#29

“There is a time and place for everything. All the same I have not taken a virtuous man for my hero. And I can even say why not. Because at last the time has come to give a rest to the poor 'virtuous man'; because the words 'virtuous man' have become meaningless; because they have transformed the virtuous man into a horse and there is no writer who does not ride him, urging him on with a whip or anything else he can lay hold of; because they've exhausted the virtuous man to such an extent that there's not a shred of virtue left in him, and all that remains of him is skin and bone; because their appeal to the virtuous man is sheer hypocrisy; because they do not respect the virtuous man. No, it is high time we harnessed the scoundrel. And so let us harness the scoundrel” (id, 234-235).