The Portable Nietzsche

by Friedrich Nietzsche

One must not let oneself be led astray: “judge not,” they say, but they consign to hell everything that stands in their way. By letting God judge, they themselves judge; by glorifying God, they glorify themselves; by demanding the virtues of which they happen to be capable—even more, which they require in order to stay on top at all—they give themselves the magnificent appearance of a struggle for virtue, of a fight for the domination of virtue. “We live, we die, we sacrifice ourselves for the good” (“truth,” “light,” the “kingdom of God”); in truth, they do what they cannot help doing. Slinking around like typical sneaks, sitting in the corner, leading a shadowy existence in the shadow, they make a duty of all this: their life of humility appears as a duty; as humility it is one more proof of piety. Oh, this humble, chaste, merciful variety of mendaciousness! “Virtue itself shall bear witness for us.” One should read the Gospels as books of seduction by means of morality: these petty people reserve morality for themselves—they know all about morality! With morality it is easiest to lead mankind by the nose! What really happens here is that the most conscious conceit of being chosen plays modesty: once and for all one has placed oneself, the “community,” the “good and the just,” on one side, on the side of “truth”—and the rest, “the world,” on the other. This was the most disastrous kind of megalomania that has yet existed on earth: little miscarriages of prigs and liars b...