The Will to Power · Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche
863.
_The notion, "strong and weak man"_ resolves itself into this, that in the first place much strength is inherited--the man is a total sum; in the other, _not yet enough_ (inadequate inheritance, subdivision of the inherited qualities). Weakness may be a _starting_ phenomenon: _not yet enough_; or a final phenomenon: "no more." The determining point is there where great strength is present, or where a great amount of strength can be discharged. The mass, as the sum-total of the _weak,_ reacts _slowly;_ it defends itself against much for which it is too weak,--against that for which it has no use; it _never_ creates, it _never_ takes a step forward. This is opposed to the theory which denies the strong individual and would maintain that the "masses do everything." The difference is similar to that which obtains between separated generations: four or even five generations may lie between the masses and him who is the moving spirit--it is a _chronological_ difference. The _values of the weak_ are in the van, because the strong have adopted them in order to _lead_ with them.
Text from Project Gutenberg, public domain in the United States.