“One will notice that I wish to be just to the Germans: I do not want to break faith with myself here. I must therefore also state my objections to them. One pays heavily for coming to power: power makes [one] stupid. The Germans — once they were called the people of thinkers: do they think at all today? The Germans are now bored with the spirit [Geist; intellect], the Germans now mistrust the spirit; politics swallows up all serious concern for really spiritual [geistige; intellectual] matters. ‘Germany, Germany above everything’ [‚Deutschland, Deutschland über alles‘]* — I fear that was the end of German philosophy. ‘Are there any German philosophers? Are there German poets? Are there good German books?’ they ask me abroad. I blush; but with the courage which I maintain even in desperate situations I reply: ‘Well, Bismarck.’ Would it be permissible for me to confess what books are read today? Accursed instinct of mediocrity!”

— Friedrich Nietzsche,
Twilight of the Idols (§8. 1)


* the German national anthem

— Emma Goldman, Victims of Morality

“It happened that a fire broke out backstage in a theater. The clown came out to inform the public. They thought it was a jest and applauded. He repeated his warning, they shouted even louder. So I think the world will come to an end amid general applause from all the wits, who believe that it is a joke.”

— Søren Kierkegaard,
Either/Or (Vol I) (chapter 1)

“If the State must count on our humanity, it is the same if one says it must count on our morality. Seeing Man in each other, and acting as men toward each other, is called moral behavior. This is every whit the ‘spiritual love’ of Christianity. For, if I see Man in you, as in myself I see Man and nothing but Man, then I care for you as I would care for myself; for we represent, you see, nothing but the mathematical proposition: A = C and B = C, consequently A = B,—i. e., I nothing but man and you nothing but man, consequently I and you the same. Morality is incompatible with egoism, because the former does not allow validity to me, but only to the Man in me. But, if the State is a society of men, not a union of egos each of whom has only himself before his eyes, then it cannot last without morality, and must insist on morality.

Therefore we two, the State and I, are enemies. I, the egoist, have not at heart the welfare of this ‘human society,’ I sacrifice nothing to it, I only utilize it; but to be able to utilize it completely I transform it rather into my property and my creature,—i. e. I annihilate it, and form in its place the Union of Egoists.”

— Max Stirner

“If Hess attentively observed real life, to which he holds so much, he will see hundreds of such egoistic unions, some passing quickly, others lasting. Perhaps at this very moment, some children have come together just outside his window in a friendly game. If he looks at them, he will see a playful egoistic union. Perhaps Hess has a friend or a beloved; then he knows how one heart finds another, as their two hearts unite egoistically to delight (enjoy) each other, and how no one ‘comes up short’ in this. Perhaps he meets a few good friends on the street and they ask him to accompany them to a tavern for wine; does he go along as a favor to them, or does he ‘unite’ with them because it promises pleasure? Should they thank him heartily for the ‘sacrifice,’ or do they know that all together they form an ‘egoistic union’ for a little while?

To be sure, Hess wouldn’t pay attention to these trivial examples, they are so utterly physical and vastly distinct from sacred society, or rather from the ‘fraternal, human society’ of sacred socialists.”


— Max Stirner, Stirner's Critics (§3)

virgin Fried-rice Nietzsche vs chad Maximum Stirner