose
of the machines, when all individuals (that is, the
human race) are useful only to maintain them?
Machines that are ends in themselves: is that the
umana corn-media?
586.
The Hour-hand of Life. —Life consists of
rare single moments of the greatest importance,
and of countless intervals during which, at best,
the phantoms of those moments hover around us.
Love, the Spring, every fine melody, the mountains,


## p. 376 (#560) ############################################

376 HUMAN, ALL-TOO-HUMAN.
the moon, the sea—all speak but once fully to
the heart, if, indeed, they ever do quite attain
to speech. For many people have not those
moments at all, and are themselves intervals and
pauses in the symphony of actual life.
587.
Attack or Compromise. —We often make
the mistake of showing violent enmity towards a
tendency, party, or period, because we happen
only to get a sight of its most exposed side, its
stuntedness, or the inevitable " faults of its virtues,"
—perhaps because we ourselves have taken a
prominent part in them. We then turn our
backs on them and seek a diametrically opposite
course; but the better way would be to seek out
their strong good sides, or to develop them in
ourselves. To be sure, a keener glance and a
better will are needed to improve the becoming
and the imperfect than are required to see through
it in its imperfection and to deny it.
588.
MODESTY. —There is true modesty (that is the
knowledge that we are not the works we create);
and it is especially becoming in a great mind,
because such a mind can well grasp the thought
of absolute irresponsibility (even for the good it
creates). People do not hate a great man's pre-
sumptuousness in so far as he feels his strength,
but because he wishes to prove it by injuring


## p. 377 (#561) ############################################

MAN ALONE BY HIMSELF. 377
others, by dominating them, and seeing how long
they will stand it. This, as a rule, is even a proof
of the absence of a secure sense of power, and
makes people doubt his greatness. We must
therefore beware of presumption from the stand-
point of wisdom.
5 89.
The Day's First Thought. —The best way
to begin a day well is to think, on awakening,
whether we cannot give pleasure during the day
to at least one person. If this could become a
substitute for the religious habit of prayer our
fellow-men would benefit by the change.
590.
Presumption as the Last Consolation. —
When we so interpret a misfortune, an intellectual
defect, or a disease that we see therein our pre-
destined fate, our trial, or the mysterious punish-
ment of our former misdeeds, we thereby make
our nature interesting and exalt ourselves in im-
agination above our fellows. The proud sinner
is a well-known figure in all religious sects.
591.
The Vegetation of Happiness. —Close be-
side the world's woe, and often upon its volcanic
soil, man has laid out his little garden of happiness.
Whether one regard life with the eyes of him
who only seeks knowledge therefrom, or of him
who submits and is resigned, or of him who re-


## p. 378 (#562) ############################################

378 HUMAN, ALL-TOO-HUMAN.
joices over surmounted difficulties—everywhere
one will find some happiness springing up beside
the evil—and in fact always the more happiness
the more volcanic the soil has been,—only it
would be absurd to say that suffering itself is
justified by this happiness.
592-
The Path of our Ancestors. —It is sensible
when a person develops still further in himself
the talent upon which his father or grandfather
spent much trouble, and does not shift to some-
thing entirely new; otherwise he deprives himself
of the possibility of attaining perfection in any
one craft. That is why the proverb says,
"Which road shouldst thou ride ? —That of thine
ancestors. "
593-
Vanity and Ambition as Educators. —As
long as a person has not become an instrument
of general utility, ambition may torment him; if,
however, that point has been reached, if he
necessarily works like a machine for the good of
all, then vanity may result; it will humanise him
in small matters and make him more sociable,
endurable, and considerate, when ambition has
completed the coarser work of making him
useful.
594-
Philosophical Novices. — Immediately we
have comprehended the wisdom of a philosopher,
we go through the streets with a feeling as if we


## p. 379 (#563) ############################################

MAN ALONE BY HIMSELF. 379
had been re-created and had become great men;
for we encounter only those who are ignorant of
this wisdom, and have therefore to deliver new and
unknown verdicts concerning everything. Because
we now recognise a law-book we think we must
also comport ourselves as judges.
595-
Pleasing by Displeasing. —People who pre-
fer to attract attention, and thereby to displease,
desire the same thing as those who neither wish
to please nor to attract attention, only they seek
it more ardently and indirectly by means of a
step by which they apparently move away from
their goal. They desire influence and power, and
therefore show their superiority, even to such an
extent that it becomes disagreeable; for they
know that he who has finally attained power
pleases in almost all he says and does, and that
even when he displeases he still seems to please.
The free spirit also, and in like manner the
believer, desire power, in order some day to please
thereby; when, on account of their doctrine, evil
fate, persecution, dungeon, or execution threaten
them, they rejoice in the thought that their
teaching will thus be engraved and branded on
the heart of mankind; though its effect is remote
they accept their fate as a painful but powerful
means of still attaining to power.
596.
Casus Belli and the Like. —The prince
who, for his determination to make war against


## p. 380 (#564) ############################################

380 HUMAN, ALL-TOO-HUMAN.
his neighbour, invents a casus belli, is like a father
who foists on his child a mother who is hence-
forth to be regarded as such. And are not almost
all publicly avowed motives of action just such
spurious mothers?
597-
Passion and Right. —Nobody talks more
passionately of his rights than he who, in the
depths of his soul, is doubtful about them. By
getting passion on his side he seeks to confound
his understanding and its doubts,—he thus obtains
a good conscience, and along with it success with
his fellow-men.
598.
The Trick of the Resigning One. —He
who protests against marriage, after the manner
of Catholic priests, will conceive of it in its lowest
and vulgarest form. In the same way he who
disavows the honour of his contemporaries will
have a mean opinion of it; he can thus dispense
with it and struggle against it more easily. More-
over, he who denies himself much in great matters
will readily indulge himself in small things. It
might be possible that he who is superior to the
approbation of his contemporaries would never-
theless not deny himself the gratification of small
vanities.
599-
The Years of Presumption. —The proper
period of presumption in gifted people is between
their twenty-sixth and thirtieth years; it is the
time of early ripeness, with a large residue of


## p. 381 (#565) ############################################

MAN ALONE BY HIMSELF. 381
sourness. On the ground of what we feel within
ourselves we demand honour and humility from
men who see little or nothing of it, and because
this tribute is not immediately forthcoming we
revenge ourselves by the look, the gesture of
arrogance, and the tone of voice, which a keen ear
and eye recognise in every product of those years,
whether it be poetry, philosophy, or pictures and
music. Older men of experience smile thereat,
and think with emotion of those beautiful years
in which one resents the fate of being so much
and seeming so little. Later on one really seems
more,—but one has lost the good belief in being
much,—unless one remain for life an incorrigible
fool of vanity.
600.
Deceptive and yet Defensible. —Just as
in order to pass by an abyss or to cross a deep
stream on a plank we require a railing, not to
hold fast by,—for it would instantly break down
with us,—but to give the notion of security to
the eye, so in youth we require persons who
unconsciously render us the service of that
railing. It is true they would not help us if
we really wished to lean upon them in great
danger, but they afford the tranquillising sensation
of protection close to one (for instance, fathers,
teachers, friends, as all three usually are).
601.
Learning to Love. —One must learn to
love, one must learn to be kind, and this from


## p. 382 (#566) ############################################

382 HUMAN, ALL-TOO-HUMAN.
childhood onwards; when education and chance
give us no opportunity for the exercise of these
feelings our soul becomes dried up, and even in-
capable of understanding the fine devices of
loving men. In the same way hatred must be
learnt and fostered, when one wants to become
a proficient hater,—otherwise the germ of it will
gradually die out.