Ressentiment

“The twisted path from humanism’s soaring tributes in honor of the human divinity to the consequences of modern humanitarianism is best explained by the concept of ressentiment. When Nietzsche wrote his celebrated attack on Christianity, he transliterated this word from the French because he could find no German equivalent . . . When Scheler’s book was translated into English the same practice was followed, because ‘resentment’ is too weak to convey the meaning he intended. Ressentiment begins with perceived injury that may have a basis in fact, but more often is occasioned by envy for the possessions or the qualities possessed by another person” (Herbert Schlossberg, Idols for Destruction, p. 51).