The
Conditions
for God.
Nietzsche - v10 - The Joyful Wisdom
118.
Benevolence. —Is it virtuous when a cell trans-
forms itself into the function of a stronger cell? It
must do so. And is it wicked when the stronger one
assimilates the other? It must do so likewise: it
is necessary, for it has to have abundant indemnity
and seeks to regenerate itself. One has there-
fore to distinguish the instinct of appropriation,
and the instinct of submission, in benevolence,
according as the stronger or the weaker feels
benevolent. Gladness and covetousness are united
in the stronger person, who wants to trans-
form something to his function: gladness and
desire-to-be-coveted in the weaker person, who
would like to become a function. —The former
case is essentially pity, a pleasant excitation of
the instinct of appropriation at the sight of the
weaker: it is to be remembered, however, that
"strong" and "weak " are relative conceptions.
119.
No Altruism ! —I see in many men an excessive
impulse and delight in wanting to be a function;
they strive after it, and have the keenest scent
for all those positions in which precisely they
themselves can be functions. Among such persons
## p. 163 (#207) ############################################
THE JOYFUL WISDOM, III 163
are those women who transform themselves into
just that function of a man that is but weakly
developed in him, and then become his purse, or
his politics, or his social intercourse. Such beings
maintain themselves best when they insert them-
selves in an alien organism; if they do not
succeed they become vexed, irritated, and eat
themselves up.
120.
Health of the Soul. —The favourite medico-moral
formula (whose originator was Ariston of Chios),
"Virtue is the health of the soul," would, at least
in order to be used, have to be altered to this:
"Thy virtue is the health of thy soul. " For there
is no such thing as health in itself, and all attempts
to define a thing in that way have lamentably
failed. It is necessary to know thy aim, thy
horizon, thy powers, thy impulses, thy errors, and
especially the ideals and fantasies of thy soul, in
order to determine what health implies even for thy
body. There are consequently innumerable kinds of
physical health; and the more one again permits
the unique and unparalleled to raise its head, the
more one unlearns the dogma of the "Equality of
men," so much the more also must the conception
of a normal health, together with a normal diet and
a normal course of disease, be abrogated by our
physicians. And then only would it be time to
turn our thoughts to the health and disease of
the soul and make the special virtue of everyone
consist in its health; but, to be sure, what appeared
as health in one person might appear as the con-
## p. 164 (#208) ############################################
164 THE JOYFUL WISDOM, III
trary of health in another. In the end the great
question might still remain open : whether we could
do without sickness, even for the development of
our virtue, and whether our thirst for knowledge
and self-knowledge would not especially need the
sickly soul as well as the sound one; in short,
whether the mere will to health is not a prejudice,
a cowardice, and perhaps an instance of the subtlest
barbarism and unprogressiveness.
121.
Life no Argument. —We have arranged for our-
selves a world in which we can live—by the
postulating of bodies, lines, surfacesK causes and
effects, motion and rest, form and content: without
these articles of faith no one could manage to live
at present! But for all that they are still unproved.
Life is no argument; error might be among the
conditions of life.
122.
The Element of Moral Scepticism in Christianity.
—Christianity also has made a great contribution
to enlightenment, and has taught moral scepticism
in a very impressive and effective manner—
accusing and embittering, but with untiring
patience and subtlety; it annihilated in every
individual the belief in his virtues: it made the
great virtuous ones, of whom antiquity had no lack,
vanish for ever from the earth, those popular men,
who, in the belief in their perfection, walked about
with the dignity of a hero of the bull-fight. When,
trained in this Christian school of scepticism, we
## p. 165 (#209) ############################################
THE JOYFUL WISDOM, III l6$
now read the moral books of the ancients, for
example those of Seneca and Epictetus, we feel
a pleasurable superiority, and are full of secret
insight and penetration,—it seems to us as if a child
talked before an old man, or a pretty, gushing girl
before La Rochefoucauld :—we know better what
virtue is! After all, however, we have applied the
same scepticism to all religious states and processes,
such as sin, repentance, grace, sanctification, &c, and
have allowed the worm to burrow so well, that we
have now the same feeling of subtle superiority and
insight even in reading all Christian books:—we
know also the religious feelings better! And it is
time to know them well and describe them well,
for the pious ones of the old belief die out also;
let us save their likeness and type, at least for the
sake of knowledge.
123.
