No More Learning

Who would dare to disgust the mediocre of their mediocrity! As you observe, do precisely the reverse: every step away from mediocrity--thus do teach--leads to immorality.
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THE ORDER OF RANK. 893.
325
" right to philosophy. " It precisely because he the exception that he' must protect the rule and ingratiate all mediocre people.
894.
What combat: that an exceptional form should make war upon the rule--instead of understanding that the continued existence of the rule the first condition of the value of the exception. For in stance, there are women who, instead of consider ing their abnormal thirst for knowledge as dis tinction, would fain dislocate the whole status of womanhood.
895.
The increase of strength despite the temporary ruin of the individual :--
A new level must be established;
We must have method of storing up forces
for the maintenance of small performances,
in opposition to economic waste; Destructive nature must for once be reduced
to an instrument of this economy of the future;
The weak must be maintained, because there an enormous mass of finiching work to
be done;
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The weak and the suffering must be upheld in their belief that existence is still possible ;
Solidarity must be implanted as an instinct opposed to the instinct of fear and servility ; War must be made upon accident, even upon
the accident of " the great man. "
896.
War upon great men justified on economic grounds. Great men are dangerous; they are accidents, exceptions, tempests, which are strong enough to question things which it has taken time to build and establish. Explosive material must not only be discharged harmlessly, but, if possible,
its discharge must be prevented altogether; this is the fundamental instinct of all civilised society.
897.
He who thinks over the question of how the type man may be elevated to its highest glory and power, will realise from the start that he must
place himself beyond morality; for morality was directed in its essentials at the opposite goal--that is to say, its aim was to arrest and to annihilate that glorious development wherever it was in pro cess of accomplishment. For, as a matter of fact, development of that sort implies that such an
enormous number of men must be subservient to that a counter-movement only too natural: the weaker, more delicate, more mediocre existences, find necessary to take up sides against that glory
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of life and power; and for that purpose they must get new valuation of themselves by means of which they are able to condemn, and possible to destroy, life in this high degree of plenitude. Morality therefore essentially the expression of hostility to life, in so far as would overcome vital types.
898.
The strong of the future--To what extent neces sity on the one hand and accident on the other have attained to conditions from which stronger species may be reared: this we are now able to understand and to bring about consciously; we can now create those conditions under which such an elevation possible.
Hitherto education has always aimed at the utility of society: not the greatest possible utility for the future, but the utility of the society actually extant. What people required were " instruments " for this purpose. Provided the wealth of forces were greater, would be possible to think of draft being made upon them, the aim of which would not be the utility of society, but some future utility.
The more people grasped to what extent the present form of society was in such state of tran sition as sooner or later to be no longer able to exist
for its own sake, but only as means in the hands of stronger race, the more this task would have to be brought forward.
The increasing belittlement of man precisely the impelling power which leads one to think of
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the cultivation of a stronger race: a race which would have a surplus precisely there where the dwarfed species was weak and growing weaker (will, responsibility, self-reliance, the ability to postulate aims for one's self).
The means would be those which history teaches: isolation by means of preservative interests which would be the reverse of those generally accepted; exercise in transvalued valuations; distance as pathos ; a clean conscience in what to-day is most despised and most prohibited.
The levelling of the mankind of Europe is the great process which should not be arrested; it should even be accelerated. The necessity of cleaving gulfs, of distance, of the order of rank, is therefore imperative; but not the necessity of re tarding the process above mentioned.
This levelled-down species requires justification as soon as it is attained: its justification is that it exists for the service of a higher and sovereign race which stands upon it and can only be elevated upon its shoulders to the task which it is destined to perform. Not only a ruling race whose task would be consummated in ruling alone: but a race
with vital spheres of its own, with an overflow of energy for beauty, bravery, culture, and manners, even for the most abstract thought; a yea-saying race which would be able to allow itself every kind of great luxury--strong enough to be able to dis pense with the tyranny of the imperatives of virtue, rich enough to be in no need of economy or pedantry; beyond good and evil; a forcing-house for rare and exceptional plants.
328
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Cynics Experiment-
alists Conquerors
900.
The union of intellectual superiority with well-be
ing and an overflow of strength.
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899.
Our psychologists, whose glance dwells in voluntarily upon the symptoms of decadence, lead us to mistrust intellect ever more and more. People persist in seeing only the weakening, pam
pering, and sickening efi'ects of intellect, but there are now going to appear :--
? I point to something new: certainly for such a democratic community there is a danger of bar barians; but these are sought only down below. There is also another kind of barbarians who come from the heights: a kind of conquering and ruling
' natures, which are in search of material that they can mould. Prometheus was a barbarian of this
- stamp.
