Has there not been since the time of Copernicus an unbroken progress in the self-belittling of man and his will for belittling himself? Alas, his belief in his dignity, his uniqueness, his irreplaceableness in the scheme of existence, is gone…Since Copernicus man seems to have fallen on to a steep plane — he rolls faster and faster away from the centre— whither? Into nothingness? Into the thrilling sensation of his own nothingness?…All science…nowadays sets out to talk man out of his present opinion of himself, as though that the opinion had been nothing more than a bizarre piece of conceit. You might go as far as to say that science finds its peculiar pride, its peculiar bitter form of stoical ataraxia, in preserving man’s contempt for himself… (Nietzsche Genealogy of Morals Essay 3, section 25, 1887)
