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Thus Spoke Zarathustra

Friedrich Nietzsche/1885 / 19th century

Eternal RecurrenceSelf-OvercomingThe OvermanValue Creation

Visionary in the Continental tradition, oriented around eternal recurrence and self-overcoming.

Nietzsche's Thus Spoke Zarathustra is a philosophical prose-poem in which the prophet Zarathustra descends from solitude to preach self-overcoming and the creation of new values. Written in a visionary, scriptural style, it is the central dramatic expression of Nietzsche's mature thought.

593 excerpts/84 sections

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Chapters

The structural skeleton of the work

Section 1

HOW ZARATHUSTRA CAME INTO BEING.

11 excerpts

Top themes in this chapter

Creativity4 excerpts Idealism3 excerpts Nietzschean Philosophy3 excerpts Ecstasy2 excerpts Health2 excerpts

Inspiration as Revelation

Has any one at the end of the nineteenth century any distinct notion of what poets of a stronger age understood by the word inspiration? If not, I will describe it. If one had the smallest vestige of superstition in one, it would hardly be possible to set aside completely the idea that one is the mere incarnation, mouthpiece or medium of an almighty power. The idea of revelation in the sense that something becomes suddenly visible and audible with indescribable certainty and accuracy, which profoundly convulses and upsets one—describes simply the matter of fact. One hears—one does not seek; one takes—one does not ask who gives: a thought suddenly flashes up like lightning, it comes with necessity, unhesitatingly—I have never had any choice in the matter.

Section 2

ZARATHUSTRA’S PROLOGUE.

30 excerpts

Top themes in this chapter

Superman7 excerpts Existentialism5 excerpts Conformity3 excerpts Creation3 excerpts Individualism3 excerpts

Man as Bridge

Man is a rope stretched between the animal and the Superman—a rope over an abyss. A dangerous crossing, a dangerous wayfaring, a dangerous looking-back, a dangerous trembling and halting. What is great in man is that he is a bridge and not a goal: what is lovable in man is that he is an OVER-GOING and a DOWN-GOING. I love those that know not how to live except as down-goers, for they are the over-goers.

Section 3

Chapter I. THE THREE METAMORPHOSES

5 excerpts

Top themes in this chapter

Freedom4 excerpts Transformation3 excerpts Spiritual Growth2 excerpts Creation Of Values1 excerpt Innocence1 excerpt

Spirit's Three Metamorphoses

Three metamorphoses of the spirit do I designate to you: how the spirit becometh a camel, the camel a lion, and the lion at last a child. Many heavy things are there for the spirit, the strong load-bearing spirit in which reverence dwelleth: for the heavy and the heaviest longeth its strength. What is heavy? so asketh the load-bearing spirit; then kneeleth it down like the camel, and wanteth to be well laden. What is the heaviest thing, ye heroes? asketh the load-bearing spirit, that I may take it upon me and rejoice in my strength.

Section 4

Chapter II. THE ACADEMIC CHAIRS OF VIRTUE

5 excerpts

Top themes in this chapter

Sleep5 excerpts Virtue4 excerpts Peace2 excerpts Humility1 excerpt Obedience1 excerpt

Virtues at Rest

Few people know it, but one must have all the virtues in order to sleep well. Shall I bear false witness? Shall I commit adultery? Shall I covet my neighbour’s maidservant? All that would ill accord with good sleep. And even if one have all the virtues, there is still one thing needful: to send the virtues themselves to sleep at the right time. That they may not quarrel with one another, the good females! And about thee, thou unhappy one! Peace with God and thy neighbour: so desireth good sleep.

Section 5

Chapter III. BACKWORLDSMEN

7 excerpts

Top themes in this chapter

Existentialism3 excerpts Human Condition2 excerpts Body And Spirit1 excerpt Creation1 excerpt Creation Of Gods1 excerpt

World as Divine Escape

Once on a time, Zarathustra also cast his fancy beyond man, like all backworldsmen. The work of a suffering and tortured God, did the world then seem to me. The dream—and diction—of a God, did the world then seem to me; coloured vapours before the eyes of a divinely dissatisfied one. Good and evil, and joy and woe, and I and thou—coloured vapours did they seem to me before creative eyes. The creator wished to look away from himself,—thereupon he created the world. Intoxicating joy is it for the sufferer to look away from his suffering and forget himself. Intoxicating joy and self-forgetting, did the world once seem to me. This world, the eternally imperfect, an eternal contradiction’s image and imperfect image—an intoxicating joy to its imperfect creator:—thus did the world once seem to me.

Section 6

Chapter IV. THE DESPISERS OF THE BODY

6 excerpts

Top themes in this chapter

Ego3 excerpts Self3 excerpts Body And Spirit2 excerpts Body And Soul1 excerpt Body Wisdom1 excerpt

Body's Big Sagacity

The body is a big sagacity, a plurality with one sense, a war and a peace, a flock and a shepherd. An instrument of thy body is also thy little sagacity, my brother, which thou callest “spirit”—a little instrument and plaything of thy big sagacity. “Ego,” sayest thou, and art proud of that word. But the greater thing—in which thou art unwilling to believe—is thy body with its big sagacity; it saith not “ego,” but doeth it.

Section 7

Chapter V. JOYS AND PASSIONS

4 excerpts

Top themes in this chapter

Virtue4 excerpts Human Nature1 excerpt Individualism1 excerpt Individuality1 excerpt Jealousy1 excerpt

Passions into Virtues

Once hadst thou passions and calledst them evil. But now hast thou only thy virtues: they grew out of thy passions. Thou implantedst thy highest aim into the heart of those passions: then became they thy virtues and joys. And though thou wert of the race of the hot-tempered, or of the voluptuous, or of the fanatical, or the vindictive; All thy passions in the end became virtues, and all thy devils angels. Once hadst thou wild dogs in thy cellar: but they changed at last into birds and charming songstresses. Out of thy poisons brewedst thou balsam for thyself; thy cow, affliction, milkedst thou—now drinketh thou the sweet milk of her udder.

Section 8

Chapter VI. THE PALE CRIMINAL

5 excerpts

Top themes in this chapter

Human Nature2 excerpts Suffering2 excerpts Causality1 excerpt Compassion1 excerpt Crime1 excerpt

The Pale Criminal

Ye do not mean to slay, ye judges and sacrificers, until the animal hath bowed its head? Lo! the pale criminal hath bowed his head: out of his eye speaketh the great contempt. “Mine ego is something which is to be surpassed: mine ego is to me the great contempt of man”: so speaketh it out of that eye. When he judged himself—that was his supreme moment; let not the exalted one relapse again into his low estate! There is no salvation for him who thus suffereth from himself, unless it be speedy death. Your slaying, ye judges, shall be pity, and not revenge; and in that ye slay, see to it that ye yourselves justify life! It is not enough that ye should reconcile with him whom ye slay. Let your sorrow be love to the Superman: thus will ye justify your own survival!

Section 9

Chapter VII. READING AND WRITING

5 excerpts

Top themes in this chapter

Spirit2 excerpts Wisdom2 excerpts Authenticity1 excerpt Challenge1 excerpt Divinity1 excerpt

Love's Methodical Madness

It is true we love life; not because we are wont to live, but because we are wont to love. There is always some madness in love. But there is always, also, some method in madness. And to me also, who appreciate life, the butterflies, and soap-bubbles, and whatever is like them amongst us, seem most to enjoy happiness. To see these light, foolish, pretty, lively little sprites flit about—that moveth Zarathustra to tears and songs. I should only believe in a God that would know how to dance.

