Book Two: A Criticism of the Highest Values That Have Prevailed Hitherto
V: Concerning the Slander of the so-called Evil Qualities§362 Egoism and its problem! The Christian gloominess of La Rochefoucauld, who saw egoism in everything and imagined that he had therefore reduced the worth of things and virtues! In opposition to him, I first of all tried to show that nothing else could exist save egoism, that in those men whose ego is weak and thin, the power to love also grows weak, that the greatest lovers are such owing to the strength of their ego, that love is an expression of egoism, etc. As a matter of fact, the false valuation aims at the interest of those who find it useful, whom it helps in fact, the herd; it fosters a pessimistic mistrust towards the basis of Life; it would want to undermine the most glorious and most well-constituted men (out of fear); it would assist the lowly to have the upper hand of their conquerors; it is the cause of universal dishonesty, especially in the most useful type of men.