Contents:

Page No 1

Page No 2

Page No 3

Page No 4

THUS SPAKE ZARATHUSTRA ......................................................................................................................1

FRIEDRICH NIETZSCHE TRANSLATED BY THOMAS COMMON ...............................................1

When Zarathustra was thirty years old, he left his home and the lake of his home, and went into the

mountains. There he enjoyed his spirit and solitude, and for ten years did not weary of it. But at last his heart

changed,and rising one morning with the rosy dawn, he went before the sun, and spake thus unto it:

Thou great star! What would be thy happiness if thou hadst not those for whom thou shinest!

For ten years hast thou climbed hither unto my cave: thou wouldst have wearied of thy light and of the

But we awaited thee every morning, took from thee thine overflow and blessed thee for it.

Lo! I am weary of my wisdom, like the bee that hath gathered too much honey; I need hands outstretched to

I would fain bestow and distribute, until the wise have once more become joyous in their folly, and the poor

Therefore must I descend into the deep: as thou doest in the evening, when thou goest behind the sea, and

Bless me, then, thou tranquil eye, that canst behold even the greatest happiness without envy!

Bless the cup that is about to overflow, that the water may flow golden out of it, and carry everywhere the

Lo! This cup is again going to empty itself, and Zarathustra is again going to be a man.

Zarathustra went down the mountain alone, no one meeting him. When he entered the forest, however, there

suddenly stood before him an old man, who had left his holy cot to seek roots. And thus spake the old man to

"No stranger to me is this wanderer: many years ago passed he by. Zarathustra he was called; but he hath

Then thou carriedst thine ashes into the mountains: wilt thou now carry thy fire into the valleys? Fearest thou

Yea, I recognise Zarathustra. Pure is his eye, and no loathing lurketh about his mouth. Goeth he not along like

Altered is Zarathustra; a child hath Zarathustra become; an awakened one is Zarathustra: what wilt thou do in

As in the sea hast thou lived in solitude, and it hath borne thee up. Alas, wilt thou now go ashore? Alas, wilt

"Why," said the saint, "did I go into the forest and the desert? Was it not because I loved men far too well?

Now I love God: men, I do not love. Man is a thing too imperfect for me. Love to man would be fatal to me."

"Give them nothing," said the saint. "Take rather part of their load, and carry it along with themthat will be

If, however, thou wilt give unto them, give them no more than an alms, and let them also beg for it!"

The saint laughed at Zarathustra, and spake thus: "Then see to it that they accept thy treasures! They are

The fall of our footsteps ringeth too hollow through their streets. And just as at night, when they are in bed

and hear a man abroad long before sunrise, so they ask themselves concerning us: Where goeth the thief?

Go not to men, but stay in the forest! Go rather to the animals! Why not be like mea bear amongst bears, a

The saint answered: "I make hymns and sing them; and in making hymns I laugh and weep and mumble: thus

With singing, weeping, laughing, and mumbling do I praise the God who is my God. But what dost thou

When Zarathustra had heard these words, he bowed to the saint and said: "What should I have to give thee!

Let me rather hurry hence lest I take aught away from thee!"And thus they parted from one another, the

When Zarathustra was alone, however, he said to his heart: "Could it be possible! This old saint in the forest

When Zarathustra arrived at the nearest town which adjoineth the forest, he found many people assembled in

the marketplace; for it had been announced that a ropedancer would give a performance. And Zarathustra

I TEACH YOU THE SUPERMAN. Man is something that is to be surpassed. What have ye done to surpass

All beings hitherto have created something beyond themselves: and ye want to be the ebb of that great tide,

What is the ape to man? A laughingstock, a thing of shame. And just the same shall man be to the

Ye have made your way from the worm to man, and much within you is still worm. Once were ye apes, and

Even the wisest among you is only a disharmony and hybrid of plant and phantom. But do I bid you become

The Superman is the meaning of the earth. Let your will say: The Superman SHALL BE the meaning of the

I conjure you, my brethren, REMAIN TRUE TO THE EARTH, and believe not those who speak unto you of

Despisers of life are they, decaying ones and poisoned ones themselves, of whom the earth is weary: so away

Once blasphemy against God was the greatest blasphemy; but God died, and therewith also those

blasphemers. To blaspheme the earth is now the dreadfulest sin, and to rate the heart of the unknowable

Once the soul looked contemptuously on the body, and then that contempt was the supreme thing:the soul

wished the body meagre, ghastly, and famished. Thus it thought to escape from the body and the earth.

Oh, that soul was itself meagre, ghastly, and famished; and cruelty was the delight of that soul!

But ye, also, my brethren, tell me: What doth your body say about your soul? Is your soul not poverty and

Verily, a polluted stream is man. One must be a sea, to receive a polluted stream without becoming impure.

Lo, I teach you the Superman: he is that sea; in him can your great contempt be submerged.

What is the greatest thing ye can experience? It is the hour of great contempt. The hour in which even your

The hour when ye say: "What good is my happiness! It is poverty and pollution and wretched

The hour when ye say: "What good is my reason! Doth it long for knowledge as the lion for his food? It is

The hour when ye say: "What good is my virtue! As yet it hath not made me passionate. How weary I am of

my good and my bad! It is all poverty and pollution and wretched selfcomplacency!"

The hour when ye say: "What good is my justice! I do not see that I am fervour and fuel. The just, however,

The hour when we say: "What good is my pity! Is not pity the cross on which he is nailed who loveth man?

