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Menschliches, Allzumenschliches: Ein Buch für freie Geister
Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche
(1878)

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Human, All Too Human: A Book for Free Spirits Humain, trop humain: Un livre pour esprits libres

1. 1
I HAVE been told frequently, and always with great surprise, that there is something common and distinctive in all my writings, from the Birth of Tragedy to the latest published Prelude to a Philosophy of the Future. They all contain, I have been told, snares and nets for unwary birds, and an almost perpetual unconscious demand for the inversion of customary valuations and valued customs. What? Everything only —human—all-too-human? People lay down my writings with this sigh, not without a certain dread and distrust of morality itself, indeed almost tempted and encouraged to become advocates of the worst things : as being perhaps only the best disparaged ? My writings have been called a school of suspicion and especially of disdain, more happily, also, a school of courage and even of audacity. Indeed, I myself do not think that any one has ever looked at the world with such a profound suspicion; and not only as occasional Devil's Advocate, but equally also, to speak theologically, as enemy and impeacher of God ; and he who realises something of the consequences involved, in every profound suspicion, something of the chills and anxieties of loneliness to which every uncompromising difference of outlook condemns him who is affected therewith, will also understand how often I sought shelter in some kind of reverence or hostility, or scientificality or levity or stupidity, in order to recover from myself, and, as it were, to obtain temporary self-forgetfulness ; also why, when I did not find what I needed, I was obliged to manufacture it, to counterfeit and to imagine it in a suitable manner (and what else have poets ever done? And for what purpose has all the art in the world existed ?). What I always required most, however, for my cure and self-recovery, was the belief that I was not isolated in such circumstances, that I did not see in an isolated manner—a magic suspicion of relationship and similarity to others in outlook and desire, repose in the confidence of friendship, a blindness in both parties without suspicion or note of interrogation, an enjoyment of foregrounds, and surfaces of the near and the nearest, of all that has colour, epidermis, and outside appearance. Perhaps I might be reproached in this respect for much " art " and fine false coinage ; for instance, for voluntarily and knowingly shutting my eyes to Schopenhauer's blind will to morality at a time when I had become sufficiently clear-sighted about morality ; also for deceiving myself about Richard Wagner's incurable romanticism, as if it were a beginning and not an end ; also about the Greeks, also about the Germans and their future and there would still probably be quite a long list of such alsos? Supposing however, that this were all true and that I were reproached with good reason, what do you know, what could you know as to how much artifice of self-preservation, how much rationality and higher protection there is in such self-deception,—and how much falseness I still require in order to allow myself again and again the luxury of my sincerity ? . . . In short, I still live ; and life, in spite of ourselves, is not devised by morality ; it demands illusion, it lives by illusion . . . but— There ! I am already beginning again and doing what I have always done, old immoralist and bird-catcher that I am,—I am talking un-morally, ultra-morally, " beyond good and evil " ? . . .