Knowledge more than a Means. —Also without
this passion—I refer to the passion for knowledge
—science would be furthered: science has hitherto
increased and grown up without it. The good
faith in science, the prejudice in its favour, by
which States are at present dominated (it was even
the Church formerly), rests fundamentally on the
fact that the absolute inclination and impulse has
so rarely revealed itself in it, and that science
is regarded not as a passion, but as a condition
and an "ethos. " Indeed, amour-plaisir of know-
ledge (curiosity) often enough suffices, amour-vanitc
suffices, and habituation to it, with the afterthought
of obtaining honour and bread; it even suffices
## p. 166 (#210) ############################################
166 THE JOYFUL WISDOM, III
for many that they do not know what to do with
a surplus of leisure, except to continue reading,
collecting, arranging, observing and narrating; their
"scientific impulse" is their ennui. Pope Leo X.
once (in the brief to Beroaldus) sang the praise of
science; he designated it as the finest ornament
and the greatest pride of our life, a noble employ-
ment in happiness and in misfortune ; " without it,"
he says finally, "all human undertakings would be
without a firm basis,—even with it they are still
sufficiently mutable and insecure! " But this rather
sceptical Pope, like all other ecclesiastical pane-
gyrists of science, suppressed his ultimate judg-
ment concerning it. If one may deduce from his
words what is remarkable enough for such a lover
of art, that he places science above art, it is after
all, however, only from politeness that he omits to
speak of that which he places high above all science:
the "revealed truth," and the "eternal salvation of
the soul,"—what are ornament, pride, entertainment
and security of life to him, in comparison thereto?
"Science is something of secondary rank, nothing
ultimate or unconditioned, no object of passion "—
this judgment was kept back in Leo's soul: the
truly Christian judgment concerning science! In
antiquity its dignity and appreciation were lessened
by the fact that, even among its most eager
disciples, the striving after virtue stood foremost,
and that people thought they had given the highest
praise to knowledge when they celebrated it as the
best means to virtue. It is something new in
history that knowledge claims to be more than
a means.
## p. 167 (#211) ############################################
THE JOYFUL WISDOM, III 167
124.
In the Horizon of the Infinite. —We have left the
land and have gone aboard ship! We have broken
down the bridge behind us,—nay, more, the land
behind us! Well, little ship! look out! Beside
thee is the ocean; it is true it does not always
roar, and sometimes it spreads out like silk and
gold and a gentle reverie. But times will come
when thou wilt feel that it is infinite, and that
there is nothing more frightful than infinity. Oh,
the poor bird that felt itself free, and now strikes
against the walls of this cage! Alas, if home-
sickness for the land should attack thee, as if there
had been more freedom there,—and there is no
"land " any longer!
125.
The Madman. — Have you ever heard of the
madman who on a bright morning lighted a lantern
and ran to the market-place calling out unceasingly:
"I seek God! I seek God ! "—As there were many
people standing about who did not believe in God,
he caused a great deal of amusement. Why! is
he lost? said one. Has he strayed away like a
child? said another. Or does he keep himself
hidden? Is he afraid of us? Has he taken a sea-
voyage? Has he emigrated ? — the people cried
out laughingly, all in a hubbub. The insane man
jumped into their midst and transfixed them with
his glances. "Where is God gone? " he called out.
"I mean to tell you! We have killed him,—you
and I! We are all his murderers! But how have
we done it? How were we able to drink up the
## p. 168 (#212) ############################################
168 THE JOYFUL WISDOM, III
sea? Who gave us the sponge to wipe away the
whole horizon? What did we do when we loosened
this earth from its sun? Whither does it now
move? Whither do we move? Away from all
suns? Do we not dash on unceasingly? Back-
wards, sideways, forewards, in all directions? Is
there still an above and below? Do we not stray,
as through infinite nothingness? Does not empty
space breathe upon us? Has it not become colder?
Does not night come on continually, darker and
darker? Shall we not have to light lanterns in
the morning? Do we not hear the noise of the
grave-diggers who are burying God? Do we not
smell the divine putrefaction ? — for even Gods
putrefy! God is dead! God remains dead! And
we have killed him! How shall we console our-
selves, the most murderous of all murderers? The
holiest and the mightiest that the world has hitherto
possessed, has bled to death under our knife,—who
will wipe the blood from us? With what water
could we cleanse ourselves? What lustrums, what
sacred games shall we have to devise? Is not the
magnitude of this deed too great for us? Shall we
not ourselves have to become Gods, merely to seem
worthy of it? There never was a greater event,—
and on account of it, all who are born after us
belong to a higher history than any history
hitherto! " — Here the madman was silent and
looked again at his hearers; they also were silent
and looked at him in surprise. At last he threw
his lantern on the ground, so that it broke in
pieces and was extinguished. "I come too early,"
he then said, " I am not yet at the right time. This
## p. 169 (#213) ############################################
THE JOYFUL WISDOM, III 169
prodigious event is still on its way, and is travelling,
—it has not yet reached men's ears. Lightning
and thunder need time, the light of the stars needs
time, deeds need time, even after they are done, to
be seen and heard. This deed is as yet further
from them than the furthest star,—and yet they have
done it! "—It is further stated that the madman
made his way into different churches on the same
day, and there intoned his Requiem aeternam deo.
