Pass the lord and praise the ammunition...

I just finished reading Nietzsche's "The Anti-Christ" as translated by H.L. Mencken

here are some of the juicier bits:

From Mencken's introduction-

it is always in a democratic society that heresy and felony tend to be most constantly confused

The majority of men prefer delusion to truth. It sooths. It is easy to grasp. Above all, it fits more snugly than the truth into a universe of false appearances - of complex and irrational phenomena, defectively grasped.

Of all the religions ever devised by the great practical jokers of the race, this is the one that offers most for the least money, so to speak, to the inferior man.

It is a pity that Holy Church has no process for the elevation of demons, like its process for the canonization of saints.

From the text-

I call an animal, a species, an individual corrupt, when it loses its instincts, when it chooses, when it prefers what is injurious to it.

Upon the theological instinct I make war: I find the tracks of it everywhere. Whoever has the theological blood in his veins is shifty and dishonorable in all things. The pathetic thing that grows out of this condition is called faith: in other words, closing one's eyes upon falsehood. People erect a concept of morality, of virtue, of holiness upon this false view of things; they ground good conscience upon faulty vision; they argue that no other sort of vision has value any more, once they have made theirs sacrosanct with the names of "God," "salvation," and "eternity."

Mankind has just as much need for an evil god as for a good god.

Love is the state in which man sees things most decidedly as they are not.

There was only one Christian, and he died on the cross.

it is Christianity, let us not doubt, and Christian valuations, which convert every revolution into a carnival of blood and crime.

Morality is the best of all devices for leading mankind by the nose.

Paul was the greatest of all apostles of revenge...

Man has had to fight for every atom of the truth, and has to pay for it almost everything that the heart, that human love, that human trust cling to. Greatness of soul is needed for this business: the service of truth is the hardest of all services.

-fanatics are picturesque, and mankind prefers observing poses to listening to reasons...

Christianity, alcohol--the two great means of corruption


I always like reading Nietzsche, even though he comes off as a jackass sometimes, because I equate him to one of those curmudgeonly old men who don't care about any kind of political correctness or sensitivity. They just say what they really believe and sometimes it's right on the money.