After certain experiences — and above all else after meeting certain people, I find myself compelled to read Nietzsche as a means of restoring my sense of honesty, of giving back to myself a sense of cleanliness and deceitlessness.
That Nietzsche is often wrong is not a caveat to his honesty: it is an inevitable result. To be outspoken and honest means being frequently wrong. But if one does not announce one’s wrong beliefs, one will not find truer ones. The fear of error stifles — and, ironically, perpetuates error.
When Kaufmann thinks Nietzsche a lesser philosopher than Hegel or Kant, he forgets the real purpose of philosophy: to help men to live well. Kant and Hegel are scarcely men: they are entirely neutered outside of metaphysics. Nietzsche, though a crippled human being, at least had some inkling of the meaning of human life. Having been given a human life was largely wasted on Hegel as far as I can tell.