The Will to Power · Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche
_B._
Nihilism as a normal phenomenon may be a symptom of increasing _strength_ or of increasing _weakness_:-- Partly owing to the fact that the strength _to create_ and _to will_ has grown to such an extent, that it no longer requires this collective interpretation and introduction of a _sense_ ("present duties," state, etc.); Partly owing to the fact that even the creative power necessary to invent sense, declines, and disappointment becomes the ruling condition. The inability to _believe_ in a sense becomes "unbelief." What is the meaning of _science_ in regard to both possibilities? (1) It is a sign of strength and self-control; it shows an _ability_ to dispense with healing, consoling worlds of illusion. (2) It is also able to undermine, to dissect, to disappoint, and to weaken. _The belief in truth,_ the need of holding to something which is believed to be true: psychological reduction apart from the valuations that have existed hitherto. Fear and laziness. At the same time _unbelief:_ Reduction. In what way does it acquire a _new value,_ if a real world does not exist at all (by this means the capacity of valuing, which hitherto has been _lavished_ upon the world of being, becomes free once more). The _real_ and the _ "apparent" world._
Text from Project Gutenberg, public domain in the United States.