On m’a assez souvent, et toujours avec une profonde surprise, déclaré qu’il y avait quelque chose de commun et de caractéristique dans tous mes ouvrages, depuis la Naissance de la tragédie jusqu’au dernier publié, le Prélude à une philosophie de l’avenir : ils contenaient tous, m’a-t-on dit, des lacs et des rets pour des oiseaux imprudents, et presque continuellement une provocation latente au renversement de toutes les estimations habituelles et de toutes les habitudes estimées. Quoi ? tout ne serait — qu’humain, trop humain ? C’est avec ce soupir qu’on sortait, dit-on, de mes ouvrages, non sans une sorte d’horreur et de méfiance même à l’égard de la morale ; bien plus, pas mal disposé et encouragé à se faire une fois le défenseur des pires choses : comme si peut-être elles n’étaient que les plus calomniées ? On a nommé mes livres une école de soupçon, plus encore, de mépris, heureusement aussi de courage, voire de témérité. En fait, je ne crois pas moi-même que personne ait jamais considéré le monde avec un soupçon aussi profond, et non seulement en avocat du diable à l’occasion, mais aussi bien, pour employer le langage théologique, en ennemi et en partie de Dieu : et qui sait deviner quelque chose des conséquences qu’enveloppe tout soupçon profond, quelque chose des frissons et des angoisses de la solitude, auxquels toute absolue différence de vue condamne celui qui en est affligé, comprendra aussi combien souvent j’ai, pour me reposer de moi-même, et quasi pour m’oublier moi-même momentanément, cherché à me mettre à couvert quelque part — dans quelque respect, ou hostilité, ou science, ou frivolité, ou sottise ; pourquoi aussi, lorsque je ne trouvais pas ce qu’il me fallait, j’ai dû me le procurer par artifice, tantôt par falsification, tantôt par invention (— et qu’ont jamais fait d’autre les poètes ? et pourquoi serait donc fait tout l’art du monde ?). Or ce qu’il me fallait toujours de plus en plus nécessairement, pour ma guérison et mon rétablissement, c’était la croyance que je n’étais pas le seul à être de la sorte, à voir de la sorte, — un magique pressentiment de parenté et de similitude d’œil et de désir, un repos dans la confiance de l’amitié, une cécité à deux sans soupçon et sans point d’interrogation, une jouissance prise aux premiers plans, à la surface, au prochain, au voisin, à tout ce qui a couleur, peau et apparence. Peut-être qu’on pourrait souvent me reprocher à cet égard bien des espèces d’« artifice », bien du subtil faux-monnayage : par exemple que j’aie, en toute conscience et volonté, fermé les yeux à l’aveugle désir que Schopenhauer a pour la morale, à une époque où j’étais déjà assez clairvoyant touchant la morale ; item, que je me sois abusé moi-même sur l’incurable romantisme de Richard Wagner, comme s’il était un commencement, non une fin ; item sur les Grecs, item sur les Allemands et leur avenir — et peut-être y aurait-il encore toute une longue liste de semblables items ? — Mais supposé que tout cela fût vrai et me fût reproché à bon droit, que savez-vous, que pourriez-vous savoir de ce qu’il y a de ruses, d’instinct de conservation, de raisonnement et de précaution supérieure dans de pareilles tromperies de soi-même, — et ce qu’il me faut encore de fausseté, pour que je puisse toujours et toujours me permettre le luxe de ma vérité ?… Il suffit, je vis encore : et la vie n’est pas après tout une invention de la morale : elle veut de la tromperie, elle vit de la tromperie… mais n’est-ce pas ? voilà que je recommence déjà, et fais ce que j’ai toujours fait, moi vieil immoraliste et oiseleur — et que je parle de façon immorale, extra-morale, « par delà le bien et le mal » ?

evil: Evil describes something or someone bad or cruel, not good.
ever: Ever means at any time.
frequently: When something happens frequently, it happens often.
since: Since is used to talk about a past event still happening now.
face: If you face a problem, you deal with it.
pet: A pet is an animal that lives with people.
allow: To allow something to happen means to let it happen.
difference: A difference is a way that something is not like other things.
lay: To lay means to put or place in a horizontal or flat position.
protect: To protect someone is to stop them from getting hurt.
encourage: To encourage someone is to make them want to do something.
purpose: A purpose is the reason that you do something.
require: To require something is to say that it is necessary.
perhaps: Perhaps is used when you say that something could happen.
still: Still is used when you say that a situation keeps going on.
certain: If you are certain about something, you know it is true.
rest: To rest is to stop being active while the body gets back its strength.
ground: The ground is the top part of the Earth that we walk on.
thin: If someone or something is thin, they are not fat.
contain: To contain something is to have it inside.
demand: To demand something is to say strongly that you want it.
equal: To be equal is to be the same.
owe: To owe is to have to pay or give back something received from another.
sight: A sight is something interesting to see.
poet: A poet is a person who writes poems.
exist: To exist is to be real.
publish: To publish a book is to get it printed and ready to sell.
else: If you talk about something else, you talk about something different.
hill: A hill is a round area of land. It is higher than the land around it.
lone: If someone or something is lone, they are the only one of that kind.
however: However means despite or not being influenced by something.
already: If something happens already, it happens before a certain time.
lie: To lie is to say or write something untrue to deceive someone.
real: If something is real, it actually exists.
war: A war is a big fight between two groups of people.
appear: To appear is to seem.
friendship: Friendship is the relationship between people who are friends.
instance: An instance is an example of something.
involve: To involve means to be actively taking part in something.
false: If something is false, it is not correct.
imagine: To imagine something is to think of it in your mind.
quite: Quite is used to say that something is complete or very much.
value: If something has value, it is worth a lot of money.
list: A list is a record of information printed with an item on each line.
magic: Magic is the power to do impossible things.
own: To own something means to have it. That thing belongs to you.
gain: If you gain something, you get more of it.
respect: Respect is a good opinion of someone because they are good.
belief: A belief is a strong feeling that something is correct or true.
common: If something is common, it happens often or there is much of it.
surface: The surface of something is the top part or outside of it.

