He who cannot put his thoughts on ice should not enter into the heat of dispute.

As soon as a religion comes to dominate it has as its opponents all those who would have been its first disciples.

To be incapable of taking one's enemies, one's accidents, even one's misdeeds seriously for very long — that is the sign of strong, full natures in whom there is an excess of the power to form, to mold, to recuperate and to forget (a good example of this in modem times is Mirabeau, who had no memory for insults and vile actions done him and was unable to forgive simply because he — forgot). Such a man shakes off with a <i>single</i> shrug many vermin that eat deep into others; here alone genuine 'love of one's enemies' is possible — supposing it to be possible at all on earth. How much reverence has a noble man for his enemies! — and such reverence is a bridge to love. — For he desires his enemy for himself, as his mark of distinction; he can endure no other enemy than one in whom there is nothing to despise and <i>very much</i> to honor! In contrast to this, picture 'the enemy' as the man of <i>ressentiment</i> conceives him — and here precisely is his deed, his creation: he has conceived 'the evil enemy,' <i>'the Evil One,'</i> and this in fact is his basic concept, from which he then evolves, as an afterthought and pendant, a 'good one' — himself!