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Ressentiment is always to some degree a determinant of the romantic type of mind. At least this is so when the romantic nostalgia for some past era (Hellas, the Middle Ages, etc.) is not primarily based on the values of that period, but on the wish to escape from the present. Then all praise of the “past” has the implied purpose of downgrading present-day reality.

— Max Scheler Das Ressentiment im Aufbau der Moralen (1912)

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The fake love of ressentiment man offers no real help, since for his perverted sense of values, evils like “sickness” and “poverty” have become goods.

Das Ressentiment im Aufbau der Moralen (1912)

The “kingdom of God” has become the “other world,” which stands mechanically beside “this world”—an opposition unknown to the strongest periods of Christianity.

Das Ressentiment im Aufbau der Moralen (1912)

We have a tendency to overcome any strong tension between desire and impotence by depreciating or denying the positive value of the desired object.

Das Ressentiment im Aufbau der Moralen (1912)

Antiquity believed that the forces of love in the universe were limited. Therefore they were to be used sparingly,and everyone was to be loved only according to his value.

Das Ressentiment im Aufbau der Moralen (1912)

All the seemingly positive valuations and judgments of ressentiment are hidden devaluations and negations.

Das Ressentiment im Aufbau der Moralen (1912)

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