Book Two: A Criticism of the Highest Values That Have Prevailed Hitherto
V: Concerning the Slander of the so-called Evil Qualities§386 There are some very simple peoples and men who believe that continuous fine weather would be a desirable thing: they still believe today in rebus moralibus, that the “good man” alone and nothing else than the “good man” is to be desired and that the ultimate end of man’s evolution will be that only the good man will remain on earth (and that it is only to that end that all efforts should be directed). This is in the highest degree an uneconomical thought; as we have already suggested, it is the very acme of simplicity and it is nothing more than the expression of the agreeableness which the “good man” creates ( -— he gives rise to no fear, he permits of relaxation, he gives what one is able to take).
With a more educated eye one learns to desire exactly the reverse — that is to say, an ever greater dominion of evil, man’s gradual emancipation from the narrow and aggravating bonds of morality, the growth of power around the greatest forces of Nature and the ability to enlist the passions in one’s service.