When led out and called to account, he always gave
the reply: "What are these churches now, if they
are not the tombs and monuments of God ? "—
126.
Mystical Explanations. —Mystical explanations
are regarded as profound; the truth is that they do
not even go the length of being superficial.
127.
After-Effect of the most Ancient Religiousness. —
The thoughtless man thinks that the Will is the
only thing that operates, that willing is something
simple, manifestly given, underived, and comprehen-
sible in itself. He is convinced that when he does
anything, for example, when he delivers a blow,
it is he who strikes, and he has struck because
he willed to strike. He does not notice any-
thing of a problem therein, but the feeling of
willing suffices to him, not only for the acceptance
of cause and effect, but also for the belief that he
understands their relationship. Of the mechanism
of the occurrence and of the manifold subtle opera-
## p. 170 (#214) ############################################
170 THE JOYFUL WISDOM, III
tions that must be performed in order that the
blow may result, and likewise of the incapacity
of the Will in itself to effect even the smallest part
of those operations—he knows nothing. The Will
is to him a magically operating force; the belief
in the Will as the cause of effects is the belief in
magicallyoperating forces. In fact, whenever he saw
anything happen, man originally believed in a Will
as cause, and in personally willing beings operating
in the background,—the conception of mechanism
was very remote from him. Because, however, man
for immense periods of time believed only in
persons (and not in matter, forces, things, &c),
the belief in cause and effect has become a funda-
mental belief with him, which he applies every-
where when anything happens,—and even still uses
instinctively as a piece of atavism of remotest origin.
The propositions, " No effect without a cause," and
"Every effect again implies a cause," appear as
generalisations of several less general propositions:
—"Where there is operation there has been willing"
"Operating is only possible on willing beings. "
"There is never a pure, resultless experience of
activity, but every experience involves stimulation
of the Will" (to activity, defence, revenge or retalia-
tion). But in the primitive period of the human
race, the latter and the former propositions were
identical, the first were not generalisations of the
second, but the second were explanations of the
first. —Schopenhauer, with his assumption that all
that exists is something volitional, has set a primi-
tive mythology on the throne; he seems never to
have attempted an analysis of the Will, because
## p. 171 (#215) ############################################
THE JOYFUL WISDOM, III 171
he believed like everybody in the simplicity and
immediateness of all volition:—while volition is
in fact such a cleverly practised mechanical process
that it almost escapes the observing eye. I set the
following propositions against those of Schopen-
hauer :—Firstly, in order that Will may arise, an
idea of pleasure and pain is necessary. Secondly,
that a vigorous excitation may be felt as pleasure
or pain, is the affair of the interpreting intellect,
which, to be sure, operates thereby for the most part
unconsciously to us, and one and the same excita-
tion may be interpreted as pleasure or pain. Thirdly,
it is only in an intellectual being that there is
pleasure, displeasure and Will; the immense
majority of organisms have nothing of the kind.
128.
The Value of Prayer. —Prayer has been devised
for such men as have never any thoughts of their
own, and to whom an elevation of the soul is un-
known, or passes unnoticed; what shall these
people do in holy places and in all important situa-
tions in life which require repose and some kind of
dignity? In order at least that they may not dis-
turb, the wisdom of all the founders of religions, the
small as well as the great, has commended to them
the formula of prayer, as a long mechanical labour
of the lips, united with an effort of the memory,
and with a uniform, prescribed attitude of hands
and feet—and eyes! They may then, like the
Tibetans, chew the cud of their "om mane padme
hum" innumerable times, or, as in Benares, count the
name of God Ram-Ram-Ram (and so on, with or
## p. 172 (#216) ############################################
172 THE JOYFUL WISDOM, III
without grace) on their fingers; or honour Vishnu
with his thousand names of invocation, Allah with
his ninety-nine; or they may make use of the
prayer-wheels and the rosary: the main thing is
that they are settled down for a time at this
work, and present a tolerable appearance; their
mode of prayer is devised for the advantage of
the pious who have thought and elevation of their
own. But even these have their weary hours when
a series of venerable words and sounds and a
mechanical, pious ritual does them good. But sup-
posing that these rare men—in every religion the
religious man is an exception—know how to help
themselves, the poor in spirit do not know, and
to forbid them the prayer-babbling would mean
to take their religion from them, a fact which
Protestantism brings more and more to light. All
that religion wants with such persons is that they
should keep still with their eyes, hands, legs, and
all their organs: they thereby become temporarily
beautified and—more human-looking!
129.
The Conditions for God. —" God himself cannot
subsist without wise men," said Luther, and with
good reason; but "God can still less subsist with-
out unwise men,"—good Luther did not say that!
130.
