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Thus Spake ZarathustraIdeasLibrary
First Part · X. War and Warriors

The good war hallows every cause

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Ye say it is the good cause which halloweth even war? I say unto you: it is the good war which halloweth every cause.

Zarathustra turns the claim around: war itself sanctifies the cause, not the reverse.

Commentary on this chapter

What the critics said

War, inequality and German militarismGeorg Brandes · Aristocratic Radicalism, 1889judgement

Brandes argues that Nietzsche, like Hartmann, denies the possibility of equality and peace because life is inequality and war, praising the good war that hallows every cause, and that both reflect the militarism of the new German Empire, Nietzsche differing only in wanting war so that manliness may not die out.

Contest, victory and the transvaluationH. L. Mencken · The Philosophy of Friedrich Nietzsche, 1908interpretation

Mencken argues that for Nietzsche instinct and experiment reveal one's power, that happiness lies in unrestrained yielding to the will to power through constant contest, citing Zarathustra's 'not to peace, but to victory' and casting dice with death, and that this means a crusade against ethics of self-sacrifice for inferiors and a transvaluation that frees the will to power from infamy.