The Will to Power · Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche
IV.
In this way this book is even anti-pessimistic, namely, in the sense that it teaches something which is stronger than pessimism and which is more "divine" than truth: Art. Nobody, it would seem, would be more ready seriously to utter a radical denial of life, an actual denial of action even more than a denial of life, than the author of this book. Except that he knows--for he has experienced it, and perhaps experienced little else!--that art is of more value than truth. Even in the preface, in which Richard Wagner is, as it were, invited to join with him in conversation, the author expresses this article of faith, this gospel for artists; "Art is the only task of life, art is the metaphysical activity of life...." 1. The Doctrine of the Order of Rank. In this age of universal suffrage, in which everybody is allowed to sit in judgment upon everything and everybody, I feel compelled to re-establish the order of rank. Quanta of power alone determine rank and distinguish rank: nothing else does. _The will to power._--How must those men be constituted who would undertake this transvaluation? The order of rank as the order of power: war and danger are the prerequisites which allow of a rank maintaining its conditions. The prodigious example: man in Nature--the weakest and shrewdest creature making himself master, and putting a yoke upon all less intelligent forces. I distinguish between the type which represents ascending life and that which represents decay, decomposition and weakness. Ought one to suppose that the question of rank between these two types can be at all doubtful? The modicum of power which you represent decides your rank; all the rest is cowardice.
Text from Project Gutenberg, public domain in the United States.