Note 396 — Chapter V

See, in my novel, Die Krankheit des Jahrhunderts, Leipzig, 1889, Band I., p. 140, Schrötter’s remarks: ‘Egoism is a word. All depends upon the interpretation. Every living being strives for happiness, i.e., for contentment.... He [the healthy man] cannot be happy when he sees others suffer. The higher the man’s development, the livelier is this feeling.... The egoism of these men consists in their seeking out the pain of others and striving to alleviate it, in which, while combating the sufferings of others, they are simply struggling to attain to their own happiness. A Catholic would say of St. Vincent de Paul or of Carlo Borromeo, He was a great saint; I should say of him, He was a great egoist.’