This eternal accusation against Christianity I would fain write on all walls, wherever there are walls,—I have letters with which I can make even the blind see.... I call Christianity the one great curse, the one enormous and innermost perversion, the one great instinct of revenge, for which no means are too venomous, too underhand, too underground and too petty,—I call it the one immortal blemish of mankind....
And time is reckoned from the dies nefastus upon which this fatality came into being—from the first day of Christianity!—why not rather from its last day?—From to-day?—Transvaluation of all Values!...
[1] The German “Tüchtigkeit” has a nobler ring than our word “efficiency.”—TR.
[2] Cf. Disraeli: “But enlightened Europe is not happy. Its existence is a fever which it calls progress. Progress to what?” (“Tancred,” Book III., Chap, vii.).—TR.
[3] It will be seen from this that in spite of Nietzsche’s ruthless criticism of the priests, he draws a sharp distinction between Christianity and the Church. As the latter still contained elements of order, it was more to his taste than the denial of authority characteristic of real Christianity.—TR.
[4] “reine Thorheit” in the German text, referring once again to Parsifal.—Tr.
[5] This applies apparently to Bismarck, the forger of the Ems telegram and a sincere Christian.—Tr.
[6] An adaptation of Shakespeare’s “Well roared, lion” (Mid. N. D., Act 5, Sc. i.), the lion, as is well known, being the symbol for St Mark in Christian literature and Art—TR.
[7] A parody on a line in Schiller’s “Jungfrau von Orleans” (Act 3, Sc. vi.): “Mit der Dummheit kämpfen Götter selbst vergebens.” (With stupidity even the gods themselves struggle in vain).—TR.