901.
Principal standpoint: 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.
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THE WILL TO POWER.
The conditions under which a strong, noble species maintains itself (in the matter of intellectual discipline) are precisely the reverse of those under which the industrial masses--the tea-grocers :2 la Spencer--subsist. Those qualities which are within the grasp only of the strongest and most terrible natures, and which make their existence possible--leisure, adventure, disbelief, and even dis
sipation--would necessarily ruin mediocre natures --and does do sO--when they possess them. In the case of the latter industry, regularity, modera tion, and strong "conviction " are in their proper place--in short, all " gregarious virtues": under their influence these mediocre men become perfect.
902.
Concerning the ruling types. --The shepherd as opposed to the "lord " (the former is only a means to the maintenance of the herd; the latter, the
purpose for which the herd exists).
9? 3
The temporary preponderance of social valua tions is both comprehensible and useful; it is a matter of building a foundation upon which a
stronger species will ultimately be made possible. The standard of strength: to be able to live under the transvalued valuations, and to desire them for
all eternity. State and society regarded as a sub structure: economic point of view, education con ceived as breeding.
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904.
331
A consideration which " free spirits' lack: that the same discipline which makes a strong nature still stronger, and enables it to go in for big under takings, breahs up and withers the mediocre: doubt --la largeur de cwur--experiment--independence.
905.
The hammer. How should men who must value in the opposite way be constituted ? --Men who possess all the qualities of the modern soul, but are strong enough to convert them into real health? The means to their task.
906. .
The strong man, who is mighty in the instincts of a strong and healthy organisation, digests his deeds just as well as he digests his meals ; he even gets over the effects of heavy fare: in the main, however, he is led by an inviolable and severe instinct which prevents his doing anything which goes against his grain, just as he never does any thing against his taste.
907
Can we foresee the favourable circumstances under which creatures of the highest value might arise ? It is a thousand times too complicated, and the probabilities of failure are very great: on that account we cannot be inspired by the thought of
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THE WILL TO POWER.
Scepticism. --To oppose this
striving after them !
we can enhance courage, insight, hardness, inde pendence, and the feeling of responsibility; we can also subtilise and learn to forestall the delicacy of the scales, so that favourable accidents may be enlisted on our side.
908.
Before we can even think of acting, an enormous amount of work requires to be done. In the main, however, a cautious exploitation of the present con ditions would be our best and most advisable course Of action. The actual creation of conditions such as those which occur by accident, presupposes the existence of iron men such as have not yet lived. Our first task must be to make the personal ideal prevail and become realised l He who has understood the nature of man and the origin of mankind's greatest specimens, shudders before man
and takes flight from all action: this is the result of inherited valuations! !
My consolation that the nature of man evil, and this guarantees his strength!
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The typical forms of self-development, or the eight principal questions :--
I. DO we want to be more multifarious or more simple than we are?
2. Do we want to be happier than we are, or more indifferent to both happiness and un happiness
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Do we want to be more satisfied with our selves,or moreexacting and moreinexorable? 4. Do we want to be softer, more yielding, and
more human than we are, or more in
human
Do we want to be more prudent than we are,
or more daring?
6. Do we want to attain goal, or do we want
to avoid all goals (like the philosopher, for instance, who scents boundary, cul-de
sac, a prison, piece of foolishness in every goal)
Do we want to become more respected, or more feared, or more despised?
Do we want to become tyrants, and seducers, or do we want to become shepherds and gregarious animals
910.
The type of my disciples--To such men as con cern me in any way wish suffering, desolation, sickness, ill-treatment, indignities of all kinds. wish them to be acquainted with profound self contempt, with the martyrdom of self-distrust, with the misery of the defeated: have no pity for them; because wish them to have the only thing which to-day proves whether man has any value
or not, namely, the capacity of sticking to his guns.
911.
The happiness and self-contentedness of the lazzaroni, or the blessedness of " beautiful souls,"
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THE WILL TO POWER.
or the consumptive love of Puritan pietists, proves nothing in regard to the order of rank among men. As a great educator one ought in exorably to thrash a race of such blissful creatures into unhappiness. The danger of belittlement and of a slackening of powers follows immediately-- I am opposed to happiness a la Spinoza or d la Epicurus, and to all the relaxation of contemplative
states. But when virtue is the means to such happiness, well then, one must master even virtue.
912.