A Dangerous Resolution. —The Christian resolu-
tion to find the world ugly and bad has made the
world ugly and bad.
## p. 173 (#217) ############################################
THE JOYFUL WISDOM, III 173
131-
Christianity and Suicide. —Christianity made use
of the excessive longing for suicide at the time of
its origin as a lever for its power: it left only two
forms of suicide, invested them with the highest
dignity and the highest hopes, and forbade all
others in a dreadful manner. But martyrdom and
the slow self-annihilation of the ascetic were
permitted.
132.
Against Christianity. —It is now no longer our
reason, but our taste that decides against
Christianity.
133.
Axioms. —An unavoidable hypothesis on which
mankind must always fall back again, is, in the
long run, more powerful than the most firmly
believed belief in something untrue (like the
Christian belief). In the long run: that means
a hundred thousand years from now.
134-
Pessimists as Victims. —When a profound dislike
of existence gets the upper hand, the after-effect
of a great error in diet of which a people has been
long guilty comes to light. The spread of Buddhism
(not its origin) is thus to a considerable extent
dependent on the excessive and almost exclusive
rice-fare of the Indians, and on the universal
enervation that results therefrom. Perhaps the
modern, European discontentedness is to be looked
## p. 173 (#218) ############################################
172 THE JOYFUL WISDOM, HI
without grace) on their fingers; or honour Vishnu
with his thousand names of invocation, Allah with
his ninety-nine; or they may make use of the
prayer-wheels and the rosary: the main thing is
that they are settled down for a time at this
work, and present a tolerable appearance; their
mode of prayer is devised for the advantage of
the pious who have thought and elevation of their
own. But even these have their weary hours when
a series of venerable words and sounds and a
mechanical, pious ritual does them good. But sup.
posing that these rare men—in every religion the
religious man is an exception—know how to help
themselves, the poor in spirit do not know, and
to forbid them the prayer-babbling would mean
to take their religion from them, a fact which
Protestantism brings more and more to light . All
that religion wants with such persons is that they
should keep still with their eyes, hands, legs, and
all their organs: they thereby become temporarily
beautified and—more human-looking!
129.
The Conditions for God. —" God himself cannot
subsist without wise men," said Luther, and with
good reason; but "God can still less subsist with-
out unwise men,"—good Luther did not say that!
130.
A Dangerous Resolution. —The Christian resolu-
tion to find the world ugly and bad has made the
world ugly and bad.
## p. 173 (#219) ############################################
THE JOYFUL WISDOM, III 173
131-
Christianity and Suicide. —Christianity made use
of the excessive longing for suicide at the time of
its origin as a lever for its power: it left only two
forms of suicide, invested them with the highest
dignity and the highest hopes, and forbade all
others in a dreadful manner. But martyrdom and
the slow self-annihilation of the ascetic were
permitted.
132.
Against Christianity. —It is now no longer our
reason, but our taste that decides against
Christianity.
133-
Axioms. —An unavoidable hypothesis on which
mankind must always fall back again, is, in the
long run, more pozverful than the most firmly
believed belief in something untrue (like the
Christian belief). In the long run: that means
a hundred thousand years from now.
134-
Pessimists as Victims. —When a profound dislike
of existence gets the upper hand, the after-effect
of a great error in diet of which a people has been
long guilty comes to light. The spread of Buddhism
[not its origin) is thus to a considerable extent
dependent on the excessive and almost exclusive
rice-fare of the Indians, and on the universal
enervation that results therefrom. Perhaps the
modern, European discontentedness is to be looked
## p. 173 (#220) ############################################
172 THE JOYFUL WISDOM, HI
without grace) on their fingers; or honour Vishnu
with his thousand names of invocation, Allah with
his ninety-nine; or they may make use of the
prayer-wheels and the rosary: the main thing is
that they are settled down for a time at this
work, and present a tolerable appearance; their
mode of prayer is devised for the advantage of
the pious who have thought and elevation of their
own. But even these have their weary hours when
a series of venerable words and sounds and a
mechanical, pious ritual does them good. But sup-
posing that these rare men—in every religion the
religious man is an exception—know how to help
themselves, the poor in spirit do not know, and
to forbid them the prayer-babbling would mean
to take their religion from them, a fact which
Protestantism brings more and more to light . All
that religion wants with such persons is that they
should keep still with their eyes, hands, legs, and
all their organs: they thereby become temporarily
beautified and—more human-looking!
129.
The Conditions for God. —" God himself cannot
subsist without wise men," said Luther, and with
good reason; but " God can still less subsist with-
out unwise men,"—good Luther did not say that!
130.
A Dangerous Resolution. —The Christian resolu-
tion to find the world ugly and bad has made the
world ugly and bad.
## p. 173 (#221) ############################################
THE JOYFUL WISDOM, III 173
131.
