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Antichrist (book)

The Antichrist § 16

Of course: when a people is destroyed, when it feels that its belief in the future, its hope for freedom, is irretrievably fading away […], then its God will necessarily change as well.

He will become modest and full of fear, he will cringe in corners and recommend ‘peace of soul’, forbearance, an end to hatred, and ‘love’ of friends and enemies.

He will constantly moralize, he will creep into the crevices of every private virtue, he will be a God for one and all, a private and cosmopolitan God…

He used to represent a people, the strength of a people, all the aggression and thirst for power in the soul of a people: now he is just the good God…

In the end, Gods have no other choice: either they are the will to power – in which case they will still be the Gods of a people – or they are powerless in the face of power – and then they will necessarily become good