Book Two: A Criticism of the Highest Values That Have Prevailed Hitherto
II: Criticism of Morality§285 My teaching is this, that the herd seeks to maintain and preserve one type of man, and that it defends itself on two sides; that is to say, against those who are decadents from its ranks (criminals, etc), and against those who rise superior to its dead level. The instincts of the herd tend to a stationary state of society; they merely preserve. They have no creative power.
The pleasant feelings of goodness and benevolence with which the just man fills us (as opposed to the suspense and the fear to which the great innovating man gives rise) are our own sensations of personal security and equality: in this way the herd animal glorifies the herd nature and then begins to feel at ease. This judgment on the part of the “comfortable” ones rigs itself out in the most beautiful words, and thus “morality” is born. Let anyone observe, however, the hatred of the herd for all truthful men.
Those readers who are from the American south will not be surprised to learn that Nietzsche’s earliest American sympathizers were from the Bible Belt.