Have ye ever spoken thus? Have ye ever cried thus? Ah! would that I had heard you crying thus!

It is not your sinit is your selfsatisfaction that crieth unto heaven; your very sparingness in sin crieth unto

Where is the lightning to lick you with its tongue? Where is the frenzy with which ye should be inoculated?

When Zarathustra had thus spoken, one of the people called out: "We have now heard enough of the

ropedancer; it is time now for us to see him!" And all the people laughed at Zarathustra. But the

Man is a rope stretched between the animal and the Supermana rope over an abyss.

A dangerous crossing, a dangerous wayfaring, a dangerous lookingback, 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

I love those that know not how to live except as downgoers, for they are the overgoers.

I love the great despisers, because they are the great adorers, and arrows of longing for the other shore.

I love those who do not first seek a reason beyond the stars for going down and being sacrifices, but sacrifice

I love him who liveth in order to know, and seeketh to know in order that the Superman may hereafter live.

I love him who laboureth and inventeth, that he may build the house for the Superman, and prepare for him

I love him who loveth his virtue: for virtue is the will to downgoing, and an arrow of longing.

I love him who reserveth no share of spirit for himself, but wanteth to be wholly the spirit of his virtue: thus

I love him who maketh his virtue his inclination and destiny: thus, for the sake of his virtue, he is willing to

I love him who desireth not too many virtues. One virtue is more of a virtue than two, because it is more of a

I love him whose soul is lavish, who wanteth no thanks and doth not give back: for he always bestoweth, and

I love him who is ashamed when the dice fall in his favour, and who then asketh: "Am I a dishonest

I love him who scattereth golden words in advance of his deeds, and always doeth more than he promiseth:

I love him who justifieth the future ones, and redeemeth the past ones: for he is willing to succumb through

I love him who chasteneth his God, because he loveth his God: for he must succumb through the wrath of his

I love him whose soul is deep even in the wounding, and may succumb through a small matter: thus goeth he

I love him whose soul is so overfull that he forgetteth himself, and all things are in him: thus all things

I love him who is of a free spirit and a free heart: thus is his head only the bowels of his heart; his heart,

I love all who are like heavy drops falling one by one out of the dark cloud that lowereth over man: they

Lo, I am a herald of the lightning, and a heavy drop out of the cloud: the lightning, however, is the

When Zarathustra had spoken these words, he again looked at the people, and was silent. "There they stand,"

said he to his heart; "there they laugh: they understand me not; I am not the mouth for these ears.

Must one first batter their ears, that they may learn to hear with their eyes? Must one clatter like kettledrums

They have something whereof they are proud. What do they call it, that which maketh them proud? Culture,

They dislike, therefore, to hear of 'contempt' of themselves. So I will appeal to their pride.

I will speak unto them of the most contemptible thing: that, however, is THE LAST MAN!"

It is time for man to fix his goal. It is time for man to plant the germ of his highest hope.

Still is his soil rich enough for it. But that soil will one day be poor and exhausted, and no lofty tree will any

Alas! there cometh the time when man will no longer launch the arrow of his longing beyond manand the

I tell you: one must still have chaos in one, to give birth to a dancing star. I tell you: ye have still chaos in

Alas! There cometh the time when man will no longer give birth to any star. Alas! There cometh the time of

"What is love? What is creation? What is longing? What is a star?"so asketh the last man and blinketh.

The earth hath then become small, and on it there hoppeth the last man who maketh everything small. His

species is ineradicable like that of the groundflea; the last man liveth longest.

They have left the regions where it is hard to live; for they need warmth. One still loveth one's neighbour and

Turning ill and being distrustful, they consider sinful: they walk warily. He is a fool who still stumbleth over

A little poison now and then: that maketh pleasant dreams. And much poison at last for a pleasant death.

One still worketh, for work is a pastime. But one is careful lest the pastime should hurt one.

One no longer becometh poor or rich; both are too burdensome. Who still wanteth to rule? Who still wanteth

No shepherd, and one herd! Every one wanteth the same; every one is equal: he who hath other sentiments

"Formerly all the world was insane,"say the subtlest of them, and blink thereby.

They are clever and know all that hath happened: so there is no end to their raillery. People still fall out, but

They have their little pleasures for the day, and their little pleasures for the night, but they have a regard for

And here ended the first discourse of Zarathustra, which is also called "The Prologue": for at this point the

shouting and mirth of the multitude interrupted him. "Give us this last man, O Zarathustra,"they called

out "make us into these last men! Then will we make thee a present of the Superman!" And all the people

exulted and smacked their lips. Zarathustra, however, turned sad, and said to his heart:

Too long, perhaps, have I lived in the mountains; too much have I hearkened unto the brooks and trees: now

Calm is my soul, and clear, like the mountains in the morning. But they think me cold, and a mocker with

And now do they look at me and laugh: and while they laugh they hate me too. There is ice in their laughter."

