Beyond Good and Evil: Prelude to a Philosophy of the Future - EILFE

Beyond Good and Evil
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Just as in the celestial realm, the track of one planet will sometimes be
determined by two suns; just as, in certain cases, suns of different colors
will shine on a single planet with red light one moment and green light
the next, and then strike it again, inundating it with many colors all at
once: in the same way, thanks to the complex mechanics of our “starry
skies,” we modern men are determined by a diversity of morals; our actions
shine with different colors in turn, they are rarely unambiguous, – and it
happens often enough that we perform multi-colored actions.
216
To love your enemies I think this has been learned quite well: it happens
thousands of times these days, in large and small ways; in fact, something
even higher and more sublime happens every once in a while – we learn to
despise when we love and precisely when we love the most. But all of this
is unconscious, noiseless, lacking in pomp or pageantry but possessing
that shame and concealed goodness which forbids the mouth from using
any solemn words or virtuous formulas. Morality as posturing – offends
our taste these days. This is progress too, just as it was progress for our
fathers when religion as posturing finally offended their taste, including
the hostility and Voltairean bitterness towards religion (and everything
that used to belong to the sign language of free spirits). No puritan litany,
moral homily, or petty bourgeois respectability wants to resonate with the
music in our conscience and the dance in our spirit.
217
Watch out for people who put a high value on being credited with moral
tact and with subtlety in making moral distinctions! They will never
forgive us if they ever make a mistake in front of us (or especially about
us), – they will inevitably become our instinctive slanderers and detractors,
even if they still remain our “friends.” Blessed are the forgetful: for they
will “have done” with their stupidities too.
218
The French psychologists – and where else are there still psychologists
today – have never grown tired of their bitter and manifold delight in
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