Mein Kind, für den ist alles verloren, und Meister wird der in keinem Land; denn wer als Meister geboren, der hat unter Meistern den schlimmsten Stan… - Richard Wagner

Die in linder Lüfte weh'n da oben ihr lebt, lacht und liebt:
mit gold'ner Faust euch Göttliche fang' ich mir alle!
Wie ich der Liebe abgesagt,
Alles was lebt soll ihr entsagen!
Mit Golde gekirrt, nach Gold, nur sollt ihr noch gieren!
Auf wonnigen Höh'n, in seligem Weben wiegt ihr euch;
den Schwarzalben verachtet ihr ewigen Schwelger!
Habt Acht! Habt Acht!
Denn dient ihr Männer erst meiner Macht,
eure schmucken Frau'n, die mein Frei'n verschmäht,
sie zwingt zur Lust sich der Zwerg, lacht Liebe ihm nicht!
Ha ha ha ha!
Habt ihr's gehört?
Habt Acht!
Habt Acht!
vor dem nächtlichen Heer,
entsteigt des Niblungen Hort
aus stummer Tiefe zu Tag!

That it must have been hunger alone, which first drove man to slay the animals and feed upon their flesh and blood; and that this compulsion was no mere consequence of his removal into colder climes … is proved by the patent fact that great nations with ample supplies of grain suffer nothing in strength or endurance even in colder regions through an almost exclusively vegetable diet, as is shewn by the eminent length of life of Russian peasants; while the Japanese, who know no other food than vegetables, are further renowned for their warlike valour and keenness of intellect. We may therefore call it quite an abnormality when hunger bred the thirst for blood … that thirst which history teaches us can never more be slaked, and fills its victims with a raging madness, not with courage. One can only account for it all by the human beast of prey having made itself monarch of the peaceful world, just as the ravening wild beast usurped dominion of the woods … And little as the savage animals have prospered, we see the sovereign human beast of prey decaying too. Owing to a nutriment against his nature, he falls sick with maladies that claim but him, attains no more his natural span of life or gentle death, but, plagued by pains and cares of body and soul unknown to any other species, he shuffles through an empty life to its ever fearful cutting short.

Attack and defence, want and war, victory and defeat, lordship and thraldom, all sealed with the seal of blood: this from henceforth is the History of Man.