Then, however, something happened which made every mouth mute and every eye fixed. In the meantime, of

course, the ropedancer had commenced his performance: he had come out at a little door, and was going

along the rope which was stretched between two towers, so that it hung above the marketplace and the

people. When he was just midway across, the little door opened once more, and a gaudilydressed fellow like

a buffoon sprang out, and went rapidly after the first one. "Go on, haltfoot," cried his frightful voice, "go on,

lazybones, interloper, sallowface!lest I tickle thee with my heel! What dost thou here between the

towers? In the tower is the place for thee, thou shouldst be locked up; to one better than thyself thou blockest

the way!"And with every word he came nearer and nearer the first one. When, however, he was but a step

behind, there happened the frightful thing which made every mouth mute and every eye fixedhe uttered a

yell like a devil, and jumped over the other who was in his way. The latter, however, when he thus saw his

rival triumph, lost at the same time his head and his footing on the rope; he threw his pole away, and shot

downwards faster than it, like an eddy of arms and legs, into the depth. The marketplace and the people

were like the sea when the storm cometh on: they all flew apart and in disorder, especially where the body

Zarathustra, however, remained standing, and just beside him fell the body, badly injured and disfigured, but

not yet dead. After a while consciousness returned to the shattered man, and he saw Zarathustra kneeling

beside him. "What art thou doing there?" said he at last, "I knew long ago that the devil would trip me up.

"On mine honour, my friend," answered Zarathustra, "there is nothing of all that whereof thou speakest: there

is no devil and no hell. Thy soul will be dead even sooner than thy body: fear, therefore, nothing any more!"

The man looked up distrustfully. "If thou speakest the truth," said he, "I lose nothing when I lose my life. I

am not much more than an animal which hath been taught to dance by blows and scanty fare."

"Not at all," said Zarathustra, "thou hast made danger thy calling; therein there is nothing contemptible. Now

When Zarathustra had said this the dying one did not reply further; but he moved his hand as if he sought the

Meanwhile the evening came on, and the marketplace veiled itself in gloom. Then the people dispersed, for

even curiosity and terror become fatigued. Zarathustra, however, still sat beside the dead man on the ground,

absorbed in thought: so he forgot the time. But at last it became night, and a cold wind blew upon the lonely

Verily, a fine catch of fish hath Zarathustra made today! It is not a man he hath caught, but a corpse.

Sombre is human life, and as yet without meaning: a buffoon may be fateful to it.

I want to teach men the sense of their existence, which is the Superman, the lightning out of the dark

But still am I far from them, and my sense speaketh not unto their sense. To men I am still something

Gloomy is the night, gloomy are the ways of Zarathustra. Come, thou cold and stiff companion! I carry thee

When Zarathustra had said this to his heart, he put the corpse upon his shoulders and set out on his way. Yet

had he not gone a hundred steps, when there stole a man up to him and whispered in his earand lo! he that

spake was the buffoon from the tower. "Leave this town, O Zarathustra," said he, "there are too many here

who hate thee. The good and just hate thee, and call thee their enemy and despiser; the believers in the

orthodox belief hate thee, and call thee a danger to the multitude. It was thy good fortune to be laughed at:

and verily thou spakest like a buffoon. It was thy good fortune to associate with the dead dog; by so

humiliating thyself thou hast saved thy life today. Depart, however, from this town,or tomorrow I shall

jump over thee, a living man over a dead one." And when he had said this, the buffoon vanished; Zarathustra,

At the gate of the town the gravediggers met him: they shone their torch on his face, and, recognising

Zarathustra, they sorely derided him. "Zarathustra is carrying away the dead dog: a fine thing that Zarathustra

hath turned a gravedigger! For our hands are too cleanly for that roast. Will Zarathustra steal the bite from

the devil? Well then, good luck to the repast! If only the devil is not a better thief than Zarathustra!he will

steal them both, he will eat them both!" And they laughed among themselves, and put their heads together.

Zarathustra made no answer thereto, but went on his way. When he had gone on for two hours, past forests

and swamps, he had heard too much of the hungry howling of the wolves, and he himself became ahungry.

"Hunger attacketh me," said Zarathustra, "like a robber. Among forests and swamps my hunger attacketh me,

"Strange humours hath my hunger. Often it cometh to me only after a repast, and all day it hath failed to

And thereupon Zarathustra knocked at the door of the house. An old man appeared, who carried a light, and

"A living man and a dead one," said Zarathustra. "Give me something to eat and drink, I forgot it during the

The old man withdrew, but came back immediately and offered Zarathustra bread and wine. "A bad country

for the hungry," said he; "that is why I live here. Animal and man come unto me, the anchorite. But bid thy

companion eat and drink also, he is wearier than thou." Zarathustra answered: "My companion is dead; I shall

hardly be able to persuade him to eat." "That doth not concern me," said the old man sullenly; "he that

Thereafter Zarathustra again went on for two hours, trusting to the path and the light of the stars: for he was

an experienced nightwalker, and liked to look into the face of all that slept. When the morning dawned,

however, Zarathustra found himself in a thick forest, and no path was any longer visible. He then put the dead

man in a hollow tree at his headfor he wanted to protect him from the wolvesand laid himself down on

the ground and moss. And immediately he fell asleep, tired in body, but with a tranquil soul.

