The Gay Science
"On the Pathos of Truth" (German: "Über das Pathos der Wahrheit") is a short essay by Friedrich Nietzsche concerning the motivation of philosophers to seek knowledge as an end in itself. Nietzsche identifies this motivation with pride. On this point the essay prefigures theories concerning a destructive "will to truth" that Nietzsche discusses in "On the Genealogy of Morals", "Beyond Good and Evil", and "The Gay Science".