Section 10

Chapter VIII. THE TREE ON THE HILL

5 excerpts

Top themes in this chapter

Freedom2 excerpts Anticipation1 excerpt Aspiration1 excerpt Duality1 excerpt Hope1 excerpt

Roots in Darkness

“Why art thou frightened on that account?—But it is the same with man as with the tree. The more he seeketh to rise into the height and light, the more vigorously do his roots struggle earthward, downward, into the dark and deep—into the evil.”

Section 11

Chapter IX. THE PREACHERS OF DEATH

6 excerpts

Top themes in this chapter

Death2 excerpts Life2 excerpts Preachers Of Death2 excerpts Self-Destruction2 excerpts Disquiet1 excerpt

One-Aspect Existence

They meet an invalid, or an old man, or a corpse—and immediately they say: “Life is refuted!” But they only are refuted, and their eye, which seeth only one aspect of existence. Shrouded in thick melancholy, and eager for the little casualties that bring death: thus do they wait, and clench their teeth.

Section 12

Chapter X. WAR AND WARRIORS

4 excerpts

Top themes in this chapter

Courage1 excerpt Human Nature1 excerpt Morality1 excerpt Self-Perception1 excerpt Strength In Adversity1 excerpt

War Hallows Cause

Ye say it is the good cause which halloweth even war? I say unto you: it is the good war which halloweth every cause. War and courage have done more great things than charity. Not your sympathy, but your bravery hath hitherto saved the victims.

Section 13

Chapter XI. THE NEW IDOL

6 excerpts

Top themes in this chapter

Critique Of Society2 excerpts Individualism2 excerpts Critique Of Idolatry1 excerpt Critique Of The State1 excerpt Freedom1 excerpt

The State's Slow Suicide

The state, I call it, where all are poison-drinkers, the good and the bad: the state, where all lose themselves, the good and the bad: the state, where the slow suicide of all—is called “life.”

Section 14

Chapter XII. THE FLIES IN THE MARKET-PLACE

10 excerpts

Top themes in this chapter

Solitude4 excerpts Pride3 excerpts Human Nature2 excerpts Marketplace2 excerpts Society2 excerpts

Flee to Solitude

Flee, my friend, into thy solitude! I see thee deafened with the noise of the great men, and stung all over with the stings of the little ones. Admirably do forest and rock know how to be silent with thee. Resemble again the tree which thou lovest, the broad-branched one—silently and attentively it o’erhangeth the sea. Where solitude endeth, there beginneth the market-place; and where the market-place beginneth, there beginneth also the noise of the great actors, and the buzzing of the poison-flies.

Section 15

Chapter XIII. CHASTITY

3 excerpts

Top themes in this chapter

Chastity3 excerpts Hypocrisy1 excerpt Innocence1 excerpt Instincts1 excerpt Lust1 excerpt

Innocence in Instincts

Would that ye were perfect—at least as animals! But to animals belongeth innocence. Do I counsel you to slay your instincts? I counsel you to innocence in your instincts. Do I counsel you to chastity? Chastity is a virtue with some, but with many almost a vice. These are continent, to be sure: but doggish lust looketh enviously out of all that they do. Even into the heights of their virtue and into their cold spirit doth this creature follow them, with its discord. And how nicely can doggish lust beg for a piece of spirit, when a piece of flesh is denied it!

Section 16

Chapter XIV. THE FRIEND

6 excerpts

Top themes in this chapter

Friendship6 excerpts Vulnerability2 excerpts Authenticity1 excerpt Conflict1 excerpt Freedom1 excerpt

Friendship as Warfare

Our faith in others betrayeth wherein we would fain have faith in ourselves. Our longing for a friend is our betrayer. And often with our love we want merely to overleap envy. And often we attack and make ourselves enemies, to conceal that we are vulnerable. “Be at least mine enemy!”—thus speaketh the true reverence, which doth not venture to solicit friendship. If one would have a friend, then must one also be willing to wage war for him: and in order to wage war, one must be CAPABLE of being an enemy.

Section 17

Chapter XV. THE THOUSAND AND ONE GOALS

7 excerpts

Top themes in this chapter

Creation2 excerpts Ego2 excerpts Morality2 excerpts Creation And Destruction1 excerpt Cultural Relativism1 excerpt

Man as Valuator

Verily, men have given unto themselves all their good and bad. Verily, they took it not, they found it not, it came not unto them as a voice from heaven. Values did man only assign to things in order to maintain himself—he created only the significance of things, a human significance! Therefore, calleth he himself “man,” that is, the valuator. Valuing is creating: hear it, ye creating ones! Valuation itself is the treasure and jewel of the valued things. Through valuation only is there value; and without valuation the nut of existence would be hollow. Hear it, ye creating ones!

Section 18

Chapter XVI. NEIGHBOUR-LOVE

4 excerpts

Top themes in this chapter

Aspiration1 excerpt Authenticity1 excerpt Friendship1 excerpt Future1 excerpt Idealism1 excerpt

Neighbor-Love as Self-Escape

Ye crowd around your neighbour, and have fine words for it. But I say unto you: your neighbour-love is your bad love of yourselves. Ye flee unto your neighbour from yourselves, and would fain make a virtue thereof: but I fathom your “unselfishness.” The THOU is older than the I; the THOU hath been consecrated, but not yet the I: so man presseth nigh unto his neighbour. Do I advise you to neighbour-love? Rather do I advise you to neighbour-flight and to furthest love! Higher than love to your neighbour is love to the furthest and future ones; higher still than love to men, is love to things and phantoms.

Section 19

Chapter XVII. THE WAY OF THE CREATING ONE

6 excerpts

Top themes in this chapter

Individualism3 excerpts Creation1 excerpt Despair1 excerpt Existential Crisis1 excerpt Freedom1 excerpt

Solitude's Murderous Feelings

To-day sufferest thou still from the multitude, thou individual; to-day hast thou still thy courage unabated, and thy hopes. But one day will the solitude weary thee; one day will thy pride yield, and thy courage quail. Thou wilt one day cry: “I am alone!” One day wilt thou see no longer thy loftiness, and see too closely thy lowliness; thy sublimity itself will frighten thee as a phantom. Thou wilt one day cry: “All is false!” There are feelings which seek to slay the lonesome one; if they do not succeed, then must they themselves die! But art thou capable of it—to be a murderer?

Section 20

Chapter XVIII. OLD AND YOUNG WOMEN

3 excerpts

Top themes in this chapter

Aspiration1 excerpt Childhood1 excerpt Communication1 excerpt Existence1 excerpt Gender1 excerpt

Woman as Means

Everything in woman is a riddle, and everything in woman hath one solution—it is called pregnancy. Man is for woman a means: the purpose is always the child. But what is woman for man? Two different things wanteth the true man: danger and diversion. Therefore wanteth he woman, as the most dangerous plaything. Man shall be trained for war, and woman for the recreation of the warrior: all else is folly.

Section 21

Chapter XIX. THE BITE OF THE ADDER

6 excerpts

Top themes in this chapter

Justice3 excerpts Human Behavior2 excerpts Morality2 excerpts Revenge2 excerpts Ethics1 excerpt

Justice as Seeing Love

Nobler is it to own oneself in the wrong than to establish one’s right, especially if one be in the right. Only, one must be rich enough to do so. I do not like your cold justice; out of the eye of your judges there always glanceth the executioner and his cold steel. Tell me: where find we justice, which is love with seeing eyes? Devise me, then, the love which not only beareth all punishment, but also all guilt!

Section 22

Chapter XX. CHILD AND MARRIAGE

9 excerpts

Top themes in this chapter

Marriage7 excerpts Creation2 excerpts Critique Of Society2 excerpts Love2 excerpts Personal Growth2 excerpts

The Self's Ascent

I would have thy victory and freedom long for a child. Living monuments shalt thou build to thy victory and emancipation. Beyond thyself shalt thou build. But first of all must thou be built thyself, rectangular in body and soul. Not only onward shalt thou propagate thyself, but upward! For that purpose may the garden of marriage help thee! A higher body shalt thou create, a first movement, a spontaneously rolling wheel—a creating one shalt thou create.