I cannot see how any one can make up for having missed going to a good school at the proper time. Such a person does not know himself; he walks through life without ever having learned to walk. His soft muscles betray themselves at every step. Occasionally life itself is merciful enough to make a man recover this lost and severe schooling:
by means of periods of sickness, perhaps, which exact the utmost will-power and self-controi; or by means of a sudden state of poverty, which threatens his wife and child, and which may force a man to such activity as will restore energy to his slackened tendons, and a tough spirit to his will to life. The most desirable thing of all, however, under all circumstances to have severe discipline at
the right time, i. e. at that age when makes us proud that people should expect great things from us. For this what distinguishes hard schooling, as good schooling, from every other schooling, namely, that good deal demanded, that good
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deal is severely exacted; that goodness, nay even excellence itself, is required as if it were normal; that praise is scanty, that leniency is non-existent; that blame is sharp, practical, and without reprieve, and has no regard to talent and antecedents. We are in every way in need of such a school: and this holds good of corporeal as well as of spiritual things; it would be fatal to draw distinctions here ! The same discipline makes the soldier and the scholar efficient; and,'looked at more closely, 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.
913.
We should repudiate merit--and do only that which stands above all praise and above all under standing.
914.
The new forms of morality :--
Faithful vows concerning that which one wishes to do or to leave undone; complete and definite abstention from many things. Tests as to whether one is ripe for such discipline.
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THE WILL T0 POWER.
915
It is my desire to naturalise asceticism: I would substitute the old intention of asceticism, "self denial," by my own intention, " self-strengthening" : a gymnastic of the will; a period of abstinence and occasional fasting of every kind, even in things intellectual; a casuistry in deeds, in regard to the opinions which we derive from our powers; we
should try our hand at adventure and at deliberate
chez Magny: all intellectual with spoilt stomachs. ) Tests ought also to be devised for discovering a man's power in
dangers. gourmets
(Diners keeping his word.
? 916.
The things which have become spoilt throug
having been abused by the Church :--
(1) Ascetzcism. --People have scarcely got the courage yet to bring to light the natural utility and necessity of asceticism for the purpose of the
education of the will. Our ridiculous world of education, before whose eyes the useful State official hovers as an ideal to be striven for, believes that it has completed its duty when it has in structed or trained the brain; it never even suspects that something else is first of all necessary ---the education of will-power; tests are devised for everything except for the most important thing of all: whether a man can will, whether he can
promise; the young man completes his education Without a question or an inquiry having been
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made concerning the problem of the highest value of his nature.
Fasting--In every sense--even as a means of maintaining the capacity for taking pleasure in all good things (for instance, to give up reading for a while, to hear no music for a while, to cease from being amiable for a while: one ought also to have fast days for one's virtues).
The monastery--Temporary isolation with severe seclusion from all letters, for instance; a kind of profound introspection and self-recovery, which does not go out Of the way of "temptations," but out of the way of "duties"; a stepping out of the daily round of one's environment; a detach ment from the tyranny of stimuli and external influences, which condemns us to expend our power only in reactions, and does not allow it to gather volume until it bursts into spontaneous
activity (let anybody examine our scholars closely: they only think reflexively, i. e. they must first read before they can think).
(4) Feasts.
--A man must be very coarse in order not to feel the presence ofI Christians and Christian values as oppressive, so oppressive as to send all festive moods to the devil. By feasts we under stand: pride, high-spirits, exuberance; scorn of all kinds Of seriousness and Philistinism; a divine saying Of Yea to one's self, as the result of physical
plenitude and perfection--all states to which the
Christian cannot honestly say Yea. A feast is a pagan thing par excellence.
(5) The courage of one's own nature: dressing up in morality. ---To be able to call one's passions
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THE WILL TO POWER.
good without the help of a moral formula: this is the standard which measures the extent to which a man is able to say Yea to his own nature, namely, how much or how little he has to have recourse to morality.
(6) Death--The foolish physiological fact must be converted into a moral necessity. One should live in such a way that one may have the will to die at the right time !
917.
T0 feel one's self stronger--or, expressed other wise: happiness always presupposes a comparison (not necessarily with others, but with one's self, in the midst of a state of growth, and without being conscious that one is comparing).
? accentuation: whether by means of exciting chemicals or exciting errors (" halluci
nations")
Take, for instance, the Christian's feeling of
security; he feels himself strong in his confidence, in his patience, and his resignation : this artificial accentuation he owes to the fancy that he is pro tected by a God. Take the feeling of superiority, for instance: as when the Caliph of Morocco sees only globes on which his three united kingdoms cover four-fifths of the space. Take the feeling of uniqueness, for instance: as when the European
imagines that culture belongs to Europe alone, and when he regards himself as a sort of abridged cosmic process; or, as when the Christian makes all existence revolve round the " Salvation of man. "
The question where does one begin feel the
Artificial
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to
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of constraint: it is thus that different
pressure
degrees are ascertained. A philosopher,forinstance, in the midst of the coolest and most transmontane feats of abstraction feels like a fish-that enters its element: while colours and tones oppress him; not to speak of those dumb desires--of that which others call " the ideal. "
918.
