The Will to Power · Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche
594.
Science hitherto has been a means of disposing of the confusion of things by hypotheses which "explain everything"--that is to say, it has been the result of the intellect's repugnance to chaos. This same repugnance takes hold of me when I contemplate _myself;_ I should like to form some kind of representation of my inner world for myself by means of a _scheme,_ and thus overcome intellectual confusion. Morality was a simplification of this sort: it taught man as _recognised,_ as _known,_--Now we have annihilated morality--we have once more grown _completely obscure_ to ourselves! I know that I know nothing _about myself. Physics_ shows itself to be a _boon_ for the mind: science (as the road to _knowledge_) acquires a new charm after morality has been laid aside--and _owing to the fact_ that we find consistency here alone, we must _order_ our lives in accordance with it so that it may help us to _preserve it. _ This results in a sort of _practical meditation_ concerning the _conditions of our existence_ as investigators. Our first principles: no God: no purpose: limited energy. We will take good care to _avoid_ thinking out and prescribing the necessary lines of thought for the lower orders. No "_moral_ education" of humanity: but the _disciplinary school of scientific errors_ is necessary, because truth disgusts and creates a dislike of life, provided a man is not already irrevocably launched upon his _way,_ and bears the consequences of his honest standpoint with tragic pride.
The first principle of _scientific work:_ faith in the union and continuance of scientific work, so that the individual may undertake to work at any point, however small, and feel sure that his efforts _will not be in vain._ There is a great paralysing force: to work _in vain,_ to struggle _in vain._ *** The periods of _hoarding,_ when energy and power are stored, to be utilised later by subsequent periods: _Science_ as a _half-way house,_ at which the mediocre, more multifarious, and more complicated beings find their most natural gratification and means of expression: all those who do well to avoid _action._ A. philosopher recuperates his strength in a way quite his own, and with other means: he does it, for instance, with Nihilism. The belief _that there is no such thing as truth,_ the Nihilistic belief, is a tremendous relaxation for one who, as a warrior of knowledge, is unremittingly struggling with a host of hateful truths. For truth is ugly. The "purposelessness of all phenomena": the belief in this is the result of the view that all interpretations hitherto have been false, it is a generalisation on the part of discouragement and weakness--it is not a necessary belief. The arrogance of man: when he sees no purpose, he _denies_ that there can be one! The unlimited ways of interpreting the world: every interpretation is a symptom of growth or decline. Unity (monism) is a need of inertia; Plurality in interpretation is a sign of strength. One should not _desire to deprive_ the world of its disquieting and enigmatical nature. Against the desire for reconciliation and peaceableness. To this also belongs every attempt on the part of monism.
Text from Project Gutenberg, public domain in the United States.