Long slept Zarathustra; and not only the rosy dawn passed over his head, but also the morning. At last,

however, his eyes opened, and amazedly he gazed into the forest and the stillness, amazedly he gazed into

himself. Then he arose quickly, like a seafarer who all at once seeth the land; and he shouted for joy: for he

A light hath dawned upon me: I need companionsliving ones; not dead companions and corpses, which I

But I need living companions, who will follow me because they want to follow themselvesand to the place

A light hath dawned upon me. Not to the people is Zarathustra to speak, but to companions! Zarathustra shall

To allure many from the herdfor that purpose have I come. The people and the herd must be angry with

Herdsmen, I say, but they call themselves the good and just. Herdsmen, I say, but they call themselves the

Behold the good and just! Whom do they hate most? Him who breaketh up their tables of values, the breaker,

Behold the believers of all beliefs! Whom do they hate most? Him who breaketh up their tables of values, the

Companions, the creator seeketh, not corpsesand not herds or believers either. Fellowcreators the creator

Companions, the creator seeketh, and fellowreapers: for everything is ripe for the harvest with him. But he

Companions, the creator seeketh, and such as know how to whet their sickles. Destroyers, will they be called,

Fellowcreators, Zarathustra seeketh; fellowreapers and fellowrejoicers, Zarathustra seeketh: what hath he

And thou, my first companion, rest in peace! Well have I buried thee in thy hollow tree; well have I hid thee

But I part from thee; the time hath arrived. 'Twixt rosy dawn and rosy dawn there came unto me a new truth.

I am not to be a herdsman, I am not to be a gravedigger. Not any more will I discourse unto the people; for

With the creators, the reapers, and the rejoicers will I associate: the rainbow will I show them, and all the

To the lonedwellers will I sing my song, and to the twaindwellers; and unto him who hath still ears for the

I make for my goal, I follow my course; over the loitering and tardy will I leap. Thus let my ongoing be

This had Zarathustra said to his heart when the sun stood at noontide. Then he looked inquiringly

aloft,for he heard above him the sharp call of a bird. And behold! An eagle swept through the air in wide

circles, and on it hung a serpent, not like a prey, but like a friend: for it kept itself coiled round the eagle's

"The proudest animal under the sun, and the wisest animal under the sun, they have come out to

More dangerous have I found it among men than among animals; in dangerous paths goeth Zarathustra. Let

When Zarathustra had said this, he remembered the words of the saint in the forest. Then he sighed and spake

"Would that I were wiser! Would that I were wise from the very heart, like my serpent!

But I am asking the impossible. Therefore do I ask my pride to go always with my wisdom!

And if my wisdom should some day forsake me:alas! it loveth to fly away! may my pride then fly with

Three metamorphoses of the spirit do I designate to you: how the spirit becometh a camel, the camel a lion,

Many heavy things are there for the spirit, the strong loadbearing spirit in which reverence dwelleth: for the

What is heavy? so asketh the loadbearing spirit; then kneeleth it down like the camel, and wanteth to be well

What is the heaviest thing, ye heroes? asketh the loadbearing spirit, that I may take it upon me and rejoice in

Is it not this: To humiliate oneself in order to mortify one's pride? To exhibit one's folly in order to mock at

Or is it this: To desert our cause when it celebrateth its triumph? To ascend high mountains to tempt the

Or is it this: To feed on the acorns and grass of knowledge, and for the sake of truth to suffer hunger of soul?

Or is it this: To be sick and dismiss comforters, and make friends of the deaf, who never hear thy requests?

Or is it this: To go into foul water when it is the water of truth, and not disclaim cold frogs and hot toads?

Or is it this: To love those who despise us, and give one's hand to the phantom when it is going to frighten

All these heaviest things the loadbearing spirit taketh upon itself: and like the camel, which, when laden,

But in the loneliest wilderness happeneth the second metamorphosis: here the spirit becometh a lion; freedom

Its last Lord it here seeketh: hostile will it be to him, and to its last God; for victory will it struggle with the

What is the great dragon which the spirit is no longer inclined to call Lord and God? "Thoushalt," is the

"Thoushalt," lieth in its path, sparkling with golda scalecovered beast; and on every scale glittereth

The values of a thousand years glitter on those scales, and thus speaketh the mightiest of all dragons: "All the

All values have already been created, and all created valuesdo I represent. Verily, there shall be no 'I will'

My brethren, wherefore is there need of the lion in the spirit? Why sufficeth not the beast of burden, which

To create new valuesthat, even the lion cannot yet accomplish: but to create itself freedom for new

To create itself freedom, and give a holy Nay even unto duty: for that, my brethren, there is need of the lion.

To assume the right to new valuesthat is the most formidable assumption for a loadbearing and reverent

spirit. Verily, unto such a spirit it is preying, and the work of a beast of prey.

As its holiest, it once loved "Thoushalt": now is it forced to find illusion and arbitrariness even in the holiest

things, that it may capture freedom from its love: the lion is needed for this capture.

But tell me, my brethren, what the child can do, which even the lion could not do? Why hath the preying lion

Innocence is the child, and forgetfulness, a new beginning, a game, a selfrolling wheel, a first movement, a

Aye, for the game of creating, my brethren, there is needed a holy Yea unto life: ITS OWN will, willeth now

Three metamorphoses of the spirit have I designated to you: how the spirit became a camel, the camel a lion,

Thus spake Zarathustra. And at that time he abode in the town which is called The Pied Cow.

People commended unto Zarathustra a wise man, as one who could discourse well about sleep and virtue:

greatly was he honoured and rewarded for it, and all the youths sat before his chair. To him went Zarathustra,

Respect and modesty in presence of sleep! That is the first thing! And to go out of the way of all who sleep

Modest is even the thief in presence of sleep: he always stealeth softly through the night. Immodest, however,

No small art is it to sleep: it is necessary for that purpose to keep awake all day.

Ten times a day must thou overcome thyself: that causeth wholesome weariness, and is poppy to the soul.

