Full Idea
Above all, gentlemen of virtue, you are not our superiors: it is a miserable self-interest and prudence that suggests virtue to you. If you had more strength and courage you would not reduce yourselves to virtuous nonentities in this way.
Gist of Idea
Virtue is pursued from self-interest and prudence, and reduces people to non-entities
Source
Friedrich Nietzsche (The Will to Power (notebooks) [1888], §318)
Book Reference
Nietzsche,Friedrich: 'The Will to Power', ed/tr. Kaufmann,W /Hollingdate,R [Vintage 1968], p.176
A Reaction
It is certainly true that virtue is about self-interest, and also that it tends to be rather conservative. But we recognise the virtues of adventure and risk.