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A man who says, "That pleases me. I take that for my own and will protect it and defend it against everyone"; a man who can carry out a task, put a decision into effect, remain true to an idea, hold on to a woman, punish and cast down an insolent person; a man who has his anger and his sword and to whom the weak, the suffering, the distressed, and even the animals are happy to go and belong to by nature - in short, a man who is by nature a master - when such a man has pity, well, this pity is worth something! But what is there in the pity of those who suffer! Or even of those who preach pity! Today in almost all of Europe there is a pathological susceptibility and sensitivity to pain, as well as a nasty lack of restraint in complaining, a mollycoddling, which likes to dress itself up with religion and philosophical bits and pieces as something loftier - there is a formal culture of suffering. In my view, the unmanliness of what is christened "pity" in such enthusiastic circles is what always strikes the eye first. - We must excommunicate this latest form of bad taste, powerfully and thoroughly; and finally I wish that people would set against their hearts and throats the good amulet "gai saber,"- gay science", to clarify this matter for the Germans.