The Will to Power · Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche
870.
_The root of all evil:_ that the slave morality of modesty, chastity, selflessness, and absolute obedience should have triumphed. Dominating natures were thus condemned (1) to hypocrisy, (2) to qualms of conscience,--creative natures regarded themselves as rebels against God, uncertain and hemmed in by eternal values. The barbarians showed that the ability o_f keeping within the bounds of moderation_ was not in the scope of their powers: they feared and slandered the passions and instincts of nature--likewise the aspect of the ruling Cæsars and castes. On the other hand, there arose the suspicion that all _restraint_ is a form of weakness or of incipient old age and fatigue (thus La Rochefoucauld suspects that "virtue" is only a euphemism in the mouths of those to whom vice no longer affords any pleasure). The capacity for restraint was represented as a matter of hardness, self-control, asceticism, as a fight with the devil, etc. etc. The natural _delight_ of æsthetic natures, in measure; _the pleasure derived from the beauty of measure,_ was _overlooked_ and _denied,_ because that which was desired was an anti-eudæmonistic morality. The belief in the pleasure which comes of restraint has been lacking hitherto--this pleasure of a rider on a fiery steed! The moderation of weak natures was confounded with the restraint of the strong! In short, the best things have been blasphemed because weak or immoderate swine have thrown a bad light upon them--the best men have _remained concealed_--and have often _misunderstood_ themselves.
Text from Project Gutenberg, public domain in the United States.