Christianity and Suicide. —Christianity made use
of the excessive longing for suicide at the time of
its origin as a lever for its power: it left only two
forms of suicide, invested them with the highest
dignity and the highest hopes, and forbade all
others in a dreadful manner. But martyrdom and
the slow self-annihilation of the ascetic were
permitted.
132.
Against Christianity. —It is now no longer our
reason, but our taste that decides against
Christianity.
133-
Axioms. —An unavoidable hypothesis on which
mankind must always fall back again, is, in the
long run, more powerful than the most firmly
believed belief in something untrue (like the
Christian belief). In the long run: that means
a hundred thousand years from now.
134-
Pessimists as Victims. —When a profound dislike
of existence gets the upper hand, the after-effect
of a great error in diet of which a people has been
long guilty comes to light. The spread of Buddhism
{not its origin) is thus to a considerable extent
dependent on the excessive and almost exclusive
rice-fare of the Indians, and on the universal
enervation that results therefrom. Perhaps the
modern, European discontentedness is to be looked
## p. 173 (#222) ############################################
172 THE JOYFUL WISDOM, III
without grace) on their fingers; or honour Vishnu
with his thousand names of invocation, Allah with
his ninety-nine; or they may make use of the
prayer-wheels and the rosary: the main thing is
that they are settled down for a time at this
work, and present a tolerable appearance; their
mode of prayer is devised for the advantage of
the pious who have thought and elevation of their
own. But even these have their weary hours when
a series of venerable words and sounds and a
mechanical, pious ritual does them good. But sup-
posing that these rare men—in every religion the
religious man is an exception—know how to help
themselves, the poor in spirit do not know, and
to forbid them the prayer-babbling would mean
to take their religion from them, a fact which
Protestantism brings more and more to light . All
that religion wants with such persons is that they
should keep still with their eyes, hands, legs, and
all their organs: they thereby become temporarily
beautified and—more human-looking!
129.
T/i e Conditions for God. —" God himself cannot
subsist without wise men," said Luther, and with
good reason; but " God can still less subsist with-
out unwise men,"—good Luther did not say that!
130.
A Dangerous Resolution. —The Christian resolu-
tion to find the world ugly and bad has made the
world ugly and bad.
## p. 173 (#223) ############################################
THE JOYFUL WISDOM, III 173
131-
Christianity and Suicide. —Christianity made use
of the excessive longing for suicide at the time of
its origin as a lever for its power: it left only two
forms of suicide, invested them with the highest
dignity and the highest hopes, and forbade all
others in a dreadful manner. But martyrdom and
the slow self-annihilation of the ascetic were
permitted.
132.
Against Christianity. —It is now no longer our
reason, but our taste that decides against
Christianity.
133.
Axioms. —An unavoidable hypothesis on which
mankind must always fall back again, is, in the
long run, more powerful than the most firmly
believed belief in something untrue (like the
Christian belief). In the long run: that means
a hundred thousand years from now.
134.
Pessimists as Victims. —When a profound dislike
of existence gets the upper hand, the after-effect
of a great error in diet of which a people has been
long guilty comes to light. The spread of Buddhism
{not its origin) is thus to a considerable extent
dependent on the excessive and almost exclusive
rice-fare of the Indians, and on the universal
enervation that results therefrom. Perhaps the
modern, European discontentedness is to be looked
## p. 173 (#224) ############################################
172 THE JOYFUL WISDOM, HI
without grace) on their fingers; or honour Vishnu
with his thousand names of invocation, Allah with
his ninety-nine; or they may make use of the
prayer-wheels and the rosary: the main thing is
that they are settled down for a time at this
work, and present a tolerable appearance; their
mode of prayer is devised for the advantage of
the pious who have thought and elevation of their
own. But even these have their weary hours when
a series of venerable words and sounds and a
mechanical, pious ritual does them good. But sup-
posing that these rare men—in every religion the
religious man is an exception—know how to help
themselves, the poor in spirit do not know, and
to forbid them the prayer-babbling would mean
to take their religion from them, a fact which
Protestantism brings more and more to light . All
that religion wants with such persons is that they
should keep still with their eyes, hands, legs, and
all their organs: they thereby become temporarily
beautified and—more human-looking!
129.
T/i e Conditions for God. —" God himself cannot
subsist without wise men," said Luther, and with
good reason; but " God can still less subsist with-
out unwise men,"—good Luther did not say that!
130.
A Dangerous Resolution. —The Christian resolu-
tion to find the world ugly and bad has made the
world ugly and bad.
## p. 173 (#225) ############################################
THE JOYFUL WISDOM, HI 173
131-
Christianity and Suicide. —Christianity made use
of the excessive longing for suicide at the time of
its origin as a lever for its power: it left only two
forms of suicide, invested them with the highest
dignity and the highest hopes, and forbade all
others in a dreadful manner. But martyrdom and
the slow self-annihilation of the ascetic were
permitted.