Section 23

Chapter XXI. VOLUNTARY DEATH

8 excerpts

Top themes in this chapter

Life And Death5 excerpts Death2 excerpts Timing2 excerpts Wisdom2 excerpts Celebration1 excerpt

The Art of Departure

Many a one, also, waxeth too old for his truths and triumphs; a toothless mouth hath no longer the right to every truth. And whoever wanteth to have fame, must take leave of honour betimes, and practise the difficult art of—going at the right time. One must discontinue being feasted upon when one tasteth best: that is known by those who want to be long loved.

Section 24

Chapter XXII. THE BESTOWING VIRTUE

13 excerpts

Top themes in this chapter

Virtue7 excerpts Degeneration2 excerpts Generosity2 excerpts Selfishness2 excerpts Selflessness2 excerpts

The Undiscovered World

A thousand paths are there which have never yet been trodden; a thousand salubrities and hidden islands of life. Unexhausted and undiscovered is still man and man’s world. Awake and hearken, ye lonesome ones! From the future come winds with stealthy pinions, and to fine ears good tidings are proclaimed. Ye lonesome ones of to-day, ye seceding ones, ye shall one day be a people: out of you who have chosen yourselves, shall a chosen people arise:—and out of it the Superman. Verily, a place of healing shall the earth become! And already is a new odour diffused around it, a salvation-bringing odour—and a new hope!

Section 25

Chapter XXIII. THE CHILD WITH THE MIRROR

6 excerpts

Top themes in this chapter

Expression2 excerpts Solitude2 excerpts Catharsis1 excerpt Conflict1 excerpt Corruption1 excerpt

Love's Unstoppable Flow

My impatient love overfloweth in streams,—down towards sunrise and sunset. Out of silent mountains and storms of affliction, rusheth my soul into the valleys. Too long have I longed and looked into the distance. Too long hath solitude possessed me: thus have I unlearned to keep silence. Utterance have I become altogether, and the brawling of a brook from high rocks: downward into the valleys will I hurl my speech. And let the stream of my love sweep into unfrequented channels! How should a stream not finally find its way to the sea! Forsooth, there is a lake in me, sequestered and self-sufficing; but the stream of my love beareth this along with it, down—to the sea!

Section 26

Chapter XXIV. IN THE HAPPY ISLES

4 excerpts

Top themes in this chapter

Creation3 excerpts Nietzschean Philosophy2 excerpts Conception Of God1 excerpt Emancipation1 excerpt Human Creativity1 excerpt

Creating Through Suffering

Creating—that is the great salvation from suffering, and life’s alleviation. But for the creator to appear, suffering itself is needed, and much transformation. Yea, much bitter dying must there be in your life, ye creators! Thus are ye advocates and justifiers of all perishableness. For the creator himself to be the new-born child, he must also be willing to be the child-bearer, and endure the pangs of the child-bearer.

Section 27

Chapter XXV. THE PITIFUL

8 excerpts

Top themes in this chapter

Pity3 excerpts Human Nature2 excerpts Love2 excerpts Nietzschean Philosophy2 excerpts Compassion1 excerpt

Silence's Difficulty

Ah, my brethren! One knoweth a little too much about every one! And many a one becometh transparent to us, but still we can by no means penetrate him. It is difficult to live among men because silence is so difficult. And not to him who is offensive to us are we most unfair, but to him who doth not concern us at all.

Section 28

Chapter XXVI. THE PRIESTS

5 excerpts

Top themes in this chapter

Freedom3 excerpts False Values2 excerpts Illusion2 excerpts Religion2 excerpts Sacrifice2 excerpts

Blood's False Witness

But blood is the very worst witness to truth; blood tainteth the purest teaching, and turneth it into delusion and hatred of heart. And when a person goeth through fire for his teaching—what doth that prove! It is more, verily, when out of one’s own burning cometh one’s own teaching! Sultry heart and cold head; where these meet, there ariseth the blusterer, the “Saviour.”

Section 29

Chapter XXVII. THE VIRTUOUS

9 excerpts

Top themes in this chapter

Virtue7 excerpts Self-Expression2 excerpts Authentic Virtue1 excerpt Conformity1 excerpt Continuity1 excerpt

Virtue's Hidden Price

Ye want to be paid besides, ye virtuous ones! Ye want reward for virtue, and heaven for earth, and eternity for your to-day? And now ye upbraid me for teaching that there is no reward-giver, nor paymaster? And verily, I do not even teach that virtue is its own reward. Ah! this is my sorrow: into the basis of things have reward and punishment been insinuated—and now even into the basis of your souls, ye virtuous ones!

Section 30

Chapter XXVIII. THE RABBLE

4 excerpts

Top themes in this chapter

Purity2 excerpts Contempt For The Masses1 excerpt Corruption1 excerpt Exclusivity1 excerpt Future1 excerpt

Loathing's Wings

What hath happened unto me? How have I freed myself from loathing? Who hath rejuvenated mine eye? How have I flown to the height where no rabble any longer sit at the wells? Did my loathing itself create for me wings and fountain-divining powers? Verily, to the loftiest height had I to fly, to find again the well of delight! Oh, I have found it, my brethren! Here on the loftiest height bubbleth up for me the well of delight! And there is a life at whose waters none of the rabble drink with me!

Section 31

Chapter XXIX. THE TARANTULAS

7 excerpts

Top themes in this chapter

Equality3 excerpts Inequality2 excerpts Justice2 excerpts Power2 excerpts Revenge2 excerpts

Revenge's Black Triangle

Lo, this is the tarantula’s den! Wouldst thou see the tarantula itself? Here hangeth its web: touch this, so that it may tremble. There cometh the tarantula willingly: Welcome, tarantula! Black on thy back is thy triangle and symbol; and I know also what is in thy soul. Revenge is in thy soul: wherever thou bitest, there ariseth black scab; with revenge, thy poison maketh the soul giddy! Thus do I speak unto you in parable, ye who make the soul giddy, ye preachers of EQUALITY! Tarantulas are ye unto me, and secretly revengeful ones! But I will soon bring your hiding-places to the light: therefore do I laugh in your face my laughter of the height. Therefore do I tear at your web, that your rage may lure you out of your den of lies, and that your revenge may leap forth from behind your word “justice.”

Section 32

Chapter XXX. THE FAMOUS WISE ONES

5 excerpts

Top themes in this chapter

Conformity3 excerpts Spirit2 excerpts Free Spirit1 excerpt Freedom1 excerpt Humility1 excerpt

The People's Wise

The people have ye served and the people’s superstition—NOT the truth!—all ye famous wise ones! And just on that account did they pay you reverence. And on that account also did they tolerate your unbelief, because it was a pleasantry and a by-path for the people. Thus doth the master give free scope to his slaves, and even enjoyeth their presumptuousness. But he who is hated by the people, as the wolf by the dogs—is the free spirit, the enemy of fetters, the non-adorer, the dweller in the woods. To hunt him out of his lair—that was always called “sense of right” by the people: on him do they still hound their sharpest-toothed dogs.

Section 33

Chapter XXXI. THE NIGHT-SONG

7 excerpts

Top themes in this chapter

Loneliness2 excerpts Longing2 excerpts Love2 excerpts Abundance1 excerpt Callousness1 excerpt

Giving's Callous Heart

Such revenge doth mine abundance think of: such mischief welleth out of my lonesomeness. My happiness in bestowing died in bestowing; my virtue became weary of itself by its abundance! He who ever bestoweth is in danger of losing his shame; to him who ever dispenseth, the hand and heart become callous by very dispensing.