A healthy and vigorous little boy will look sarcastically if he be asked: "Wilt thou become virtuous? "--but he immediately becomes eager if he be asked: " Wilt thou become stronger than thy comrades? "
*
How does one become stronger P--By deciding slowly; and by holding firmly to the decision
- once it is made. Everything else follows of itself. Spontaneous and changeable natures : both species
of the weak. We must not confound ourselves with them; we must feel distance--betimes!
Beware of good-natured people ! Dealings with them make one torpid. All environment is good which makes one exercise those defensive and
up
? which are instinctive in man. All. one's inventiveness should apply itself to - putting one's power of will to the test. . . . Here 'the determining factor must be recognised as something which is not knowledge, astuteness, or
wit.
One must learn to command betimes,--likewise
to obey. A man must learn modesty and tact in
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modesty: he must learn to distinguish and to honour where modesty is displayed; he must like wise distinguish and honour wherever he bestows his confidence.
*
What does one repent most? One's modesty; the fact that one has not lent an ear to one's most individual needs; the fact that one has mistaken one's self; the fact that one has esteemed one's self low; the fact that one has lost all delicacy of
hearing in regard to one's instincts--This want of reverence in regard to one's self is avenged by all sorts of losses: in health, friendship, well-being, pride, cheerfulness, freedom, determination, cour age. A man never forgives himself, later on, for this want of genuine egoism: he regards it as an
Objection and as a cause of doubt concerning his
? real ego. ,
s
919
I should like man to begin by respecting himself: everything else follows of itself. Naturally a man ceases from being anything to others in this way: for this is precisely what they are least likely to forgive. " What? a man who respects himself? " '
This is something quite different from the blind instinct to love one's self. Nothing is more common in the love of the sexes or in that duality which is
* Cf. Disraeli in Tancred: "Self-respect, too, is a super? stition of past ages. . . . It is not suited to these times ; it is much too arrogant, too self-conceited, too egoistical. No one is important enough to have self-respect nowadays" (book iii. chap. v. ). --TR.
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called ego, than a certain contempt for that which is loved: the fatalism of love.
920.
"I will have this or that "; "I would that this or that were so "; "I know that this or that is so "--the degrees of power: the man of will, the man of desire, the man of fate.
921.
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.
It is not expansive; it practises silence; it
is cautious in regard to all charms.
It learns to obey in such a way that obedi ence provides a test of self-maintenance.
? regard to points of honour.
It never argues, " What is sauce for the goose
is sauce for the gander,"-but conversely! it regards reward, and the ability to repay, as a privilege, as a distinction.
It does not covet other people's virtues.
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922.
The way in which one has to treat raw savages and the impossibility of dispensing with barbarous methods, becomes Obvious, in practice, when one is transplanted, with all one's European pampering, to a spot such as the Congo, or anywhere else where it is necessary to maintain one's mastery over barbarians.
923
Warlike and peaceful people--Art thou a man who has the instincts of a warrior in thy blood? If this be so, another question must be put. Do thy instincts impel thee to attack or to defend? The rest of mankind, all those whose instincts are not warlike, desire peace, concord, " freedom," " equal rights ": these things are but names and steps for one and the same thing. Such men only wish to go where it is not necessary for them to defend themselves,--such men become discon
tented with themselves when they are obliged to offer resistance: they would fain create circum~ stances in which war is no longer necessary. If the worst came to the worst, they would resign themselves, obey, and submit: all these things are better than waging war--thus does the Christian's instinct, for instance, whisper to him. In the born
warrior's character there is something of armour, likewise in the choice of his circumstances and in the development Of every one Of his qualities: weapons are best evolved by the latter type, shields are best devised by the former.
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What expedients and what virtues do the un armed and the undefended require in order to survive--and even to conquer?
924.
What will become of a man who no longer has any reasons for either defence or attack? What will remain of his passions when he has lost those which form his defence and his weapons?
925.