Ten times must thou reconcile again with thyself; for overcoming is bitterness, and badly sleep the

Ten truths must thou find during the day; otherwise wilt thou seek truth during the night, and thy soul will

Ten times must thou laugh during the day, and be cheerful; otherwise thy stomach, the father of affliction,

Few people know it, but one must have all the virtues in order to sleep well. Shall I bear false witness? Shall I

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

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. And peace also with thy neighbour's devil!

Honour to the government, and obedience, and also to the crooked government! So desireth good sleep. How

He who leadeth his sheep to the greenest pasture, shall always be for me the best shepherd: so doth it accord

Many honours I want not, nor great treasures: they excite the spleen. But it is bad sleeping without a good

A small company is more welcome to me than a bad one: but they must come and go at the right time. So

Well, also, do the poor in spirit please me: they promote sleep. Blessed are they, especially if one always give

Thus passeth the day unto the virtuous. When night cometh, then take I good care not to summon sleep. It

But I think of what I have done and thought during the day. Thus ruminating, patient as a cow, I ask myself:

And what were the ten reconciliations, and the ten truths, and the ten laughters with which my heart enjoyed

Thus pondering, and cradled by forty thoughts, it overtaketh me all at oncesleep, the unsummoned, the

Sleep tappeth on mine eye, and it turneth heavy. Sleep toucheth my mouth, and it remaineth open.

Verily, on soft soles doth it come to me, the dearest of thieves, and stealeth from me my thoughts: stupid do I

When Zarathustra heard the wise man thus speak, he laughed in his heart: for thereby had a light dawned

A fool seemeth this wise man with his forty thoughts: but I believe he knoweth well how to sleep.

Happy even is he who liveth near this wise man! Such sleep is contagious even through a thick wall it is

A magic resideth even in his academic chair. And not in vain did the youths sit before the preacher of virtue.

His wisdom is to keep awake in order to sleep well. And verily, if life had no sense, and had I to choose

Now know I well what people sought formerly above all else when they sought teachers of virtue. Good sleep

To all those belauded sages of the academic chairs, wisdom was sleep without dreams: they knew no higher

Even at present, to be sure, there are some like this preacher of virtue, and not always so honourable: but their

Once on a time, Zarathustra also cast his fancy beyond man, like all backworldsmen. The work of a suffering

The dreamand dictionof a God, did the world then seem to me; coloured vapours before the eyes of a

Good and evil, and joy and woe, and I and thoucoloured vapours did they seem to me before creative eyes.

Intoxicating joy is it for the sufferer to look away from his suffering and forget himself. Intoxicating joy and

This world, the eternally imperfect, an eternal contradiction's image and imperfect imagean intoxicating

Thus, once on a time, did I also cast my fancy beyond man, like all backworldsmen. Beyond man, forsooth?

Ah, ye brethren, that God whom I created was human work and human madness, like all the Gods!

A man was he, and only a poor fragment of a man and ego. Out of mine own ashes and glow it came unto me,

What happened, my brethren? I surpassed myself, the suffering one; I carried mine own ashes to the

mountain; a brighter flame I contrived for myself. And lo! Thereupon the phantom WITHDREW from me!

To me the convalescent would it now be suffering and torment to believe in such phantoms: suffering would

Suffering was it, and impotencethat created all backworlds; and the short madness of happiness, which

Weariness, which seeketh to get to the ultimate with one leap, with a deathleap; a poor ignorant weariness,

Believe me, my brethren! It was the body which despaired of the bodyit groped with the fingers of the

Believe me, my brethren! It was the body which despaired of the earthit heard the bowels of existence

And then it sought to get through the ultimate walls with its headand not with its head onlyinto "the

But that "other world" is well concealed from man, that dehumanised, inhuman world, which is a celestial

Verily, it is difficult to prove all being, and hard to make it speak. Tell me, ye brethren, is not the strangest of

Yea, this ego, with its contradiction and perplexity, speaketh most uprightly of its beingthis creating,

And this most upright existence, the egoit speaketh of the body, and still implieth the body, even when it

Always more uprightly learneth it to speak, the ego; and the more it learneth, the more doth it find titles and

A new pride taught me mine ego, and that teach I unto men: no longer to thrust one's head into the sand of

celestial things, but to carry it freely, a terrestrial head, which giveth meaning to the earth!

A new will teach I unto men: to choose that path which man hath followed blindly, and to approve of itand

The sick and perishingit was they who despised the body and the earth, and invented the heavenly world,

and the redeeming blooddrops; but even those sweet and sad poisons they borrowed from the body and the

From their misery they sought escape, and the stars were too remote for them. Then they sighed: "O that there

were heavenly paths by which to steal into another existence and into happiness!" Then they contrived for

Beyond the sphere of their body and this earth they now fancied themselves transported, these ungrateful

ones. But to what did they owe the convulsion and rapture of their transport? To their body and this earth.

Gentle is Zarathustra to the sickly. Verily, he is not indignant at their modes of consolation and ingratitude.

May they become convalescents and overcomers, and create higher bodies for themselves!

Neither is Zarathustra indignant at a convalescent who looketh tenderly on his delusions, and at midnight

stealeth round the grave of his God; but sickness and a sick frame remain even in his tears.

Many sickly ones have there always been among those who muse, and languish for God; violently they hate

Backward they always gaze toward dark ages: then, indeed, were delusion and faith something different.