132.
Against Christianity. —It is now no longer our
reason, but our taste that decides against
Christianity.
133-
Axioms. —An unavoidable hypothesis on which
mankind must always fall back again, is, in the
long run, more powerful than the most firmly
believed belief in something untrue (like the
Christian belief). In the long run: that means
a hundred thousand years from now.
134-
Pessimists as Victims. —When a profound dislike
of existence gets the upper hand, the after-effect
of a great error in diet of which a people has been
long guilty comes to light. The spread of Buddhism
{not its origin) is thus to a considerable extent
dependent on the excessive and almost exclusive
rice-fare of the Indians, and on the universal
enervation that results therefrom. Perhaps the
modern, European discontentedness is to be looked
## p. 173 (#226) ############################################
172 THE JOYFUL WISDOM, HI
without grace) on their fingers; or honour Vishnu
with his thousand names of invocation, Allah with
his ninety-nine; or they may make use of the
prayer-wheels and the rosary: the main thing is
that they are settled down for a time at this
work, and present a tolerable appearance; their
mode of prayer is devised for the advantage of
the pious who have thought and elevation of their
own. But even these have their weary hours when
a series of venerable words and sounds and a
mechanical, pious ritual does them good. But sup-
posing that these rare men—in every religion the
religious man is an exception—know how to help
themselves, the poor in spirit do not know, and
to forbid them the prayer-babbling would mean
to take their religion from them, a fact which
Protestantism brings more and more to light . All
that religion wants with such persons is that they
should keep still with their eyes, hands, legs, and
all their organs: they thereby become temporarily
beautified and—more human-looking!
129.
T/ie Conditions for God. —" God himself cannot
subsist without wise men," said Luther, and with
good reason; but " God can still less subsist with-
out unwise men,"—good Luther did not say that!
130.
A Dangerous Resolution. —The Christian resolu-
tion to find the world ugly and bad has made the
world ugly and bad.
## p. 173 (#227) ############################################
THE JOYFUL WISDOM, III 173
131-
Christianity and Suicide. —Christianity made use
of the excessive longing for suicide at the time of
its origin as a lever for its power: it left only two
forms of suicide, invested them with the highest
dignity and the highest hopes, and forbade all
others in a dreadful manner. But martyrdom and
the slow self-annihilation of the ascetic were
permitted.
132.
Against Christianity. —It is now no longer our
reason, but our taste that decides against
Christianity.
133-
Axioms. —An unavoidable hypothesis on which
mankind must always fall back again, is, in the
long run, more powerful than the most firmly
believed belief in something untrue (like the
Christian belief). In the long run: that means
a hundred thousand years from now.
134-
Pessimists as Victims. —When a profound dislike
of existence gets the upper hand, the after-effect
of a great error in diet of which a people has been
long guilty comes to light. The spread of Buddhism
{not its origin) is thus to a considerable extent
dependent on the excessive and almost exclusive
rice-fare of the Indians, and on the universal
enervation that results therefrom. Perhaps the
modern, European discontentedness is to be looked
## p. 173 (#228) ############################################
172 THE JOYFUL WISDOM, III
without grace) on their fingers; or honour Vishnu
with his thousand names of invocation, Allah with
his ninety-nine; or they may make use of the
prayer-wheels and the rosary: the main thing is
that they are settled down for a time at this
work, and present a tolerable appearance; their
mode of prayer is devised for the advantage of
the pious who have thought and elevation of their
own. But even these have their weary hours when
a series of venerable words and sounds and a
mechanical, pious ritual does them good. But sup.
posing that these rare men—in every religion the
religious man is an exception—know how to help
themselves, the poor in spirit do not know, and
to forbid them the prayer-babbling would mean
to take their religion from them, a fact which
Protestantism brings more and more to light . All
that religion wants with such persons is that they
should keep still with their eyes, hands, legs, and
all their organs: they thereby become temporarily
beautified and—more human-looking!
129.
T/i e Conditions for God. —" God himself cannot
subsist without wise men," said Luther, and with
good reason; but "God can still less subsist with-
out unwise men,"—good Luther did not say that!
130.
A Dangerous Resolution. —The Christian resolu-
tion to find the world ugly and bad has made the
world ugly and bad.
## p. 173 (#229) ############################################
THE JOYFUL WISDOM, III 173
131-
Christianity and Suicide. —Christianity made use
of the excessive longing for suicide at the time of
its origin as a lever for its power: it left only two
forms of suicide, invested them with the highest
dignity and the highest hopes, and forbade all
others in a dreadful manner. But martyrdom and
the slow self-annihilation of the ascetic were
permitted.
