"By the middle of the [Eighteenth] century what Nietzsche was later to call a transvaluation of all values was in full blast. Nothing sacred was spared—not even the classical spirit that had been the chief attainment of the Renaissance—and of the ideas and attitudes that were attacked not many survived. It was no longer necessary to give even lip service to the old preposterous certainties, whether theological or political, aesthetic or philosophical. In France, Voltaire, Rousseau and Diderot were making a bonfire of all the ancient Christian superstitions; in England Gibbon was preparing to revive the long dormant art of history and Adam Smith was laying the foundations of the new science of economics; in Germany Kant was pondering an ethical scheme that that would give the Great Commandment a rational basis."
Quote Details
Added by wikiquote-import-bot
Unverified quote
0 likes
Original Language: English
Available Languages (1)
Sources
H. L. Mencken, Treatise on the Gods (1930), Ch. 5
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Friedrich_Nietzsche
Revision History
No revisions have been submitted for this quote.
Categories
Friedrich Nietzsche
1844 – 1900
deutscher Philologe und Philosoph
637 quotes on TrueQuotesView all quotes by Friedrich Nietzsche →
Related Quotes
"There exists a right by which we take a man's life but none by which we take from him his death: this is mere cruelty."
"This is age of the masses, who prostrate themselves before everything built on a massive scale."
"The man whose task and practice is to investigate souls will use precisely this art in a number of different forms in…"
"Whoever knows he is deep, strives for clarity; whoever would like to appear deep to the crowd, strives for obscurity.…"
"That which does not kill you, makes you stronger."
"Låt inte gräset gro under fötterna."
"The homogenizing of European man ... requires a justification: it lies in serving a higher sovereign species that sta…"
"To those human beings who are of any concern to me I wish suffering, desolation, sickness, ill-treatment, indignities…"
"There is only nobility of birth, only nobility of blood. When one speaks of "aristocrats of the spirit," reasons are …"
"The possibility has been established for the production of...a master race, the future "masters of the earth"...made …"