SOURCE: "Schopenhauer as Educator," translated by William Arrowsmith, in Unmodern Observations, edited by William Arrowsmith, Yale University Press, 1990, pp. 147-226.

One of the most important figures of the nineteenth century, Nietzsche was, among other things, a forerunner of existentialism, the first philosopher to recognize nihilism as a historical phenomenon, and an influential psychological theorist. In the following excerpt, which was originally published in 1874, Nietzsche criticizes his academic contemporaries and insists that the true philosopher is one who, like Schopenhauer, explores "the suffering of truthfulness. "

A traveler who had visited many countries and peoples and several continents, was asked what trait he had discovered to be common to all men, and replied: a tendency to laziness. Some will think that he might have answered more accurately and truthfully: they are all afraid. They hide behind customs and opinions. Basically every man knows quite well that he is on this...