132.
Against Christianity. —It is now no longer our
reason, but our taste that decides against
Christianity.
133-
Axioms. —An unavoidable hypothesis on which
mankind must always fall back again, is, in the
long run, more powerful than the most firmly
believed belief in something untrue (like the
Christian belief). In the long run: that means
a hundred thousand years from now.
134-
Pessimists as Victims. —When a profound dislike
of existence gets the upper hand, the after-effect
of a great error in diet of which a people has been
long guilty comes to light. The spread of Buddhism
(not its origin) is thus to a considerable extent
dependent on the excessive and almost exclusive
rice-fare of the Indians, and on the universal
enervation that results therefrom. Perhaps the
modern, European discontentedness is to be looked
## p. 173 (#230) ############################################
172 THE JOYFUL WISDOM, III
without grace) on their fingers; or honour Vishnu
with his thousand names of invocation, Allah with
his ninety-nine; or they may make use of the
prayer-wheels and the rosary: the main thing is
that they are settled down for a time at this
work, and present a tolerable appearance; their
mode of prayer is devised for the advantage of
the pious who have thought and elevation of their
own. But even these have their weary hours when
a series of venerable words and sounds and a
mechanical, pious ritual does them good. But sup-
posing that these rare men—in every religion the
religious man is an exception—know how to help
themselves, the poor in spirit do not know, and
to forbid them the prayer-babbling would mean
to take their religion from them, a fact which
Protestantism brings more and more to light . All
that religion wants with such persons is that they
should keep still with their eyes, hands, legs, and
all their organs: they thereby become temporarily
beautified and—more human-looking!
129.
The Conditions for God. —" God himself cannot
subsist without wise men," said Luther, and with
good reason; but "God can still less subsist with-
out unwise men,"—good Luther did not say that!
130.
A Dangerous Resolution. —The Christian resolu-
tion to find the world ugly and bad has made the
world ugly and bad.
## p. 173 (#231) ############################################
THE JOYFUL WISDOM, III 173
131-
Christianity and Suicide. —Christianity made use
of the excessive longing for suicide at the time of
its origin as a lever for its power: it left only two
forms of suicide, invested them with the highest
dignity and the highest hopes, and forbade all
others in a dreadful manner. But martyrdom and
the slow self-annihilation of the ascetic were
permitted.
132.
Against Christianity. —It is now no longer our
reason, but our taste that decides against
Christianity.
133-
Axioms. —An unavoidable hypothesis on which
mankind must always fall back again, is, in the
long run, more pozverful than the most firmly
believed belief in something untrue (like the
Christian belief). In the long run: that means
a hundred thousand years from now.
134-
Pessimists as Victims. —When a profound dislike
of existence gets the upper hand, the after-effect
of a great error in diet of which a people has been
long guilty comes to light. The spread of Buddhism
(not its origin) is thus to a considerable extent
dependent on the excessive and almost exclusive
rice-fare of the Indians, and on the universal
enervation that results therefrom. Perhaps the
modern, European discontentedness is to be looked
## p. 174 (#232) ############################################
174 THE JOYFUL WISDOM, III
upon as caused by the fact that the world of our
forefathers, the whole Middle Ages, was given to
drink, owing to the influence of German tastes in
Europe: the Middle Ages, that means the alcoholic
poisoning of Europe. —The German dislike of life
(including the influence of the cellar-air and stove-
poison in German dwellings), is essentially a cold-
weather complaint.
135-
Origin of Sin. —Sin, as it is at present felt
wherever Christianity prevails or has prevailed, is
a Jewish feeling and a Jewish invention; and in
respect to this background of all Christian morality,
Christianity has in fact aimed at "Judaising" the
whole world. To what an extent this has suc-
ceeded in Europe is traced most accurately in the
extent of our alienness to Greek antiquity—a world
without the feeling of sin—in our sentiments even
at present; in spite of all the good will to approxi-
mation and assimilation, which whole generations
and many distinguished individuals have not
failed to display. "Only when thou repenttst is
God gracious to thee"—that would arouse the
laughter or the wrath of a Greek: he would say,
"Slaves may have such sentiments. " Here a
mighty being, an almighty being, and yet a re-
vengeful being, is presupposed; his power is so
great that no injury whatever can be done to him,
except in the point of honour. Every sin is an
infringement of respect, a crimen lessee majestatis
divinee—and nothing more! Contrition, degrada-
tion, rolling-in-the-dust,—these are the first and
## p. 175 (#233) ############################################
THE JOYFUL WISDOM, III 175
last conditions on which his favour depends: the
restoration, therefore, of his divine honour! If
injury be caused otherwise by sin, if a profound,
spreading evil be propagated by it, an evil which,
like a disease, attacks and strangles one man after
another—that does not trouble this honour-craving
Oriental in heaven; sin is an offence against him,
not against mankind! —to him on whom he has
bestowed his favour he bestows also this indiffer-
ence to the natural consequences of sin. God
and mankind are here thought of as separated,
as so antithetical that sin against the latter cannot
be at all possible,—all deeds are to be looked upon
solely with respect to their supernatural consequences,
and not with respect to their natural results: it is
thus that the Jewish feeling, to which all that is
natural seems unworthy in itself, would have things.
