The Genealogy of Morals
The Genealogy of Morals is a collection of 3 essays, each one or two central ideas. His first essay is on the distinction between a moral system of “good vs. bad” and a system of “good vs. evil” – “good vs. bad” is the system adopted by the elite masters to qualify what is desirable versus not, whereas “good vs. bad” morality is adopted by the masses, who see themselves as the “good” and their oppressors, the masters, as “evil”. The second essay goes into detail on “bad conscience”, of how humanity’s natural instincts turned inward to create our psychological depth, which comes with its problems as well. The third explores the “ascetic ideal” of renouncing worldly pleasures, and how such a strange and self-denying ideal came about and even came to be so respected through the ages. In between these bigger ideas, Nietzsche expounds on ideas such as perspectivism (of truth being like a statue, with infinite distinct perspectives but no correct one) and the “Will to Power” (power being the ultimate driving force behind all life).
More on the Will to Power: Nietzsche’s philosophy is aimed at the powerful ones, and something he makes very clear is that he doesn’t think the powerful should be ashamed of their power, ashamed of their privileged status, because it is only natural. The Greeks celebrated primality and power, the animalic in the human; some cruelty was celebrated in the case of human sacrifices to the gods, and the Greeks didn’t treat nudity as shameful or something to be hid, but rather a celebration of human beauty. Today, the moral fashions have changed so much that we might be appalled by these ideas – but it helps to recognize how much of the change is due to Christianity, which Nietzsche rails against as bringing forth all kinds of weakness and timidity into the world by putting those values on a pedestal. During Nietzsche’s time, religion’s decline (“God is dead”) forced people to confront nihilism, and Nietzsche’s answer to nihilism was a kind of primordial reversion to pagan values. His philosophy is really trying to do good, aiming at a noble end of trying to fill the void left by religion, and his idea of being unabashed about overcoming and pursuing power is both attractive and provocative.
% grep -i "the genealogy of morals" quotes.txt5 matches
on forgiveness
“To be incapable of taking one’s enemies, one’s accidents, even one’s misdeeds seriously for very long – that is the sign of strong, full natures in whom there is an excess of the power to form, to mold, to recuperate and to forget”
— Friedrich Nietzsche, Genealogy of Morals
on strength
“To demand of strength that it should not express itself as strength, that it should not be a desire to overcome, a desire to throw down, a desire to become master, a thirst for enemies and resistances and triumphs, is just as absurd as to demand of weakness that it should express itself as strength”
— Friedrich Nietzsche, Genealogy of Morals
on sadism
“To see others suffer does one good, to make others suffer even more: this is a hard saying but an ancient, mighty, human, all-too-human principle”
— Friedrich Nietzsche, Genealogy of Morals
on suffering
“Man, the bravest of animals and the one most accustomed to suffering, does not repudiate suffering as such; he desires it, he even seeks it out, provided he is shown a meaning for it, a purpose of suffering. The meaninglessness of suffering, not suffering itself, was the curse that lay over mankind so far – and the ascetic ideal offered man meaning!”
— Friedrich Nietzsche, Genealogy of Morals
on perspectives
“There is only a perspective seeing, only a perspective ‘knowing’; and the more affects we allow to speak about one thing, the more complete will our ‘concept’ of this thing, our ‘objectivity’, be”
— Friedrich Nietzsche, Genealogy of Morals