The Will to Power Aphorism 298
"'The beautiful for the sake of the beautiful,' 'the true for the sake of the true,' 'the good for the sake of the good' — these are three forms of evil eye for the real."
Aphorism 298 from The Will to Power by Nietzsche.
“Morality for morality’s sake'“ — an important step in its denaturalization: it itself appears as the ultimate value. In this phase it has permeated religion: e.g., in Judaism. And there is likewise a phase in which it separates itself again from religion and in which no God is “moral” enough for it: it then prefers the impersonal ideal — This is the case at present.
“Art for art’s sake” — this is an equally dangerous principle: therewith one introduces a false antithesis into things - it culminates in a defamation of reality (“idealization” into the ugly). If one severs an ideal from reality one debases the real, one impoverishes it, one defames it. "The beautiful for the sake of the beautiful,” “the true for the sake of the true,” “the good for the sake of the good” — these are three forms of evil eye for the real.
—Art, knowledge, morality are means: instead of recognizing in them the aim of enhancing life, one has associated them with the antithesis of life, with “God” — also as the revelation of a higher world which here and there looks down upon us through them-
"Beautiful and ugly,” “true and false,” “good and evil” — these distinctions and antagonisms betray certain conditions of existence and enhancement, not only of man but of any kind of firm and enduring complex which separates itself from its adversary. The war that is thus created is the essential element: as a means of separation that strengthens isolation—