The great man is an end; the great age—the Renaissance for instance,—is an end.
 Friedrich Nietzsche, Twilight of the Idols (1889). copy citation

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Author Friedrich Nietzsche
Source Twilight of the Idols
Topic age
Date 1889
Language English
Reference
Note Translated by Anthony M. Ludovici
Weblink https://www.gutenberg.org/files/52263/52263-h/52263-h.htm

Context

“[Pg 103] Buckle, or religiously after the manner of Carlyle.—The danger which great men and great ages represent, is simply extraordinary; every kind of exhaustion and of sterility follows in their wake. The great man is an end; the great age—the Renaissance for instance,—is an end. The genius—in work and in deed,—is necessarily a squanderer: the fact that he spends himself constitutes his greatness. The instinct of self-preservation is as it were suspended in him; the overpowering pressure of out-flowing energy in him forbids any such protection and prudence.” source