[328F-LER: p. 304]
“True, egoism is the source of evil, but it is also the source of good, for what else but egoism gave rise to agriculture, commerce, the arts and the sciences? True, it is the source of all vices, but also the source of all virtues, for what gave rise to the virtue of honesty? Egoism, through the prohibition of theft! What molded the virtue of chastity? The egoism of those who did not wish to share their beloved with others, through the prohibition of adultery. What produced the virtue of truthfulness? The egoism of those who do not wish to be deceived and cheated, through the prohibition of lying. (…) Moreover, vices are just as necessary, if not more so, for the preservation of states, at least of our despicable, unnatural and inhuman states, as are virtues.” [328F-LER: p. 304]
[329F-LER: p. 307]
“Believers and atheists are agreed in seeking the useful and in shunning the harmful. (…) … the true difference between religion and atheism is the difference between infinite egoism and finite egoism.” [329F-LER: p. 307]
[330F-LER: p. 307]
“ … the good is merely what falls in with the egoism of all men, and evil is simply what falls in with the egoism of certain classes of men at the expense of others … . (…) When does a new historical epoch set in? Always when a repressed mass or majority asserts its justified egoism in opposition to the exclusive egoism of a nation or caste, when classes of men or whole nations triumph over the arrogance and presumption of a patrician minority and so emerge from the darkness of the despised proletarian mass to the light of historical fame.” [330F-LER: p. 307]
[331F-LER: p. 310-311]
[P. 310] “The object of religion is nature, which operates independently of man and which he distinguishes from himself. But this nature is more than the phenomena of the outside world; it also includes man’s inner nature, which operates independently of his knowledge and his will. This statement brings us to our most crucial point, the true seat and source of religion. The ultimate secret of religion is the relationship between the conscious and unconscious, the [ P. 311] voluntary and involuntary in one and the same individual.” [331F-LER: p. 310-311]
[332F-LER: p. 311]
“He [“Man”] lives, and yet he is without power over the beginning and end of his life; he is the outcome of a process of development, yet once he exists, it seems to him as though he had come into being through a unique act of creation … .” [332F-LER: p. 311]
