“ Only the most intellectual of men have any right to beauty, to the beautiful; only in them can goodness escape being weakness. ”
Friedrich Nietzsche, The Antichrist (1895). copy citation
| Author | Friedrich Nietzsche |
|---|---|
| Source | The Antichrist |
| Topic | weakness beauty |
| Date | 1895 |
| Language | English |
| Reference | |
| Note | Translated by Henry Louis Mencken |
| Weblink | https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_Antichrist |
Context
“It is not Manu but nature that sets off in one class those who are chiefly intellectual, in another those who are marked by muscular strength and temperament, and in a third those who are distinguished in neither one way or the other, but show only mediocrity—the last-named represents the great majority, and the first two the select. The superior caste—I call it the fewest—has, as the most perfect, the privileges of the few: it stands for happiness, for beauty, for everything good upon earth. Only the most intellectual of men have any right to beauty, to the beautiful; only in them can goodness escape being weakness. Pulchrum est paucorum hominum: [30] goodness is a privilege. Nothing could be more unbecoming to them than uncouth manners or a pessimistic look, or an eye that sees ugliness—or indignation against the general aspect of things.”
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