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Menschliches, Allzumenschliches: Ein Buch für freie Geister Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche (1878)

Downloading books is available only for authorized users
Downloading books is available only for authorized users
Human, All Too Human: A Book for Free Spirits		Humain, trop humain: Un livre pour esprits libres
1.		1
I HAVE been told frequently, and always with great surprise, that there is something common and distinctive in all my writings, from the Birth of Tragedy to the latest published Prelude to a Philosophy of the Future. They all contain, I have been told, snares and nets for unwary birds, and an almost perpetual unconscious demand for the inversion of customary valuations and valued customs. What? Everything only —human—all-too-human? People lay down my writings with this sigh, not without a certain dread and distrust of morality itself, indeed almost tempted and encouraged to become advocates of the worst things : as being perhaps only the best disparaged ? My writings have been called a school of suspicion and especially of disdain, more happily, also, a school of courage and even of audacity. Indeed, I myself do not think that any one has ever looked at the world with such a profound suspicion; and not only as occasional Devil's Advocate, but equally also, to speak theologically, as enemy and impeacher of God ; and he who realises something of the consequences involved, in every profound suspicion, something of the chills and anxieties of loneliness to which every uncompromising difference of outlook condemns him who is affected therewith, will also understand how often I sought shelter in some kind of reverence or hostility, or scientificality or levity or stupidity, in order to recover from myself, and, as it were, to obtain temporary self-forgetfulness ; also why, when I did not find what I needed, I was obliged to manufacture it, to counterfeit and to imagine it in a suitable manner (and what else have poets ever done? And for what purpose has all the art in the world existed ?). What I always required most, however, for my cure and self-recovery, was the belief that I was not isolated in such circumstances, that I did not see in an isolated manner—a magic suspicion of relationship and similarity to others in outlook and desire, repose in the confidence of friendship, a blindness in both parties without suspicion or note of interrogation, an enjoyment of foregrounds, and surfaces of the near and the nearest, of all that has colour, epidermis, and outside appearance. Perhaps I might be reproached in this respect for much " art " and fine false coinage ; for instance, for voluntarily and knowingly shutting my eyes to Schopenhauer's blind will to morality at a time when I had become sufficiently clear-sighted about morality ; also for deceiving myself about Richard Wagner's incurable romanticism, as if it were a beginning and not an end ; also about the Greeks, also about the Germans and their future and there would still probably be quite a long list of such alsos? Supposing however, that this were all true and that I were reproached with good reason, what do you know, what could you know as to how much artifice of self-preservation, how much rationality and higher protection there is in such self-deception,—and how much falseness I still require in order to allow myself again and again the luxury of my sincerity ? . . . In short, I still live ; and life, in spite of ourselves, is not devised by morality ; it demands illusion, it lives by illusion . . . but— There ! I am already beginning again and doing what I have always done, old immoralist and bird-catcher that I am,—I am talking un-morally, ultra-morally, " beyond good and evil " ? . . .		On m’a assez souvent, et toujours avec une profonde surprise, déclaré qu’il y avait quelque chose de commun et de caractéristique dans tous mes ouvrages, depuis la Naissance de la tragédie jusqu’au dernier publié, le Prélude à une philosophie de l’avenir : ils contenaient tous, m’a-t-on dit, des lacs et des rets pour des oiseaux imprudents, et presque continuellement une provocation latente au renversement de toutes les estimations habituelles et de toutes les habitudes estimées. Quoi ? tout ne serait — qu’humain, trop humain ? C’est avec ce soupir qu’on sortait, dit-on, de mes ouvrages, non sans une sorte d’horreur et de méfiance même à l’égard de la morale ; bien plus, pas mal disposé et encouragé à se faire une fois le défenseur des pires choses : comme si peut-être elles n’étaient que les plus calomniées ? On a nommé mes livres une école de soupçon, plus encore, de mépris, heureusement aussi de courage, voire de témérité. En fait, je ne crois pas moi-même que personne ait jamais considéré le monde avec un soupçon aussi profond, et non seulement en avocat du diable à l’occasion, mais aussi bien, pour employer le langage théologique, en ennemi et en partie de Dieu : et qui sait deviner quelque chose des conséquences qu’enveloppe tout soupçon profond, quelque chose des frissons et des angoisses de la solitude, auxquels toute absolue différence de vue condamne celui qui en est affligé, comprendra aussi combien souvent j’ai, pour me reposer de moi-même, et quasi pour m’oublier moi-même momentanément, cherché