It must be admitted that there is a certain type of Christian ethics to which Nietzsche’s condemnatory criticism can be rightly applied. Pascal and Dostoyevsky, whom he himself cites as an example, both have something pitiful in their virtue. Pascal sacrificed a magnificent mathematical mind to his God, thereby attributing cruelty to God, which is a cosmic extension of the painful mental anguish of Pascal himself. Dostoevsky wanted nothing to do with “personal pride”; he would sin in order to repent and experience the pleasure of confession. I will not discuss the question of how much Christianity should be blamed for such obscurations of the mind, but I agree with Nietzsche, considering Dostoyevsky’s prostration despicable. I must also agree that frankness and pride and even some self-assertion are elements of the best character. Virtue based on fear cannot be admired.
Bertrand Russell, История западной философии