Section 34

Chapter XXXII. THE DANCE-SONG

4 excerpts

Top themes in this chapter

Wisdom4 excerpts Perception3 excerpts Life2 excerpts Desire1 excerpt Self-Awareness1 excerpt

Wisdom's Seductive Veil

And when once Life asked me: “Who is she then, this Wisdom?”—then said I eagerly: “Ah, yes! Wisdom! One thirsteth for her and is not satisfied, one looketh through veils, one graspeth through nets. Is she beautiful? What do I know! But the oldest carps are still lured by her. Changeable is she, and wayward; often have I seen her bite her lip, and pass the comb against the grain of her hair. Perhaps she is wicked and false, and altogether a woman; but when she speaketh ill of herself, just then doth she seduce most.”

Section 35

Chapter XXXIII. THE GRAVE-SONG

7 excerpts

Top themes in this chapter

Loss4 excerpts Faithfulness2 excerpts Memory2 excerpts Nostalgia2 excerpts Betrayal1 excerpt

The Irretrievable Loss

At my most vulnerable point did they shoot the arrow—namely, at you, whose skin is like down—or more like the smile that dieth at a glance! But this word will I say unto mine enemies: What is all manslaughter in comparison with what ye have done unto me! Worse evil did ye do unto me than all manslaughter; the irretrievable did ye take from me:—thus do I speak unto you, mine enemies!

Section 36

Chapter XXXIV. SELF-SURPASSING

10 excerpts

Top themes in this chapter

Will To Power6 excerpts Creation And Destruction2 excerpts Mastery2 excerpts Obedience2 excerpts Truth2 excerpts

Will to Power

Whatever I create, and however much I love it,—soon must I be adverse to it, and to my love: so willeth my will. And even thou, discerning one, art only a path and footstep of my will: verily, my Will to Power walketh even on the feet of thy Will to Truth! He certainly did not hit the truth who shot at it the formula: ‘Will to existence’: that will—doth not exist! For what is not, cannot will; that, however, which is in existence—how could it still strive for existence! Only where there is life, is there also will: not, however, Will to Life, but—so teach I thee—Will to Power!

Section 37

Chapter XXXV. THE SUBLIME ONES

6 excerpts

Top themes in this chapter

Beauty4 excerpts Power2 excerpts Self-Overcoming2 excerpts Earthliness1 excerpt Expectations1 excerpt

Beauty as Power's Grace

But precisely to the hero is BEAUTY the hardest thing of all. Unattainable is beauty by all ardent wills. A little more, a little less: precisely this is much here, it is the most here. To stand with relaxed muscles and with unharnessed will: that is the hardest for all of you, ye sublime ones! When power becometh gracious and descendeth into the visible—I call such condescension, beauty. And from no one do I want beauty so much as from thee, thou powerful one: let thy goodness be thy last self-conquest.

Section 38

Chapter XXXVI. THE LAND OF CULTURE

6 excerpts

Top themes in this chapter

Modernity4 excerpts Identity3 excerpts Alienation1 excerpt Appearance1 excerpt Belief1 excerpt

The Untrustworthy Real

For thus speak ye: “Real are we wholly, and without faith and superstition”: thus do ye plume yourselves—alas! even without plumes! Indeed, how would ye be ABLE to believe, ye divers-coloured ones!—ye who are pictures of all that hath ever been believed! Perambulating refutations are ye, of belief itself, and a dislocation of all thought. UNTRUSTWORTHY ONES: thus do I call you, ye real ones! All periods prate against one another in your spirits; and the dreams and pratings of all periods were even realer than your awakeness! Unfruitful are ye: THEREFORE do ye lack belief. But he who had to create, had always his presaging dreams and astral premonitions—and believed in believing!— Half-open doors are ye, at which grave-diggers wait.

Section 39

Chapter XXXVII. IMMACULATE PERCEPTION

5 excerpts

Top themes in this chapter

Beauty2 excerpts Creation2 excerpts Desire2 excerpts Innocence2 excerpts Aspiration1 excerpt

Will to Procreation

Oh, ye sentimental dissemblers, ye covetous ones! Ye lack innocence in your desire: and now do ye defame desiring on that account! Verily, not as creators, as procreators, or as jubilators do ye love the earth! Where is innocence? Where there is will to procreation. And he who seeketh to create beyond himself, hath for me the purest will. Where is beauty? Where I MUST WILL with my whole Will; where I will love and perish, that an image may not remain merely an image. Loving and perishing: these have rhymed from eternity. Will to love: that is to be ready also for death. Thus do I speak unto you cowards!

Section 40

Chapter XXXVIII. SCHOLARS

4 excerpts

Top themes in this chapter

Wisdom2 excerpts Alienation1 excerpt Authenticity1 excerpt Critique Of Academia1 excerpt Freedom1 excerpt

Escaping Scholarly Confinement

For this is the truth: I have departed from the house of the scholars, and the door have I also slammed behind me. Too long did my soul sit hungry at their table: not like them have I got the knack of investigating, as the knack of nut-cracking. Freedom do I love, and the air over fresh soil; rather would I sleep on ox-skins than on their honours and dignities. I am too hot and scorched with mine own thought: often is it ready to take away my breath. Then have I to go into the open air, and away from all dusty rooms. But they sit cool in the cool shade: they want in everything to be merely spectators, and they avoid sitting where the sun burneth on the steps.

Section 41

Chapter XXXIX. POETS

5 excerpts

Top themes in this chapter

Critique Of Poets2 excerpts Self-Awareness2 excerpts Depth Vs. Superficiality1 excerpt Illusion Vs. Reality1 excerpt Memory1 excerpt

Poets' Shallow Seas

I am of to-day and heretofore, said he thereupon; but something is in me that is of the morrow, and the day following, and the hereafter. I became weary of the poets, of the old and of the new: superficial are they all unto me, and shallow seas. They did not think sufficiently into the depth; therefore their feeling did not reach to the bottom. Some sensation of voluptuousness and some sensation of tedium: these have as yet been their best contemplation. Ghost-breathing and ghost-whisking, seemeth to me all the jingle-jangling of their harps; what have they known hitherto of the fervour of tones!— They are also not pure enough for me: they all muddle their water that it may seem deep.

Section 42

Chapter XL. GREAT EVENTS

4 excerpts

Top themes in this chapter

Change1 excerpt Freedom1 excerpt Human Nature1 excerpt Noise Vs. Silence1 excerpt Renewal1 excerpt

Greatest Events' Silence

‘Freedom’ ye all roar most eagerly: but I have unlearned the belief in ‘great events,’ when there is much roaring and smoke about them. And believe me, friend Hullabaloo! The greatest events—are not our noisiest, but our stillest hours. Not around the inventors of new noise, but around the inventors of new values, doth the world revolve; INAUDIBLY it revolveth. And just own to it! Little had ever taken place when thy noise and smoke passed away.

Section 43

Chapter XLI. THE SOOTHSAYER

4 excerpts

Top themes in this chapter

Death1 excerpt Dream Interpretation1 excerpt Existential Despair1 excerpt Existential Reflection1 excerpt Hope1 excerpt

The Weary Harvest

And I saw a great sadness come over mankind. The best turned weary of their works. A doctrine appeared, a faith ran beside it: ‘All is empty, all is alike, all hath been!’ And from all hills there re-echoed: ‘All is empty, all is alike, all hath been!’ To be sure we have harvested: but why have all our fruits become rotten and brown? What was it fell last night from the evil moon? In vain was all our labour, poison hath our wine become, the evil eye hath singed yellow our fields and hearts. Arid have we all become; and fire falling upon us, then do we turn dust like ashes:—yea, the fire itself have we made aweary. All our fountains have dried up, even the sea hath receded. All the ground trieth to gape, but the depth will not swallow! ‘Alas! where is there still a sea in which one could be drowned?’ so soundeth our plaint—across shallow swamps. Verily, even for dying have we become too weary; now do we keep awake and live on—in sepulchres.”

