The Will to Power · Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche
918.
A healthy and vigorous little boy will look up sarcastically if he be asked: "Wilt thou become virtuous?"--but he immediately becomes eager if he be asked: "Wilt thou become stronger than thy comrades?" *** How does one become stronger?--By deciding slowly; and by holding firmly to the decision once it is made. Everything else follows of itself. Spontaneous and changeable natures: both species of the weak. We must not confound ourselves with them; we must feel distance--betimes! Beware of good-natured people!. Dealings with them make one torpid. All environment is good which makes one exercise those defensive and; aggressive powers which are instinctive in man. All one's inventiveness should apply itself to putting one's power of will to the test.... _Here_ the determining factor must be recognised as something which is not knowledge, astuteness, or wit. One must learn to command betimes,--likewise to obey. A man must learn modesty and tact in modesty: he must learn to distinguish and to honour where modesty is displayed; he must likewise distinguish and honour wherever he bestows his confidence. What does one repent most? One's modesty; the fact that one has not lent an ear to one's most individual needs; the fact that one has mistaken one's self; the fact that one has esteemed one's self low; the fact that one has lost all delicacy of hearing in regard to one's instincts.--This want of reverence in regard to one's self is avenged by all sorts of losses: in health, friendship, well-being, pride, cheerfulness, freedom, determination, courage. A man never forgives himself, later on, for this want of genuine egoism: he regards it as an objection and as a cause of doubt concerning his real ego.
Text from Project Gutenberg, public domain in the United States.