Shun Desert Sainthood

by phil on Saturday Oct 8, 2005 5:31 PM

Thus Spoke Nietzsche:

     Do not be virtuous beyond your strength! And do not desire anything of yourselves against probability.
     Walk in the footprints where your fathers' virtue walked before you. How would you clumb high if your fathers' will does not climb with you?
     But whoever would be a firstling should beware lest he also become a lastling. And wherever the vices of your fathers are, there you should not want to represent saints. If your fathers consorted with women, strong wines, and wild boars, what would it be if you wanted chastity of yourself? It would be folly! Verily, it seems much to me if such a man is the husband of one or two or three women. and if he founded monasteries and wrote over the door, "The way to sainthood," I should yet say, What for? It is another folly. He founded a reformatory and refuge for himself: may it do him good! But I do not believe in it.
     In solitude, whatever one has brought into it grows—also the inner beast. Therefore solitude is inadvisable for many. Has there been anything filthier on earth so far than desert saints? Around them not only was the devil loose, but also the swine.

(IV.XIII)