Section 44

Chapter XLII. REDEMPTION

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Human Condition2 excerpts Human Nature2 excerpts Perception2 excerpts Suffering2 excerpts Time2 excerpts

Redeeming the Past

I walk amongst men as the fragments of the future: that future which I contemplate. And it is all my poetisation and aspiration to compose and collect into unity what is fragment and riddle and fearful chance. And how could I endure to be a man, if man were not also the composer, and riddle-reader, and redeemer of chance! To redeem what is past, and to transform every “It was” into “Thus would I have it!”—that only do I call redemption!

Section 45

Chapter XLIII. MANLY PRUDENCE

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Vanity3 excerpts Aspiration2 excerpts Human Nature2 excerpts Adaptability1 excerpt Aspiration Beyond The Current1 excerpt

The Double-Willed Declivity

Not the height, it is the declivity that is terrible! The declivity, where the gaze shooteth DOWNWARDS, and the hand graspeth UPWARDS. There doth the heart become giddy through its double will. Ah, friends, do ye divine also my heart’s double will? This, this is MY declivity and my danger, that my gaze shooteth towards the summit, and my hand would fain clutch and lean—on the depth! To man clingeth my will; with chains do I bind myself to man, because I am pulled upwards to the Superman: for thither doth mine other will tend.

Section 46

Chapter XLIV. THE STILLEST HOUR

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Humility2 excerpts Leadership2 excerpts Ambition1 excerpt Command1 excerpt Communication1 excerpt

Humility's Hardest Skin

Then was there again spoken unto me without voice: “What matter about thyself? Thou art not yet humble enough for me. Humility hath the hardest skin.”— And I answered: “What hath not the skin of my humility endured! At the foot of my height do I dwell: how high are my summits, no one hath yet told me. But well do I know my valleys.”

Section 47

Chapter XLIV. THE STILLEST HOUR, THIRD PART.

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Section 48

Chapter XLV. THE WANDERER

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Perspective2 excerpts Self-Reliance2 excerpts Aspiration1 excerpt Courage1 excerpt Discipline1 excerpt

The Path to Greatness

He, however, who is of my nature doth not avoid such an hour: the hour that saith unto him: Now only dost thou go the way to thy greatness! Summit and abyss—these are now comprised together! Thou goest the way to thy greatness: now hath it become thy last refuge, what was hitherto thy last danger! Thou goest the way to thy greatness: it must now be thy best courage that there is no longer any path behind thee! Thou goest the way to thy greatness: here shall no one steal after thee! Thy foot itself hath effaced the path behind thee, and over it standeth written: Impossibility. And if all ladders henceforth fail thee, then must thou learn to mount upon thine own head: how couldst thou mount upward otherwise? Upon thine own head, and beyond thine own heart! Now must the gentlest in thee become the hardest.

Section 49

Chapter XLVI. THE VISION AND THE ENIGMA

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Enigma2 excerpts Eternal Recurrence2 excerpts Adventure1 excerpt Courage1 excerpt Foresight1 excerpt

The Eternal Recurrence

“Observe,” continued I, “This Moment! From the gateway, This Moment, there runneth a long eternal lane BACKWARDS: behind us lieth an eternity. Must not whatever CAN run its course of all things, have already run along that lane? Must not whatever CAN happen of all things have already happened, resulted, and gone by? And if everything have already existed, what thinkest thou, dwarf, of This Moment? Must not this gateway also—have already existed? And are not all things closely bound together in such wise that This Moment draweth all coming things after it? CONSEQUENTLY—itself also? For whatever CAN run its course of all things, also in this long lane OUTWARD—MUST it once more run!— And this slow spider which creepeth in the moonlight, and this moonlight itself, and thou and I in this gateway whispering together, whispering of eternal things—must we not all have already existed?

Section 50

Chapter XLVII. INVOLUNTARY BLISS

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Individuality2 excerpts Self-Improvement2 excerpts Strength2 excerpts Beauty1 excerpt Companionship1 excerpt

Afternoon's Luminous Stillness

Alone am I again, and like to be so, alone with the pure heaven, and the open sea; and again is the afternoon around me. On an afternoon did I find my friends for the first time; on an afternoon, also, did I find them a second time:—at the hour when all light becometh stiller. For whatever happiness is still on its way ‘twixt heaven and earth, now seeketh for lodging a luminous soul: WITH HAPPINESS hath all light now become stiller. O afternoon of my life! Once did my happiness also descend to the valley that it might seek a lodging: then did it find those open hospitable souls. O afternoon of my life! What did I not surrender that I might have one thing: this living plantation of my thoughts, and this dawn of my highest hope!

Section 51

Chapter XLVIII. BEFORE SUNRISE

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Chance3 excerpts Freedom3 excerpts Transcendence3 excerpts Eternity2 excerpts Affirmation1 excerpt

Heaven's Mute Revelation

O heaven above me, thou pure, thou deep heaven! Thou abyss of light! Gazing on thee, I tremble with divine desires. Up to thy height to toss myself—that is MY depth! In thy purity to hide myself—that is MINE innocence! The God veileth his beauty: thus hidest thou thy stars. Thou speakest not: THUS proclaimest thou thy wisdom unto me. Mute o’er the raging sea hast thou risen for me to-day; thy love and thy modesty make a revelation unto my raging soul. In that thou camest unto me beautiful, veiled in thy beauty, in that thou spakest unto me mutely, obvious in thy wisdom: Oh, how could I fail to divine all the modesty of thy soul!

Section 52

Chapter XLIX. THE BEDWARFING VIRTUE

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The Smallness of Comfort

And verily, many a chance came imperiously unto me: but still more imperiously did my WILL speak unto it,—then did it lie imploringly upon its knees— —Imploring that it might find home and heart with me, and saying flatteringly: “See, O Zarathustra, how friend only cometh unto friend!”— But why talk I, when no one hath MINE ears! And so will I shout it out unto all the winds: Ye ever become smaller, ye small people! Ye crumble away, ye comfortable ones! Ye will yet perish— —By your many small virtues, by your many small omissions, and by your many small submissions! Too tender, too yielding: so is your soil! But for a tree to become GREAT, it seeketh to twine hard roots around hard rocks! Also what ye omit weaveth at the web of all the human future; even your naught is a cobweb, and a spider that liveth on the blood of the future.

Section 53

Chapter L. ON THE OLIVE-MOUNT

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The Concealed Depth

But the clear, the honest, the transparent—these are for me the wisest silent ones: in them, so PROFOUND is the depth that even the clearest water doth not—betray it.— Thou snow-bearded, silent, winter-sky, thou round-eyed whitehead above me! Oh, thou heavenly simile of my soul and its wantonness! And MUST I not conceal myself like one who hath swallowed gold—lest my soul should be ripped up?

Section 54

Chapter LI. ON PASSING-BY

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Critique Of Society1 excerpt Decay Of Spirit1 excerpt Detachment1 excerpt Disillusionment1 excerpt Fate1 excerpt

City of Slaughtered Spirit

Why wouldst thou wade through this mire? Have pity upon thy foot! Spit rather on the gate of the city, and—turn back! Here is the hell for anchorites’ thoughts: here are great thoughts seethed alive and boiled small. Here do all great sentiments decay: here may only rattle-boned sensations rattle! Smellest thou not already the shambles and cookshops of the spirit? Steameth not this city with the fumes of slaughtered spirit? Seest thou not the souls hanging like limp dirty rags?—And they make newspapers also out of these rags!

