[...] Since this work in fact contains an account of my entire history up to the present day, I find it virtually unnecessary to add much else to today’s letter to you. Above all, however, I must express my sincere thanks for your various letters, although I continue to regret the fact that you are the one whose pocket has had a hole burned in it because of the enormous sums you have had to pay in postage, especially the time before last: you should be more careful! From your last letter I would single out in particular the predicament caused by your need to obtain favourable reviews of my literary writings. Do not trouble yourself unduly about this! There is only one thing that matters to me, and that is that they are read as widely as possible; I welcome anything that contributes to that end; it matters not a whit if they are torn to pieces, because that is something that is entirely to be expected. After all, I am not seeking to be reconciled with worthlessness, but what I do seek is the most ruthless war: and since the sort of worthlessness I have in mind is one of the conditions of public life and above all of the trade which is practised by artists and literary figures, I can find friends only in those areas which are totally removed from the public sphere as it now predominates. It is not a question of convincing other people and winning them over; it is a question purely and simply of extermination: we shall gain the strength to bring this about in the future if we learn to see ourselves as the disciples of a new religion, and consolidate our faith by means of our mutual love: let us stick to the side of youth, - and let the older generation rot in hell, they have nothing to offer us!
[...]
Source: Selected Letters of Richard Wagner, trans. and ed. Stewart Spencer and Barry Millington (W. W. Norton & Company, 1988), No. 98