The Will to Power · Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche
901.
_Principal standpoint:_ one should not suppose the mission of a higher species to be the _leading_ of inferior men (as Comte does, for instance); but the inferior should be regarded as the _foundation_ upon which a higher species may live their higher life--upon which alone they _can stand._ The conditions under which a _strong, noble_ species maintains itself (in the matter of intellectual discipline) are precisely the reverse of those under which the industrial masses--the tea-grocers _à la_ Spencer--subsist. Those qualities which are within the grasp only of the _strongest_ and most _terrible_ natures, and which make their existence possible leisure, adventure, disbelief, and even dissipation--would necessarily ruin mediocre natures --and does do so--when they possess them. In the case of the latter industry, regularity, moderation, and strong "conviction" are in their proper place--in short, all "gregarious virtues": under their influence these mediocre men become perfect. _Concerning the ruling types._ The shepherd as opposed to the "lord" (the former is only a means to the maintenance of the herd; the latter, the _purpose_ for which the herd exists). The temporary preponderance of social valuations is both comprehensible and useful; it is a matter of building a _foundation_ upon which a _stronger_ species will ultimately be made possible. The standard of strength: to be able to live under the transvalued valuations, and to desire them for all eternity. State and society regarded as a sub-structure: economic point of view, education conceived as breeding.
A consideration which "free spirits" _lack_: that the same discipline which makes a strong nature still stronger, and enables it to go in for big undertakings, _breaks up and withers the mediocre_: doubt --_la largeur de cœur_--experiment--independence. The hammer. How should men who must value in the opposite way be constituted?--Men who possess _all_ the qualities of the modern soul, but are strong enough to convert them into real health? The means to their task. The strong man, who is mighty in the instincts of a strong and healthy organisation, digests his deeds just as well as he digests his meals; he even gets over the effects of heavy fare: in the main, however, he is led by an inviolable and severe instinct which prevents his doing anything which goes against his grain, just as he never does anything against his taste. _Can_ we _foresee_ the favourable circumstances under which creatures of the highest value might arise? It is a thousand times too complicated, and the probabilities of failure are _very great:_ on that account we cannot be inspired by the thought of striving after them! Scepticism.--To oppose this we can enhance courage, insight, hardness, independence, and the feeling of responsibility; we can also subtilise and learn to forestall the delicacy of the scales, so that favourable accidents may be enlisted on our side.
Text from Project Gutenberg, public domain in the United States.