Section 55

Chapter LII. THE APOSTATES

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The Shame of Prayer

“We have again become pious”—so do those apostates confess; and some of them are still too pusillanimous thus to confess. Unto them I look into the eye,—before them I say it unto their face and unto the blush on their cheeks: Ye are those who again PRAY! It is however a shame to pray! Not for all, but for thee, and me, and whoever hath his conscience in his head. For THEE it is a shame to pray! Thou knowest it well: the faint-hearted devil in thee, which would fain fold its arms, and place its hands in its bosom, and take it easier:—this faint-hearted devil persuadeth thee that “there IS a God!” THEREBY, however, dost thou belong to the light-dreading type, to whom light never permitteth repose: now must thou daily thrust thy head deeper into obscurity and vapour!

Section 56

Chapter LIII. THE RETURN HOME

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Pity's Stifling Air

Especially did I find those who call themselves “the good,” the most poisonous flies; they sting in all innocence, they lie in all innocence; how COULD they—be just towards me! He who liveth amongst the good—pity teacheth him to lie. Pity maketh stifling air for all free souls. For the stupidity of the good is unfathomable.

Section 57

Chapter LIV. THE THREE EVIL THINGS

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Voluptuousness as Symbol

Voluptuousness: unto all hair-shirted despisers of the body, a sting and stake; and, cursed as “the world,” by all backworldsmen: for it mocketh and befooleth all erring, misinferring teachers. Voluptuousness: to the rabble, the slow fire at which it is burnt; to all wormy wood, to all stinking rags, the prepared heat and stew furnace. Voluptuousness: to free hearts, a thing innocent and free, the garden-happiness of the earth, all the future’s thanks-overflow to the present. Voluptuousness: only to the withered a sweet poison; to the lion-willed, however, the great cordial, and the reverently saved wine of wines. Voluptuousness: the great symbolic happiness of a higher happiness and highest hope.

Section 58

Chapter LV. THE SPIRIT OF GRAVITY

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The Light Body

He who one day teacheth men to fly will have shifted all landmarks; to him will all landmarks themselves fly into the air; the earth will he christen anew—as “the light body.” The ostrich runneth faster than the fastest horse, but it also thrusteth its head heavily into the heavy earth: thus is it with the man who cannot yet fly. Heavy unto him are earth and life, and so WILLETH the spirit of gravity! But he who would become light, and be a bird, must love himself:—thus do I teach. Not, to be sure, with the love of the sick and infected, for with them stinketh even self-love! One must learn to love oneself—thus do I teach—with a wholesome and healthy love: that one may endure to be with oneself, and not go roving about.

Section 59

Chapter LVI. OLD AND NEW TABLES

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The Loftiest Parasites

What is the highest of all species of being, and what is the lowest? The parasite is the lowest species; he, however, who is of the highest species feedeth most parasites. For the soul which hath the longest ladder, and can go deepest down: how could there fail to be most parasites upon it?— —The most comprehensive soul, which can run and stray and rove furthest in itself; the most necessary soul, which out of joy flingeth itself into chance:— —The soul in Being, which plungeth into Becoming; the possessing soul, which SEEKETH to attain desire and longing:— —The soul fleeing from itself, which overtaketh itself in the widest circuit; the wisest soul, unto which folly speaketh most sweetly:— —The soul most self-loving, in which all things have their current and counter-current, their ebb and their flow:—oh, how could THE LOFTIEST SOUL fail to have the worst parasites?

Section 60

Chapter LVII. THE CONVALESCENT

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Eternal Wheel of Existence

Everything goeth, everything returneth; eternally rolleth the wheel of existence. Everything dieth, everything blossometh forth again; eternally runneth on the year of existence. Everything breaketh, everything is integrated anew; eternally buildeth itself the same house of existence. All things separate, all things again greet one another; eternally true to itself remaineth the ring of existence. Every moment beginneth existence, around every ‘Here’ rolleth the ball ‘There.’ The middle is everywhere. Crooked is the path of eternity.”

Section 61

Chapter LVIII. THE GREAT LONGING

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Soul's Loving Contempt

O my soul, I gave thee the right to say Nay like the storm, and to say Yea as the open heaven saith Yea: calm as the light remainest thou, and now walkest through denying storms. O my soul, I restored to thee liberty over the created and the uncreated; and who knoweth, as thou knowest, the voluptuousness of the future? O my soul, I taught thee the contempt which doth not come like worm-eating, the great, the loving contempt, which loveth most where it contemneth most.

Section 62

Chapter LIX. THE SECOND DANCE-SONG

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Beyond Good And Evil1 excerpt Friendship1 excerpt Love And Fear1 excerpt The Paradox Of Desire1 excerpt Wisdom1 excerpt

The Envious Friendship

Then did Life answer me thus, and kept thereby her fine ears closed: “O Zarathustra! Crack not so terribly with thy whip! Thou knowest surely that noise killeth thought,—and just now there came to me such delicate thoughts. We are both of us genuine ne’er-do-wells and ne’er-do-ills. Beyond good and evil found we our island and our green meadow—we two alone! Therefore must we be friendly to each other! And even should we not love each other from the bottom of our hearts,—must we then have a grudge against each other if we do not love each other perfectly? And that I am friendly to thee, and often too friendly, that knowest thou: and the reason is that I am envious of thy Wisdom. Ah, this mad old fool, Wisdom! If thy Wisdom should one day run away from thee, ah! then would also my love run away from thee quickly.”

Section 63

Chapter LX. THE SEVEN SEALS

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Eternity4 excerpts Divinity2 excerpts Chance1 excerpt Creation1 excerpt Destruction1 excerpt

The Creative Compulsion

If ever a breath hath come to me of the creative breath, and of the heavenly necessity which compelleth even chances to dance star-dances: If ever I have laughed with the laughter of the creative lightning, to which the long thunder of the deed followeth, grumblingly, but obediently: If ever I have played dice with the Gods at the divine table of the earth, so that the earth quaked and ruptured, and snorted forth fire-streams:— —For a divine table is the earth, and trembling with new creative dictums and dice-casts of the Gods: Oh, how could I not be ardent for Eternity, and for the marriage-ring of rings—the ring of the return?

Section 64

Chapter LXI. THE HONEY SACRIFICE

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Happiness2 excerpts Aging1 excerpt Contentment1 excerpt Fate1 excerpt Freedom1 excerpt

The Human Sea

For if the world be as a gloomy forest of animals, and a pleasure-ground for all wild huntsmen, it seemeth to me rather—and preferably—a fathomless, rich sea; —A sea full of many-hued fishes and crabs, for which even the Gods might long, and might be tempted to become fishers in it, and casters of nets,—so rich is the world in wonderful things, great and small! Especially the human world, the human sea:—towards IT do I now throw out my golden angle-rod and say: Open up, thou human abyss! Open up, and throw unto me thy fish and shining crabs!

Section 65

Chapter LXII. THE CRY OF DISTRESS

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Pity as Final Sin

“Thou ill announcer,” said Zarathustra at last, “that is a cry of distress, and the cry of a man; it may come perhaps out of a black sea. But what doth human distress matter to me! My last sin which hath been reserved for me,—knowest thou what it is called?” —“PITY!” answered the soothsayer from an overflowing heart, and raised both his hands aloft—“O Zarathustra, I have come that I may seduce thee to thy last sin!”