The Greeks, on the other hand, were more familiar
with the thought that transgression also may have
dignity,—even theft, as in the case of Prometheus,
even the slaughtering of cattle as the expression of
frantic jealousy, as in the case of Ajax; in their
need to attribute dignity to transgression and
embody it therein, they invented tragedy,—an art
and a delight, which in its profoundest essence
has remained alien to the Jew, in spite of all his
poetic endowment and taste for the sublime.
136.
The Chosen People. —The Jews, who regard them-
selves as the chosen people among the nations, and
that too because they are the moral genius among
the nations (in virtue of their capacity for despising
## p. 176 (#234) ############################################
176 THE JOYFUL WISDOM, III
the human in themselves more than any other
people)—the Jews have a pleasure in their divine
monarch and saint similar to that which the French
nobility had in Louis XIV. This nobility had
allowed its power and autocracy to be taken from
it, and had become contemptible: in order not to
feel this, in order to be able to forget it, an un-
equalled royal magnificence, royal authority and
plenitude of power was needed, to which there was
access only for the nobility. As in accordance
with this privilege they raised themselves to the
elevation of the court, and from that elevation saw
everything under them,—saw everything con-
temptible,—they got beyond all uneasiness of con-
science. They thus elevated intentionally the
tower of the royal power more and more into the
clouds, and set the final coping-stone of their own
power thereon.
137-
Spoken in Parable. —A Jesus Christ was only
possible in a Jewish landscape—I mean in one
over which the gloomy and sublime thunder-cloud
of the angry Jehovah hung continually. Here only
was the rare, sudden flashing of a single sunbeam
through the dreadful, universal and continuous
nocturnal-day regarded as a miracle of "love,"
as a beam of the most unmerited "grace. " Here
only could Christ dream of his rainbow and
celestial ladder on which God descended to man;
everywhere else the clear weather and the sun
were considered the rule and the commonplace.
## p. 177 (#235) ############################################
THE JOYFUL WISDOM, III 177
138.
The Error of Christ. —The founder of Christianity
thought there was nothing from which men suffered
so much as from their sins:—it was his error, the
error of him who felt himself without sin, to whom
experience was lacking in this respect! It was
thus that his soul filled with that marvellous,
fantastic pity which had reference to a trouble that
even among his own people, the inventors of sin,
was rarely a great trouble! But Christians under-
stood subsequently how to do justice to their master,
and to sanctify his error into a "truth. "
139-
Colour of the Passions. —Natures such as the
apostle Paul, have an evil eye for the passions;
they learn to know only the filthy, the distorting,
and the heart-breaking in them,—their ideal aim,
therefore, is the annihilation of the passions; in the
divine they see complete purification from passion.
The Greeks, quite otherwise than Paul and the
Jews, directed their ideal aim precisely to the
passions, and loved, elevated,embellished and deified
them: in passion they evidently not only felt them-
selves happier, but also purer and diviner than
otherwise. —And now the Christians? Have they
wished to become Jews in this respect? Have
they perhaps become Jews?
140.
Too Jewish. —If God had wanted to become an
object of love, he would first of all have had to
12
## p. 178 (#236) ############################################
178 THE JOYFUL WISDOM, III
forgo judging and justice:—a judge, and even a
gracious judge, is no object of love. The founder
of Christianity showed too little of the finer feelings
in this respect—being a Jew.
141.
Too Oriental. —What? A God who loves men,
provided that they believe in him, and who hurls
frightful glances and threatenings at him who does
not believe in this love! What? A conditioned
love as the feeling of an almighty God! A love
which has not even become master of the sentiment
of honour and of the irritable desire for vengeance!
How Oriental is all that! " If I love thee, what does
it concern thee ? " * is already a sufficient criticism
of the whole of Christianity.
142.
Frankincense. —Buddha says: "Do not flatter
thy benefactor! " Let one repeat this saying in a
Christian church:—it immediately purifies the air
of all Christianity.
H3-
The Greatest Utility of Polytheism. —For the
individual to set up his own ideal and derive from
it his laws, his pleasures and his rights—that has
perhaps been hitherto regarded as the most mon-
strous of all human aberrations, and as idolatry in
itself; in fact, the few who have ventured to do this
have always needed to apologise to themselves,
* This means that true love does not look for reciprocity.