Too well do I know those godlike ones: they insist on being believed in, and that doubt is sin. Too well, also,

Verily, not in backworlds and redeeming blooddrops: but in the body do they also believe most; and their

But it is a sickly thing to them, and gladly would they get out of their skin. Therefore hearken they to the

Hearken rather, my brethren, to the voice of the healthy body; it is a more upright and pure voice.

More uprightly and purely speaketh the healthy body, perfect and squarebuilt; and it speaketh of the meaning

To the despisers of the body will I speak my word. I wish them neither to learn afresh, nor teach anew, but

"Body am I, and soul"so saith the child. And why should one not speak like children?

But the awakened one, the knowing one, saith: "Body am I entirely, and nothing more; and soul is only the

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

"Ego," sayest thou, and art proud of that word. But the greater thingin which thou art unwilling to

What the sense feeleth, what the spirit discerneth, hath never its end in itself. But sense and spirit would fain

Instruments and playthings are sense and spirit: behind them there is still the Self. The Self seeketh with the

Ever hearkeneth the Self, and seeketh; it compareth, mastereth, conquereth, and destroyeth. It ruleth, and is

Behind thy thoughts and feelings, my brother, there is a mighty lord, an unknown sageit is called Self; it

There is more sagacity in thy body than in thy best wisdom. And who then knoweth why thy body requireth

Thy Self laugheth at thine ego, and its proud prancings. "What are these prancings and flights of thought unto

me?" it saith to itself. "A byway to my purpose. I am the leadingstring of the ego, and the prompter of its

The Self saith unto the ego: "Feel pain!" And thereupon it suffereth, and thinketh how it may put an end

The Self saith unto the ego: "Feel pleasure!" Thereupon it rejoiceth, and thinketh how it may ofttimes

To the despisers of the body will I speak a word. That they despise is caused by their esteem. What is it that

The creating Self created for itself esteeming and despising, it created for itself joy and woe. The creating

Even in your folly and despising ye each serve your Self, ye despisers of the body. I tell you, your very Self

No longer can your Self do that which it desireth most:create beyond itself. That is what it desireth most;

But it is now too late to do so:so your Self wisheth to succumb, ye despisers of the body.

To succumbso wisheth your Self; and therefore have ye become despisers of the body. For ye can no

And therefore are ye now angry with life and with the earth. And unconscious envy is in the sidelong look of

I go not your way, ye despisers of the body! Ye are no bridges for me to the Superman!

My brother, when thou hast a virtue, and it is thine own virtue, thou hast it in common with no one.

To be sure, thou wouldst call it by name and caress it; thou wouldst pull its ears and amuse thyself with it.

And lo! Then hast thou its name in common with the people, and hast become one of the people and the herd

Better for thee to say: "Ineffable is it, and nameless, that which is pain and sweetness to my soul, and also the

Let thy virtue be too high for the familiarity of names, and if thou must speak of it, be not ashamed to

Thus speak and stammer: "That is MY good, that do I love, thus doth it please me entirely, thus only do _I_

Not as the law of a God do I desire it, not as a human law or a human need do I desire it; it is not to be a

An earthly virtue is it which I love: little prudence is therein, and the least everyday wisdom.

But that bird built its nest beside me: therefore, I love and cherish it now sitteth it beside me on its golden

Once hadst thou passions and calledst them evil. But now hast thou only thy virtues: they grew out of thy

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 hottempered, or of the voluptuous, or of the fanatical, or the

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 thounow drinketh thou

And nothing evil groweth in thee any longer, unless it be the evil that groweth out of the conflict of thy

My brother, if thou be fortunate, then wilt thou have one virtue and no more: thus goest thou easier over the

Illustrious is it to have many virtues, but a hard lot; and many a one hath gone into the wilderness and killed

My brother, are war and battle evil? Necessary, however, is the evil; necessary are the envy and the distrust

Lo! how each of thy virtues is covetous of the highest place; it wanteth thy whole spirit to be ITS herald, it

Jealous is every virtue of the others, and a dreadful thing is jealousy. Even virtues may succumb by jealousy.

He whom the flame of jealousy encompasseth, turneth at last, like the scorpion, the poisoned sting against

Man is something that hath to be surpassed: and therefore shalt thou love thy virtues,for thou wilt succumb

Ye do not mean to slay, ye judges and sacrificers, until the animal hath bowed its head? Lo! the pale criminal

"Mine ego is something which is to be surpassed: mine ego is to me the great contempt of man": so speaketh

When he judged himselfthat was his supreme moment; let not the exalted one relapse again into his low

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

It is not enough that ye should reconcile with him whom ye slay. Let your sorrow be love to the Superman:

"Enemy" shall ye say but not "villain," "invalid" shall ye say but not "wretch," "fool" shall ye say but not

And thou, red judge, if thou would say audibly all thou hast done in thought, then would every one cry:

But one thing is the thought, another thing is the deed, and another thing is the idea of the deed. The wheel of

An idea made this pale man pale. Adequate was he for his deed when he did it, but the idea of it, he could not

Evermore did he now see himself as the doer of one deed. Madness, I call this: the exception reversed itself to

The streak of chalk bewitcheth the hen; the stroke he struck bewitched his weak reason. Madness AFTER the

Hearken, ye judges! There is another madness besides, and it is BEFORE the deed. Ah! ye have not gone

Thus speaketh the red judge: "Why did this criminal commit murder? He meant to rob." I tell you, however,

that his soul wanted blood, not booty: he thirsted for the happiness of the knife!