Section 66

Chapter LXIII. TALK WITH THE KINGS

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Peace for New Wars

With those rhymes of Zarathustra the kings were delighted; the king on the right, however, said: “O Zarathustra, how well it was that we set out to see thee! For thine enemies showed us thy likeness in their mirror: there lookedst thou with the grimace of a devil, and sneeringly: so that we were afraid of thee. But what good did it do! Always didst thou prick us anew in heart and ear with thy sayings. Then did we say at last: What doth it matter how he look! We must HEAR him; him who teacheth: ‘Ye shall love peace as a means to new wars, and the short peace more than the long!’ No one ever spake such warlike words: ‘What is good? To be brave is good. It is the good war that halloweth every cause.’ O Zarathustra, our fathers’ blood stirred in our veins at such words: it was like the voice of spring to old wine-casks.

Section 67

Chapter LXIV. THE LEECH

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The Expert's Narrow World

A handbreadth of basis: thereon can one stand. In the true knowing-knowledge there is nothing great and nothing small.” “Then thou art perhaps an expert on the leech?” asked Zarathustra; “and thou investigatest the leech to its ultimate basis, thou conscientious one?” “O Zarathustra,” answered the trodden one, “that would be something immense; how could I presume to do so! That, however, of which I am master and knower, is the BRAIN of the leech:—that is MY world! And it is also a world! Forgive it, however, that my pride here findeth expression, for here I have not mine equal. Therefore said I: ‘here am I at home.’ How long have I investigated this one thing, the brain of the leech, so that here the slippery truth might no longer slip from me! Here is MY domain! —For the sake of this did I cast everything else aside, for the sake of this did everything else become indifferent to me; and close beside my knowledge lieth my black ignorance. My spiritual conscience requireth from me that it should be so—that I should know one thing, and not know all else: they are a loathing unto me, all the semi-spiritual, all the hazy, hovering, and visionary. Where mine honesty ceaseth, there am I blind, and want also to be blind. Where I want to know, however, there want I also to be honest—namely, severe, rigorous, restricted, cruel and inexorable. Because THOU once saidest, O Zarathustra: ‘Spirit is life which itself cutteth into life’;—that led and allured me to thy doctrine. And verily, with mine own blood have I increased mine own knowledge!”

Section 68

Chapter LXV. THE MAGICIAN

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The Collapse of Pretense

“O Zarathustra, I am weary of it, I am disgusted with mine arts, I am not GREAT, why do I dissemble! But thou knowest it well—I sought for greatness! A great man I wanted to appear, and persuaded many; but the lie hath been beyond my power. On it do I collapse. O Zarathustra, everything is a lie in me; but that I collapse—this my collapsing is GENUINE!”— “It honoureth thee,” said Zarathustra gloomily, looking down with sidelong glance, “it honoureth thee that thou soughtest for greatness, but it betrayeth thee also. Thou art not great. Thou bad old magician, THAT is the best and the honestest thing I honour in thee, that thou hast become weary of thyself, and hast expressed it: ‘I am not great.’ THEREIN do I honour thee as a penitent-in-spirit, and although only for the twinkling of an eye, in that one moment wast thou—genuine.

Section 69

Chapter LXVI. OUT OF SERVICE

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Communication1 excerpt Critique Of Divinity1 excerpt Critique Of Religion1 excerpt Evolution Of Belief1 excerpt Honesty1 excerpt

Piety's Honest Unbelief

There is also good taste in piety: THIS at last said: ‘Away with SUCH a God! Better to have no God, better to set up destiny on one’s own account, better to be a fool, better to be God oneself!’” —“What do I hear!” said then the old pope, with intent ears; “O Zarathustra, thou art more pious than thou believest, with such an unbelief! Some God in thee hath converted thee to thine ungodliness. Is it not thy piety itself which no longer letteth thee believe in a God? And thine over-great honesty will yet lead thee even beyond good and evil!

Section 70

Chapter LXVII. THE UGLIEST MAN

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Petty People's Power

As the heron looketh contemptuously at shallow pools, with backward-bent head, so do I look at the throng of grey little waves and wills and souls. Too long have we acknowledged them to be right, those petty people: SO we have at last given them power as well;—and now do they teach that ‘good is only what petty people call good.’

Section 71

Chapter LXVIII. THE VOLUNTARY BEGGAR

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Learning from Cattle

“What dost thou seek here?” called out Zarathustra in astonishment. “What do I here seek?” answered he: “the same that thou seekest, thou mischief-maker; that is to say, happiness upon earth. To that end, however, I would fain learn of these kine. For I tell thee that I have already talked half a morning unto them, and just now were they about to give me their answer. Why dost thou disturb them? Except we be converted and become as kine, we shall in no wise enter into the kingdom of heaven. For we ought to learn from them one thing: ruminating. And verily, although a man should gain the whole world, and yet not learn one thing, ruminating, what would it profit him! He would not be rid of his affliction, —His great affliction: that, however, is at present called DISGUST. Who hath not at present his heart, his mouth and his eyes full of disgust? Thou also! Thou also! But behold these kine!”

Section 72

Chapter LXIX. THE SHADOW

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The Goal's Absence

‘To live as I incline, or not to live at all’: so do I wish; so wisheth also the holiest. But alas! how have I still—inclination? Have I—still a goal? A haven towards which MY sail is set? A good wind? Ah, he only who knoweth WHITHER he saileth, knoweth what wind is good, and a fair wind for him.

Section 73

Chapter LXX. NOONTIDE

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Ship in Calm Cove

As a ship that putteth into the calmest cove:—it now draweth up to the land, weary of long voyages and uncertain seas. Is not the land more faithful? As such a ship huggeth the shore, tuggeth the shore:—then it sufficeth for a spider to spin its thread from the ship to the land. No stronger ropes are required there. As such a weary ship in the calmest cove, so do I also now repose, nigh to the earth, faithful, trusting, waiting, bound to it with the lightest threads.

Section 74

Chapter LXXI. THE GREETING

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Bridges to Higher Ones

And though ye be high and of a higher type, much in you is crooked and misshapen. There is no smith in the world that could hammer you right and straight for me. Ye are only bridges: may higher ones pass over upon you! Ye signify steps: so do not upbraid him who ascendeth beyond you into HIS height! Out of your seed there may one day arise for me a genuine son and perfect heir: but that time is distant. Ye yourselves are not those unto whom my heritage and name belong. Not for you do I wait here in these mountains; not with you may I descend for the last time. Ye have come unto me only as a presage that higher ones are on the way to me,— —NOT the men of great longing, of great loathing, of great satiety, and that which ye call the remnant of God; —Nay! Nay! Three times Nay! For OTHERS do I wait here in these mountains, and will not lift my foot from thence without them; —For higher ones, stronger ones, triumphanter ones, merrier ones, for such as are built squarely in body and soul: LAUGHING LIONS must come!

Section 75

Chapter LXXII. THE SUPPER

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Law for Mine Own

“Be of good cheer,” replied Zarathustra, “as I am. Abide by thy customs, thou excellent one: grind thy corn, drink thy water, praise thy cooking,—if only it make thee glad! I am a law only for mine own; I am not a law for all. He, however, who belongeth unto me must be strong of bone and light of foot,— —Joyous in fight and feast, no sulker, no John o’ Dreams, ready for the hardest task as for the feast, healthy and hale. The best belongeth unto mine and me; and if it be not given us, then do we take it:—the best food, the purest sky, the strongest thoughts, the fairest women!”

Section 76

Chapter LXXIII. THE HIGHER MAN

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Dancing to Goal

Tortuously do all good things come nigh to their goal. Like cats they curve their backs, they purr inwardly with their approaching happiness,—all good things laugh. His step betrayeth whether a person already walketh on HIS OWN path: just see me walk! He, however, who cometh nigh to his goal, danceth. And verily, a statue have I not become, not yet do I stand there stiff, stupid and stony, like a pillar; I love fast racing. And though there be on earth fens and dense afflictions, he who hath light feet runneth even across the mud, and danceth, as upon well-swept ice.

