Human, All Too Human · Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche
101
The animal, owing to the exigencies of the church catechism, is placed too far below the level of mankind.--Much, too, that is frightful and inhuman in history, and which is almost incredible, is rendered less atrocious by the reflection that the one who commands and the one who executes are different persons. The former does not witness the performance and hence it makes no strong impression on him. The latter obeys a superior and hence feels no responsibility. Most princes and military chieftains appear, through lack of true perception, cruel and hard without really being so.--Egoism is not bad because the idea of the "neighbor"--the word is of Christian origin and does not correspond to truth--is very weak in us, and we feel ourselves, in regard to him, as free from responsibility as if plants and stones were involved. That another is in suffering must be learned and it can never be wholly learned.
Text from Project Gutenberg, public domain in the United States.