[238] "To go wrong on the fundamental problem of 'man and woman,' to deny the most abysmal antagonism between them and the necessity of an eternally hostile tension, to dream perhaps of equal rights, equal education, equal claims and obligations - that is a typical sign of shallowness, and a thinker who has proved shallow in this dangerous place - shallow in his instinct - may be considered altogether suspicious, even more - betrayed, exposed: probably he will be too 'short' for all fundamental problems of life, of the life yet to come, too, and incapable of attaining any depth. A man, on the other hand, who has depth, in his spirit as well as in his desires, including that depth of benevolence which is capable of discipline and hardness and easily mistaken for them, must always think about women as the Orientals do: he must conceive of woman as a possession, as property that can be locked, as something predestined for service and achieving her perfection in that. Here he must base himself on the tremendous reason of Asia, on Asia's superiority in the instincts, as the Greeks did formerly, who were Asia's best heirs and students: as is well known, from Homer's time to the age of Pericles, as their culture increased along with the range of their powers, they also became more stern, in brief, more Oriental, towards woman. How necessary, how logical, how humanely desirable even, this was - is worth pondering."
On Virtues
From - Beyond Good and Evil
- Friedrich Nietzsche