Section 77

Chapter LXXIV. THE SONG OF MELANCHOLY

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The Rending Laughter

Even thus, Eaglelike, pantherlike, Are the poet’s desires, Are THINE OWN desires ‘neath a thousand guises, Thou fool! Thou poet! Thou who all mankind viewedst— So God, as sheep—: The God TO REND within mankind, As the sheep in mankind, And in rending LAUGHING— THAT, THAT is thine own blessedness! Of a panther and eagle—blessedness!

Section 78

Chapter LXXV. SCIENCE

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Freedom4 excerpts Deception3 excerpts Fear3 excerpts Human Nature2 excerpts Adventure1 excerpt

Courage's Primacy

For fear—that is man’s original and fundamental feeling; through fear everything is explained, original sin and original virtue. Through fear there grew also MY virtue, that is to say: Science. For fear of wild animals—that hath been longest fostered in man, inclusive of the animal which he concealeth and feareth in himself:—Zarathustra calleth it ‘the beast inside.’ Such prolonged ancient fear, at last become subtle, spiritual and intellectual—at present, me thinketh, it is called SCIENCE.”— Thus spake the conscientious one; but Zarathustra, who had just come back into his cave and had heard and divined the last discourse, threw a handful of roses to the conscientious one, and laughed on account of his “truths.” “Why!” he exclaimed, “what did I hear just now? Verily, it seemeth to me, thou art a fool, or else I myself am one: and quietly and quickly will I put thy ‘truth’ upside down. For FEAR—is an exception with us. Courage, however, and adventure, and delight in the uncertain, in the unattempted—COURAGE seemeth to me the entire primitive history of man. The wildest and most courageous animals hath he envied and robbed of all their virtues: thus only did he become—man. THIS courage, at last become subtle, spiritual and intellectual, this human courage, with eagle’s pinions and serpent’s wisdom: THIS, it seemeth to me, is called at present—” “ZARATHUSTRA!” cried all of them there assembled, as if with one voice, and burst out at the same time into a great laughter; there arose, however, from them as it were a heavy cloud. Even the magician laughed, and said wisely: “Well! It is gone, mine evil spirit! And did I not myself warn you against it when I said that it was a deceiver, a lying and deceiving spirit? Especially when it showeth itself naked.

Section 79

Chapter LXXVI. AMONG DAUGHTERS OF THE DESERT

2 excerpts

Top themes in this chapter

Companionship1 excerpt Contemplation1 excerpt Melancholy1 excerpt Nature1 excerpt Observation1 excerpt

Strong Clear Air

“Go not away!” said then the wanderer who called himself Zarathustra’s shadow, “abide with us—otherwise the old gloomy affliction might again fall upon us. Now hath that old magician given us of his worst for our good, and lo! the good, pious pope there hath tears in his eyes, and hath quite embarked again upon the sea of melancholy. Those kings may well put on a good air before us still: for that have THEY learned best of us all at present! Had they however no one to see them, I wager that with them also the bad game would again commence,— —The bad game of drifting clouds, of damp melancholy, of curtained heavens, of stolen suns, of howling autumn-winds, —The bad game of our howling and crying for help! Abide with us, O Zarathustra! Here there is much concealed misery that wisheth to speak, much evening, much cloud, much damp air! Thou hast nourished us with strong food for men, and powerful proverbs: do not let the weakly, womanly spirits attack us anew at dessert! Thou alone makest the air around thee strong and clear!

Section 80

Chapter LXXVII. THE AWAKENING

5 excerpts

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Absurdity1 excerpt Acceptance1 excerpt Beyond Good And Evil1 excerpt Convalescence1 excerpt Distress1 excerpt

Victory Over Gravity

“They are merry,” he began again, “and who knoweth? perhaps at their host’s expense; and if they have learned of me to laugh, still it is not MY laughter they have learned. But what matter about that! They are old people: they recover in their own way, they laugh in their own way; mine ears have already endured worse and have not become peevish. This day is a victory: he already yieldeth, he fleeth, THE SPIRIT OF GRAVITY, mine old arch-enemy! How well this day is about to end, which began so badly and gloomily! And it is ABOUT TO end. Already cometh the evening: over the sea rideth it hither, the good rider! How it bobbeth, the blessed one, the home-returning one, in its purple saddles! The sky gazeth brightly thereon, the world lieth deep. Oh, all ye strange ones who have come to me, it is already worth while to have lived with me!”

Section 81

Chapter LXXVIII. THE ASS-FESTIVAL

3 excerpts

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Belief1 excerpt Childhood1 excerpt Divine Wisdom1 excerpt Earthly Desires1 excerpt Eternity1 excerpt

Wisdom's Ass

God is said to be eternal, according to the testimony of the most pious: he who hath so much time taketh his time. As slow and as stupid as possible: THEREBY can such a one nevertheless go very far. And he who hath too much spirit might well become infatuated with stupidity and folly. Think of thyself, O Zarathustra! Thou thyself—verily! even thou couldst well become an ass through superabundance of wisdom. Doth not the true sage willingly walk on the crookedest paths? The evidence teacheth it, O Zarathustra,—THINE OWN evidence!”

Section 82

Chapter LXXIX. THE DRUNKEN SONG

15 excerpts

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Joy4 excerpts Contentment3 excerpts Eternity3 excerpts Suffering3 excerpts Courage2 excerpts

Joy's Insatiable Hunger

All joy wanteth the eternity of all things, it wanteth honey, it wanteth lees, it wanteth drunken midnight, it wanteth graves, it wanteth grave-tears’ consolation, it wanteth gilded evening-red— —WHAT doth not joy want! it is thirstier, heartier, hungrier, more frightful, more mysterious, than all woe: it wanteth ITSELF, it biteth into ITSELF, the ring’s will writheth in it,— —It wanteth love, it wanteth hate, it is over-rich, it bestoweth, it throweth away, it beggeth for some one to take from it, it thanketh the taker, it would fain be hated,— —So rich is joy that it thirsteth for woe, for hell, for hate, for shame, for the lame, for the WORLD,—for this world, Oh, ye know it indeed!

Section 83

Chapter LXXX. THE SIGN

7 excerpts

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Companionship3 excerpts Purpose3 excerpts Love2 excerpts Nature2 excerpts Self-Realization2 excerpts

The Unheard Prophet

In the morning, however, after this night, Zarathustra jumped up from his couch, and, having girded his loins, he came out of his cave glowing and strong, like a morning sun coming out of gloomy mountains. “Thou great star,” spake he, as he had spoken once before, “thou deep eye of happiness, what would be all thy happiness if thou hadst not THOSE for whom thou shinest! And if they remained in their chambers whilst thou art already awake, and comest and bestowest and distributest, how would thy proud modesty upbraid for it! Well! they still sleep, these higher men, whilst I am awake: THEY are not my proper companions! Not for them do I wait here in my mountains. At my work I want to be, at my day: but they understand not what are the signs of my morning, my step—is not for them the awakening-call. They still sleep in my cave; their dream still drinketh at my drunken songs. The audient ear for ME—the OBEDIENT ear, is yet lacking in their limbs.”

Section 84

APPENDIX.

28 excerpts

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Existentialism2 excerpts Freedom2 excerpts Greatness2 excerpts Human Potential2 excerpts Innovation2 excerpts

Heroism's Final Despair

Heroism foiled, thwarted, and wrecked, hoping and fighting until the last, is at length overtaken by despair, and renounces all struggle for sleep. This is not the natural or constitutional pessimism which proceeds from an unhealthy body—the dyspeptic’s lack of appetite; it is rather the desperation of the netted lion that ultimately stops all movement, because the more it moves the more involved it becomes.