Friedrich Nietzsche

Human, All Too Human

The Wanderer and His Shadow

39 Origin of rights. – Rights can in the first instance be traced back to tradition, tradition to some agreement. At some time in the past men were mutually content with the consequences of the agreement they had come to, and at the same time too indolent formally to renew it; thus they lived on as though it were continually being renewed and, as forgetfulness spread its veil over its origin, gradually came to believe they were in possession of a sacred, immutable state of affairs upon which every generation had to continue to build. Tradition was now a compulsion, even when it no longer served the purpose for which the agreement had originally been concluded. – The weak have at all times found here their sure stronghold: they tend to regard that single act of agreement, that single act of grace, as valid eternally