The Will to Power · Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche
785.
_The rectification of the concept "egoism."_--When one has discovered what an error the "individual" is, and that every single creature represents the whole process of evolution (not alone "inherited," but in "himself"), the individual then acquires _an inordinately great importance._ The voice of instinct is quite right here. When this instinct tends to decline, _i.e._ when the individual begins to seek his worth in his services to others, one may be sure that exhaustion and degeneration have set in. An altruistic attitude of mind, when it is fundamental and free from all hypocrisy, is the instinct of creating a second value for one's self in the service of other egoists. As a rule, however, it is only apparent--a circuitous path to the preservation of one's own feelings of vitality and worth.
Text from Project Gutenberg, public domain in the United States.