THE TWILIGHT OF THE IDOLS & THE ANTICHRIST. Friedrich Nietzsche
means of recovery which is even more to my taste, is to cross-examine idols. There are more idols than realities in the world: this constitutes my "evil eye" for this world: it is also my "evil ear." To put questions in this quarter with a hammer, and to hear perchance that well-known hollow sound which tells of blown-out frogs,—what a joy this is for one who has cars even behind his cars, for an old psychologist and Pied Piper like myself in whose presence precisely that which would fain be silent, must betray itself.
Even this treatise—as its title shows—is above all a recreation, a ray of sunshine, a leap sideways of a psychologist in his leisure moments. Maybe, too, a new war? And are we again cross-examining new idols? This little work is a great declaration of war; and with regard to the cross-examining of idols, this time it is not the idols of the age but eternal idols which are here struck with a hammer as with a tuning fork,—there are certainly no idols which are older, more convinced, and more inflated. Neither are there any more hollow. This does not alter the fact that they are believed in more than any others, besides they are never called idols,—at least, not the most exalted among their number.
FRIEDRICH NIETZSCHE.
TURIN, the 30th September 1888. on the day when the first book of the Transvaluation of all Values was finished.
Maxims and Missiles
1
Idleness is the parent of all psychology. What? Is psychology then a—vice?
2
Even the pluckiest among us has but seldom the courage of what he really knows.
3
Aristotle says that in order to live alone, a man must be either an animal or a god. The third alternative is lacking: a man must be both—a philosopher.
4
"All truth is simple."—Is not this a double lie?
5
Once for all I wish to be blind to many things.—Wisdom sets bounds even to knowledge.
6
A man recovers best from his exceptional nature—his intellectuality—by giving his animal instincts a chance.
7
Which is it? Is man only a blunder of God? Or is God only a blunder of man?
8
From the military school of life.—That which does not kill me, makes me stronger.
9
Help thyself, then everyone will help thee. A principle of neighbour-love.
10
A man should not play the coward to his deeds. He should not repudiate them once he has performed them. Pangs of conscience are indecent.
11
Can a donkey be tragic?—To perish beneath a load that one can neither bear nor throw off? This is the case of the Philosopher.
12
If a man knows the wherefore of his existence, then the manner of it can take care of itself. Man does not aspire to happiness; only the Englishman does that.
13
Man created woman—out of what? Out of a rib of his god,—of his "ideal."
14
What? Art thou looking for something? Thou wouldst fain multiply thyself tenfold, a hundredfold? Thou seekest followers? Seek ciphers!
15
Posthumous men, like myself, are not so well understood as men who reflect their age, but they are heard with more respect. In plain English: we are never understood—hence our authority.
16
Among women.—"Truth? Oh, you do not know truth! Is it not an outrage on all our pudeurs?"—
17
There is an artist after my own heart, modest in his needs: he really wants only two things, his bread and his art—panem et Circem.
18
He who knows not how to plant his will in things, at least endows them with some meaning: that is to say, he believes that a will is already present in them. (A principle of faith.)
19
What? Ye chose virtue and the heaving breast, and at the same time ye squint covetously at the advantages of the unscrupulous.—But with virtue ye renounce all "advantages" ... (to be nailed to an Antisemite's door).
20
The perfect woman perpetrates literature as if it were a petty vice: as an experiment, en passant, and looking about her all the while to see whether anybody is noticing her, hoping that somebody is noticing her.
21
One should adopt only those situations in which one is in no need of sham virtues, but rather, like the tight-rope dancer on his tight rope, in which one must either fall or stand—or escape.
22
"Evil men have no songs."1—How is it that the Russians have songs?
23
"German intellect"; for eighteen years this has been a contradictio in adjecto.
24
By seeking the beginnings of things, a man becomes a crab. The historian looks backwards: in the end he also believes backwards.
25
Contentment preserves one even from catching cold. Has a woman who knew that she was well-dressed ever caught cold?—No, not even when she had scarcely a rag to her back.
26
I distrust all systematisers, and avoid them. The will to a system, shows a lack of honesty.
27
Man thinks woman profound—why? Because he can never fathom her depths. Woman is not even shallow.
28
When woman possesses masculine virtues, she is enough to make you run away. When she possesses no masculine virtues, she herself runs away.
29
"How often conscience had to bite in times gone by! What good teeth it must have had! And to-day, what is amiss?"—A dentist's question.
30
Errors of haste are seldom committed singly. The first time a man always docs too much. And precisely on that account he commits a second error, and then he does too little.
31
The trodden worm curls up. This testifies to its caution. It thus reduces its chances of being trodden upon again. In the language of morality: Humility.—
32
There is such a thing as a hatred of lies and dissimulation, which is the outcome of a delicate sense of humour; there is also the selfsame hatred but as the result of cowardice, in so far as falsehood is forbidden by Divine law. Too cowardly to lie....
33
What trifles constitute happiness! The sound of a bagpipe. Without music life would be a mistake. The German imagines even God as a songster.
34
On ne peut penser et écrire qu'assis (G. Flaubert). Here I have got you, you nihilist! A sedentary life is the real sin against the Holy Spirit. Only those thoughts that come by walking have any value.
35
There are