The Will to Power · Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche
934.
All questions of strength: to what extent ought one to try and prevail against the preservative measures of society and the latter's prejudices?--to what extent ought one to unfetter _one's terrible qualities,_ through which so many go to the dogs?--to what extent ought one to run counter to _truth,_ and take up sides with its most questionable aspects?--to what extent ought one to oppose suffering, self-contempt, pity, disease, vice, when it is always open to question whether one can ever master them (what does not kill us makes us _stronger..._.)?--and, finally, to what extent ought one to acknowledge the rights of the rule, of the common-place, of the petty, of the good, of the upright, in fact of the average man, without thereby allowing one's self to become vulgar? ... The strongest test of character is to resist being ruined by the seductiveness of goodness. _Goodness_ must be regarded as a luxury, as a refinement, as a _vice._ 3. The Noble Man. _Type._ real goodness, nobility, greatness of soul, as the result of vital wealth: which does not give in order to receive--and which has no desire to _elevate_ itself by being good, _squandering_ is typical of genuine goodness, vital _personal_ wealth is its prerequisite.
Text from Project Gutenberg, public domain in the United States.