Their first duty is to respect themselves.[1] "Thou shalt become that which thou art" is what their conscience says to them.[2] f They have a morality, but it is that paradoxical thing, an autonomous morality ("moral" and "autonomous" being ordinarily opposites); they contradict the Hegelian command that no man shall have a private conscience. They do not accept duties from without; numbers, authority are nothing to them. Their duty is an "I will," the "I must" of overflowing creative strength. It is true that Zarathustra sickens at his "I will" from vulgar mouths—for the mass of men, obedience is safer, better than individual choice; but for great men, "I will" is the sign and seal of their superiority. They are accordingly careless of popular approval or sympathy,[3] g proud though not vain; they have a sense of singular duties and responsibilities, which they do not think of lowering by converting into duties and responsibilities for every man.[4] However dependent on others for success, their rise in the first place is due to their self-assertion[5]—they make their rights rather than receive them. They have an unalterable belief that to beings like themselves others are naturally subject and may sacrifice—this without any feeling of harshness, force, or arbitrariness on their part, rather as something founded in the original law of things, as just.[6]
As is natural, men of this type have a taste for rare things such as ordinarily leave men cold—for art, for science, for high curiosity, for high virtue. While willing to sacrifice them. selves, if need be, this is not what characterizes them—a mad lover of pleasure does it also; nor is following a passion—there are despicable passions; nor is unselfishly doing for others—the consistency of a certain kind of selfishness may be greatest in the highest. What singles out the nobler type (perhaps without their being aware of the singularity) is their rare and singular measure of values, their ardor in spheres where others are indif-
- ↑ Will to Power, §§ 919, 873, 962.
- ↑ Joyful Science, § 270; cf. §§ 335, 336; also, Zarathustra, IV, i.
- ↑ Will to Power, § 962.
- ↑ Beyond Good and Evil, §§ 261, 272.
- ↑ Cf. Will to Power, § 885 (if the rise of great and rare natures had depended on the will of others, there would never have been a significant man).
- ↑ Beyond Good and Evil, § 265.