A marginal note to a niaiserie anglaise: " Do not to others that which you would not that they
should do unto you. " This stands for wisdom; this stands for prudence; this stands as the very
basis of morality--as "a golden maxim. "
Stuart Mill believes in it (and what Englishman does not . . . But the maxim does not bear investigation. The argument, "Do not as you would not be done by," forbids action which pro duce harmful results; the thought behind always
that an action invariably requited. What some one came forward with the "Principe" in his hands, and said " We must do those actions alone which enable us to steal march on others,-- and which deprive others of the power of doing the same to us "? --On the other hand, let us re member the Corsican who pledges his honour to vendetta. He too does not desire to have a bullet through him; but the prospect of one, the proba bility of getting one, does not deter him from
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vindicating his honour. . . . And in all really de cent actions are we not intentionally indifl'erent as to what result they will bring? To avoid an action which might have harmful results,--that would be tantamount to forbidding all decent actions in general.
Apart from this, the above maxim is valuable because it betrays a certain type qf man: it is the instinct of the herd which formulates itself through him,--we are equal, we regard each other as equal : as I am to thee so art thou to me. --In this com
of actions is really believed in --an equivalence which never under any circum
stances manifests itself in real conditions. It is impossible to requite every action: among real individuals equal actions do not exist, consequently there can be no such thing as "requital. " . . . When I do anything, I am very far from thinking that any man is able to do anything at all like it: the action belongs to me. . . . Nobody can pay me back for anything I do; the most that can be done is to make me the victim of another action.
926.
Against john Stuart Mill--I abhor the man's vulgarity when he says: " What is right for one man is right for another"; " Do not to others that which you would not that they should do unto you. " Such principles would fain establish the
whole of human traflic upon mutual services, so that every action would appear to be a cash pay ment for something done to us. The hypothesis
munity equivalence
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remunerated).
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here is ignoble to the last degree: it is taken for granted that there is some sort of equivalence in value between my actions and thine; the most per sonal value Of an action is simply cancelled in this manner (that part of an action which has no
and which cannot be
"Reciprocity" is a piece of egregious vulgarity; the mere fact that what I do cannot and may not be done by another, that there is no such thing as equivalence (except in those very select circles where one actually has one's equal, inter pares), that in a really profound sense a man never re quites because he is something unique in himself and can only do unique things,--this fundamental conviction contains the cause of aristocratic aloof
' ness from the mob, because the latter believes in equality,and consequently in the feasibility of equiva lence and " reciprocity. "
927.
The suburban Philistinism of moral valuations and of its concepts " useful" and " harmful" is well founded; it is the necessary point of view of a community which is only able to see and survey immediate and proximate consequences.
The State and the political man are already in
need of a more super-moral attitude of because they have to calculate concerning a much more complicated tissue of consequences. An eco nomic policy for the whole world should be possible which could look at things in such broad perspec tive that all its isolated demands would seem for
the moment not only unjust, but arbitrary.
? mind:
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THE WILL TO POWER.
928.
" Should one follow one's feelings? "--To set one's life at stake on the impulse of the moment, and actuated by a generous feeling, has little worth, and does not even distinguish one. Everybody is alike in being capable of this--and in behaving in this way with determination, the criminal, the bandit, and the Corsican certainly outstrip the
honest man.
A higher degree of excellence would be to over
come this impulse, and to refrain from performing an heroic deed at its bidding--and to remain cold, raisonnable, free from the tempestuous surging of concomitant sensations of delight. . . . The same holds good of pity: it must first be sifted through reason; without this it becomes just as dangerous
'
generosity, pity, or hostility, is the cause of the greatest evil. Greatness of character does not consist in not possessing these passions--on the contrary, a man should possess them to a terrible
'degree: but he should lead them by the bridle . . and even this he should not do out of love of con trol, but merely because. . . .
929
" To give up one's life for a cause "--very effec tive. But there are many things for which one gives up one's life: the passions, one and all, will be gratified. Whether one's life be pledged to pity, to anger, or to revenge--it matters not from
? as any other passion.
The blindyielding to a passion, whether it be
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the point of view of value. How many have not sacrificed their lives for pretty girls--and even what worse, their health! When one has temperament, one instinctively chooses the most dangerous things: one philosopher, for in stance, one chooses the adventures Of speculation;
one virtuous, one chooses immorality. One
kind of man will risk nothing, another kind will
risk everything. Are we despisers of life? On the contrary, what we seek life raised to higher power, life in danger. . But, let me re peat, we do not, on that account, wish to be more virtuous than Others. Pascal, for instance, wished to risk nothing, and remained Christian. That perhaps was virtuous--A man always sacrifices something.
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How many advantages does not man sacrifice To how small an extent does he seek his own
All his emotions and passions wish to assert their rights, and how remote passion from that cautious utility which consists in personal profit "
profit!
A man does not strive after
must be an Englishman to be able to believe that
man always seeking his own advantage. Our desires long to violate things with passion-- their overflowing strength seeks obstacles.
931
All passions are generally useful, some directly, others indirectly; in regard to utility abso
happiness one
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