The following quotations are taken from:
Nietzsche, Will to Power, pp. 339-340 (fragment 636), 346-347 (fragments 655-658). Ed. Walter Kauffman, Vintage 1968.
“…this necessary perspectivism by virtue of which every center of force—and not only man—construes all the rest of the world from its own viewpoint, i.e., measures, feels, forms, according to its own force–…” 339
“Perspectivism is only a complex form of specificity. My idea is that every specific body strives to become master over all space and to extend its force (–and its will to power;) and to thrust back all that resists its extension. But it continually encounters similar efforts on the part of other bodies and ends by coming to an arrangement (‘union’) with those of them that are sufficiently related to it: thus they then conspire together for power. And the process goes on—” 340
“The weaker presses to the stronger from a need for nourishment; it wants to get under it, if possible to become one with it. The stronger, on the contrary, drives others away; it does not want to perish in this manner; it grows and in growing it splits itself into two or more parts. The greater the impulse toward unity, the more firmly may one conclude that weakness is present; the greater the impulse towards variety, differentiation, inner decay, the more force is present.
The drive to approach—and the drive to thrust something back are the bond, in both the inorganic and the organic world. The entire distinction is a prejudice.
The will to power in every combination of forces, defending itself against the stronger, lunging at the weaker, is more correct.” 346
“The will to power can manifest itself only against resistances; therefore it seeks that which resists it—this is the primeval tendency of the protoplasm when it extends pseudopodia and feels about. Appropriation and assimilation are above all a desire to overwhelm, a forming, shaping and reshaping, until at length that which has been overwhelmed has entirely gone over into the power domain of the aggressor and has increased the same.” 346
“What is ‘passive’?—To be hindered from moving forward; thus an act of resistance and reaction.
What is ‘active’?—reaching out for power.
‘Nourishment’—is only derivative: the original phenomenon is: to desire to incorporate everything.
‘Procreation’—only derivative; originally: where one will was not enough to organize the entire appropriated material, there came into force an opposing will which took in hand the separation; a new center of organization, after a struggle with the original will.
‘Pleasure’—as a feeling of power (presupposing displeasure).” 346-347
“The will to power specializes as will to nourishment, to property, to tools, to servants (those who obey) and masters: the body as an example.—The stronger will directs the weaker. There is absolutely no other kind of causality than that of will upon will…” 347