Previous
Pessimism
The herd man is how Nietzsche refers to the individual created by modern, democratic, industrialized society. As the old class and “racial” divisions of Europe are eroded, the vast majority of citizens are becoming herd men who valorize their own “commonness” above all else and shun those who are different, or “noble.” While the proclaimed values of the herd man are equality and the abolishment of suffering, Nietzsche finds that the herd man has internalized slave morality so deeply that he is paradoxically ready to surrender his power to a charismatic tyrant.
The Herd Man Quotes in Beyond Good and Evil
The Beyond Good and Evil quotes below are all either spoken by The Herd Man or refer to The Herd Man. For each quote, you can also see the other terms and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
5. Natural History of Morals
Quotes
Whoever examines the conscience of the European today will have to pull the same imperative out of a thousand moral folds and hideouts—the imperative of herd timidity: “we want that some day there should be nothing any more to be afraid of!” Some day—throughout Europe, the will and way to this day is now called “progress.”
Related Characters:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
6. We Scholars
Quotes
Let us look more closely: what is the scientific man? To begin with, a type of man that is not noble, with the virtues of a type of man that is not noble, which is to say, a type that does not dominate and is neither authoritative nor self-sufficient: he has industriousness, patient acceptance of his place in rank and file, evenness and moderation in his abilities and needs, an instinct for his equals and for what they need; for example, that bit of independence and green pasture without which there is no quiet work, that claim to honor and recognition (which first of all presupposes literal recognition and recognizability), that sunshine of a good name, that constant attestation of his value and utility which is needed to overcome again and again the internal mistrust which is the sediment in the hearts of all dependent men and herd animals.
7. Our Virtues
Quotes
Our pity is a higher and more farsighted pity: we see how man makes himself smaller, how you make him smaller—and there are moments when we behold your very pity with indescribable anxiety, when we resist this pity—when we find your seriousness more dangerous than any frivolity. You want, if possible—and there is no more insane “if possible”—to abolish suffering. And we? It really seems that we would rather have it higher and worse than ever. Well-being as you understand it—that is no goal, that seems to us an end, a state that soon makes man ridiculous and contemptible—that makes his destruction desirable.
Get the entire Beyond Good and Evil LitChart as a printable PDF.
The Herd Man Term Timeline in Beyond Good and Evil
The timeline below shows where the term The Herd Man appears in Beyond Good and Evil. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
3. What Is Religious
...of this disastrous, having paved the way for the modern European, “a herd animal,” or the herd man .
(full context)
5. Natural History of Morals
...by the “herd instinct,” they deceive themselves and pretend to be one with the herd. The herd man , conversely, is held up as a moral good in his own right. The falseness...
(full context)
8. Peoples and Fatherlands
...leads to the new European, who is adaptable above all else. This new European is the herd man too, and Nietzsche paradoxically finds that, in creating this kind of human, the democratic movement...
(full context)
Nietzsche argues that nationalism counterintuitively enables the growing homogenization of Europe, and that “fatherlandishness” and the herd man are very much in sync, due to their cynical manipulation by politicians. At the same...
(full context)
9. What Is Noble
...with each other, and in turn become more like each other. This naturally leads to the herd man , and “tremendous counter-forces” are needed to develop humankind in other directions.
(full context)