à me mettre à couvert quelque part — dans quelque respect, ou hostilité, ou science, ou frivolité, ou sottise ; pourquoi aussi, lorsque je ne trouvais pas ce qu’il me fallait, j’ai dû me le procurer par artifice, tantôt par falsification, tantôt par invention (— et qu’ont jamais fait d’autre les poètes ? et pourquoi serait donc fait tout l’art du monde ?). Or ce qu’il me fallait toujours de plus en plus nécessairement, pour ma guérison et mon rétablissement, c’était la croyance que je n’étais pas le seul à être de la sorte, à voir de la sorte, — un magique pressentiment de parenté et de similitude d’œil et de désir, un repos dans la confiance de l’amitié, une cécité à deux sans soupçon et sans point d’interrogation, une jouissance prise aux premiers plans, à la surface, au prochain, au voisin, à tout ce qui a couleur, peau et apparence. Peut-être qu’on pourrait souvent me reprocher à cet égard bien des espèces d’« artifice », bien du subtil faux-monnayage : par exemple que j’aie, en toute conscience et volonté, fermé les yeux à l’aveugle désir que Schopenhauer a pour la morale, à une époque où j’étais déjà assez clairvoyant touchant la morale ; item, que je me sois abusé moi-même sur l’incurable romantisme de Richard Wagner, comme s’il était un commencement, non une fin ; item sur les Grecs, item sur les Allemands et leur avenir — et peut-être y aurait-il encore toute une longue liste de semblables items ? — Mais supposé que tout cela fût vrai et me fût reproché à bon droit, que savez-vous, que pourriez-vous savoir de ce qu’il y a de ruses, d’instinct de conservation, de raisonnement et de précaution supérieure dans de pareilles tromperies de soi-même, — et ce qu’il me faut encore de fausseté, pour que je puisse toujours et toujours me permettre le luxe de ma vérité ?… Il suffit, je vis encore : et la vie n’est pas après tout une invention de la morale : elle veut de la tromperie, elle vit de la tromperie… mais n’est-ce pas ? voilà que je recommence déjà, et fais ce que j’ai toujours fait, moi vieil immoraliste et oiseleur — et que je parle de façon immorale, extra-morale, « par delà le bien et le mal » ?
evil: Evil describes something or someone bad or cruel, not good. ever: Ever means at any time. frequently: When something happens frequently, it happens often. since: Since is used to talk about a past event still happening now. face: If you face a problem, you deal with it. pet: A pet is an animal that lives with people. allow: To allow something to happen means to let it happen. difference: A difference is a way that something is not like other things. lay: To lay means to put or place in a horizontal or flat position. protect: To protect someone is to stop them from getting hurt. encourage: To encourage someone is to make them want to do something. purpose: A purpose is the reason that you do something. require: To require something is to say that it is necessary. perhaps: Perhaps is used when you say that something could happen. still: Still is used when you say that a situation keeps going on. certain: If you are certain about something, you know it is true. rest: To rest is to stop being active while the body gets back its strength. ground: The ground is the top part of the Earth that we walk on. thin: If someone or something is thin, they are not fat. contain: To contain something is to have it inside. demand: To demand something is to say strongly that you want it. equal: To be equal is to be the same. owe: To owe is to have to pay or give back something received from another. sight: A sight is something interesting to see. poet: A poet is a person who writes poems. exist: To exist is to be real. publish: To publish a book is to get it printed and ready to sell. else: If you talk about something else, you talk about something different. hill: A hill is a round area of land. It is higher than the land around it. lone: If someone or something is lone, they are the only one of that kind. however: However means despite or not being influenced by something. already: If something happens already, it happens before a certain time. lie: To lie is to say or write something untrue to deceive someone. real: If something is real, it actually exists. war: A war is a big fight between two groups of people. appear: To appear is to seem. friendship: Friendship is the relationship between people who are friends. instance: An instance is an example of something. involve: To involve means to be actively taking part in something. false: If something is false, it is not correct. imagine: To imagine something is to think of it in your mind. quite: Quite is used to say that something is complete or very much. value: If something has value, it is worth a lot of money. list: A list is a record of information printed with an item on each line. magic: Magic is the power to do impossible things. own: To own something means to have it. That thing belongs to you. gain: If you gain something, you get more of it. respect: Respect is a good opinion of someone because they are good. belief: A belief is a strong feeling that something is correct or true. common: If something is common, it happens often or there is much of it. surface: The surface of something is the top part or outside of it.

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