The Will to Power · Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche
943.
What is noble? --External punctiliousness; because this punctiliousness hedges a man about, keeps him at a distance, saves him from being confounded with somebody else. A frivolous appearance in word, clothing, and bearing, with which stoical hardness and self-control protect themselves from all prying inquisitiveness or curiosity. --A slow step and a slow glance. There are not too many valuable things on earth: and these come and wish to come of themselves to him who has value. We are not quick to admire. --We know how to bear poverty, want, and even illness. --We avoid small honours owing to our mistrust of all who are over-ready to praise: for the man who praises believes he understands what he praises: but to understand--Balzac, that typical man of ambition, betrayed the fact _comprendre c'est égaler._ --Our doubt concerning the communicativeness of our hearts goes very deep; to us, loneliness is not a matter of choice, it is imposed upon us. --We are convinced that we only have duties to our equals, to others we do as we think best: we know that justice is only to be expected among equals (alas! this will not be realised for some time to come), --We are ironical towards the "gifted"; we hold the belief that no morality is possible without good birth. --We always feel as if we were those who had to dispense honours: while he is not found too frequently who would be worthy of honouring us.
The fact that one sets one's life, one's health, and one's honour at stake, is the result of high spirits and of an overflowing and spendthrift will: it is not the result of philanthropy, but of the fact that every danger kindles our curiosity concerning the measure of our strength, and provokes our courage. Eagles swoop down straight nobility of soul is best revealed by the magnificent and proud foolishness with which it makes its _attacks._ War should be made against all namby-pamby ideas of _nobility_!--A certain modicum of brutality cannot be dispensed with: no more than we can do without a certain approximation to criminality. "Self-satisfaction" must _not_ be allowed; a man should look upon himself with an adventurous spirit; he should experiment with himself and run risks with himself--no beautiful soul-quackery should be tolerated. I want to give _a more robust ideal_ a chance of prevailing. "Paradise is under the shadow of a swordsman"--this is also a symbol and a test-word by which souls with noble and warrior-like origin betray and discover themselves.
Text from Project Gutenberg, public domain in the United States.