The Will to Power

Preface to "Ecce Homo."

Of all of Nietzsche's writings, "Ecce Homo" is without doubt the most personal work. This is not merely because it takes his life, or rather himself, as its subject, but for the much deeper reason that in its treatment and presentation, it expresses Nietzsche's personal character in the most distinct, immediate, and admittedly most abrasive way. Because of the intimacy of its subject, it gives its author the opportunity to reveal himself as a personality, as well as a writer, in accordance with the full richness and distinct character of his nature. Even if some traits here appear exaggerated or distorted into the extreme, the bizarre, or even the morbid, they are, in any case, traits that already contributed in part to his most magnificent creations, granting them the personal charm and value that we today instinctively associate with Nietzsche's works. To represent oneself so subjectively—that is, disregarding all standards and points of comparison—with such restrained heat of passion, with such a sharp, sarcastic accent, and yet again so coolly, with such ruthlessness and psychological refinement, so lost in infinity, and yet so objective in the highest sense of the word, was something only a Nietzsche could achieve. And what he gave us with it is a work of such monumental greatness, of such dithyrambic