But his weak reason understood not this madness, and it persuaded him. "What matter about blood!" it said;

And he hearkened unto his weak reason: like lead lay its words upon him thereupon he robbed when he

And now once more lieth the lead of his guilt upon him, and once more is his weak reason so benumbed, so

Could he only shake his head, then would his burden roll off; but who shaketh that head?

What is this man? A mass of diseases that reach out into the world through the spirit; there they want to get

What is this man? A coil of wild serpents that are seldom at peace among themselvesso they go forth apart

Look at that poor body! What it suffered and craved, the poor soul interpreted to itselfit interpreted it as

Him who now turneth sick, the evil overtaketh which is now the evil: he seeketh to cause pain with that

which causeth him pain. But there have been other ages, and another evil and good.

Once was doubt evil, and the will to Self. Then the invalid became a heretic or sorcerer; as heretic or sorcerer

But this will not enter your ears; it hurteth your good people, ye tell me. But what doth it matter to me about

Many things in your good people cause me disgust, and verily, not their evil. I would that they had a madness

Verily, I would that their madness were called truth, or fidelity, or justice: but they have their virtue in order

I am a railing alongside the torrent; whoever is able to grasp me may grasp me! Your crutch, however, I am

Of all that is written, I love only what a person hath written with his blood. Write with blood, and thou wilt

He who knoweth the reader, doeth nothing more for the reader. Another century of readersand spirit itself

Every one being allowed to learn to read, ruineth in the long run not only writing but also thinking.

He that writeth in blood and proverbs doth not want to be read, but learnt by heart.

In the mountains the shortest way is from peak to peak, but for that route thou must have long legs. Proverbs

The atmosphere rare and pure, danger near and the spirit full of a joyful wickedness: thus are things well

I want to have goblins about me, for I am courageous. The courage which scareth away ghosts, createth for

I no longer feel in common with you; the very cloud which I see beneath me, the blackness and heaviness at

Ye look aloft when ye long for exaltation; and I look downward because I am exalted.

He who climbeth on the highest mountains, laugheth at all tragic plays and tragic realities.

Courageous, unconcerned, scornful, coerciveso wisdom wisheth us; she is a woman, and ever loveth only

Ye tell me, "Life is hard to bear." But for what purpose should ye have your pride in the morning and your

Life is hard to bear: but do not affect to be so delicate! We are all of us fine sumpter asses and assesses.

What have we in common with the rosebud, which trembleth because a drop of dew hath formed upon it?

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 soapbubbles, and whatever is like them amongst us,

To see these light, foolish, pretty, lively little sprites flit aboutthat moveth Zarathustra to tears and songs.

And when I saw my devil, I found him serious, thorough, profound, solemn: he was the spirit of

Not by wrath, but by laughter, do we slay. Come, let us slay the spirit of gravity!

I learned to walk; since then have I let myself run. I learned to fly; since then I do not need pushing in order

Now am I light, now do I fly; now do I see myself under myself. Now there danceth a God in me.

Zarathustra's eye had perceived that a certain youth avoided him. And as he walked alone one evening over

the hills surrounding the town called "The Pied Cow," behold, there found he the youth sitting leaning against

a tree, and gazing with wearied look into the valley. Zarathustra thereupon laid hold of the tree beside which

But the wind, which we see not, troubleth and bendeth it as it listeth. We are sorest bent and troubled by

Thereupon the youth arose disconcerted, and said: "I hear Zarathustra, and just now was I thinking of him!"

"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,

"Yea, into the evil!" cried the youth. "How is it possible that thou hast discovered my soul?"

Zarathustra smiled, and said: "Many a soul one will never discover, unless one first invent it."

"Thou saidst the truth, Zarathustra. I trust myself no longer since I sought to rise into the height, and nobody

I change too quickly: my today refuteth my yesterday. I often overleap the steps when I clamber; for so

When aloft, I find myself always alone. No one speaketh unto me; the frost of solitude maketh me tremble.

My contempt and my longing increase together; the higher I clamber, the more do I despise him who

How ashamed I am of my clambering and stumbling! How I mock at my violent panting! How I hate him

Here the youth was silent. And Zarathustra contemplated the tree beside which they stood, and spake thus:

"This tree standeth lonely here on the hills; it hath grown up high above man and beast.

And if it wanted to speak, it would have none who could understand it: so high hath it grown.

Now it waiteth and waiteth,for what doth it wait? It dwelleth too close to the seat of the clouds; it waiteth

When Zarathustra had said this, the youth called out with violent gestures: "Yea, Zarathustra, thou speakest

the truth. My destruction I longed for, when I desired to be on the height, and thou art the lightning for which

I waited! Lo! what have I been since thou hast appeared amongst us? It is mine envy of thee that hath

destroyed me!"Thus spake the youth, and wept bitterly. Zarathustra, however, put his arm about him, and

It rendeth my heart. Better than thy words express it, thine eyes tell me all thy danger.

As yet thou art not free; thou still SEEKEST freedom. Too unslept hath thy seeking made thee, and too

On the open height wouldst thou be; for the stars thirsteth thy soul. But thy bad impulses also thirst for

Thy wild dogs want liberty; they bark for joy in their cellar when thy spirit endeavoureth to open all prison

Still art thou a prisonerit seemeth to mewho deviseth liberty for himself: ah! sharp becometh the soul of

To purify himself, is still necessary for the freedman of the spirit. Much of the prison and the mould still

Yea, I know thy danger. But by my love and hope I conjure thee: cast not thy love and hope away!

Noble thou feelest thyself still, and noble others also feel thee still, though they bear thee a grudge and cast

Also to the good, a noble one standeth in the way: and even when they call him a good man, they want

The new, would the noble man create, and a new virtue. The old, wanteth the good man, and that the old

But it is not the danger of the noble man to turn a good man, but lest he should become a blusterer, a scoffer,

Ah! I have known noble ones who lost their highest hope. And then they disparaged all high hopes.

Then lived they shamelessly in temporary pleasures, and beyond the day had hardly an aim.

"Spirit is also voluptuousness,"said they. Then broke the wings of their spirit; and now it creepeth about,

Once they thought of becoming heroes; but sensualists are they now. A trouble and a terror is the hero to

But by my love and hope I conjure thee: cast not away the hero in thy soul! Maintain holy thy highest

There are preachers of death: and the earth is full of those to whom desistance from life must be preached.

Full is the earth of the superfluous; marred is life by the manytoomany. May they be decoyed out of this

"The yellow ones": so are called the preachers of death, or "the black ones." But I will show them unto you in

There are the terrible ones who carry about in themselves the beast of prey, and have no choice except lusts

They have not yet become men, those terrible ones: may they preach desistance from life, and pass away

There are the spiritually consumptive ones: hardly are they born when they begin to die, and long for

They would fain be dead, and we should approve of their wish! Let us beware of awakening those dead ones,

They meet an invalid, or an old man, or a corpseand 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

Or else, they grasp at sweetmeats, and mock at their childishness thereby: they cling to their straw of life, and

Their wisdom speaketh thus: "A fool, he who remaineth alive; but so far are we fools! And that is the

"Life is only suffering": so say others, and lie not. Then see to it that YE cease! See to it that the life ceaseth

And let this be the teaching of your virtue: "Thou shalt slay thyself! Thou shalt steal away from thyself!"

"Lust is sin,"so say some who preach death"let us go apart and beget no children!"

"Giving birth is troublesome,"say others"why still give birth? One beareth only the unfortunate!" And

"Pity is necessary,"so saith a third party. "Take what I have! Take what I am! So much less doth life bind

Were they consistently pitiful, then would they make their neighbours sick of life. To be wickedthat would

But they want to be rid of life; what care they if they bind others still faster with their chains and gifts!

And ye also, to whom life is rough labour and disquiet, are ye not very tired of life? Are ye not very ripe for

All ye to whom rough labour is dear, and the rapid, new, and strangeye put up with yourselves badly; your

If ye believed more in life, then would ye devote yourselves less to the momentary. But for waiting, ye have

Everywhere resoundeth the voices of those who preach death; and the earth is full of those to whom death

By our best enemies we do not want to be spared, nor by those either whom we love from the very heart. So

My brethren in war! I love you from the very heart. I am, and was ever, your counterpart. And I am also your

I know the hatred and envy of your hearts. Ye are not great enough not to know of hatred and envy. Then be

And if ye cannot be saints of knowledge, then, I pray you, be at least its warriors. They are the companions

I see many soldiers; could I but see many warriors! "Uniform" one calleth what they wear; may it not be

Ye shall be those whose eyes ever seek for an enemyfor YOUR enemy. And with some of you there is

Your enemy shall ye seek; your war shall ye wage, and for the sake of your thoughts! And if your thoughts

Ye shall love peace as a means to new warsand the short peace more than the long.

You I advise not to work, but to fight. You I advise not to peace, but to victory. Let your work be a fight, let

One can only be silent and sit peacefully when one hath arrow and bow; otherwise one prateth and

Ye say it is the good cause which halloweth even war? I say unto you: it is the good war which halloweth

War and courage have done more great things than charity. Not your sympathy, but your bravery hath

"What is good?" ye ask. To be brave is good. Let the little girls say: "To be good is what is pretty, and at the

They call you heartless: but your heart is true, and I love the bashfulness of your goodwill. Ye are ashamed of

Ye are ugly? Well then, my brethren, take the sublime about you, the mantle of the ugly!

And when your soul becometh great, then doth it become haughty, and in your sublimity there is wickedness.

In wickedness the haughty man and the weakling meet. But they misunderstand one another. I know you.

Ye shall only have enemies to be hated, but not enemies to be despised. Ye must be proud of your enemies;

Resistancethat is the distinction of the slave. Let your distinction be obedience. Let your commanding

To the good warrior soundeth "thou shalt" pleasanter than "I will." And all that is dear unto you, ye shall first

Let your love to life be love to your highest hope; and let your highest hope be the highest thought of life!

Your highest thought, however, ye shall have it commanded unto you by me and it is this: man is

So live your life of obedience and of war! What matter about long life! What warrior wisheth to be spared!

Somewhere there are still peoples and herds, but not with us, my brethren: here there are states.

A state? What is that? Well! open now your ears unto me, for now will I say unto you my word concerning

A state, is called the coldest of all cold monsters. Coldly lieth it also; and this lie creepeth from its mouth: "I,

It is a lie! Creators were they who created peoples, and hung a faith and a love over them: thus they served

Destroyers, are they who lay snares for many, and call it the state: they hang a sword and a hundred cravings

Where there is still a people, there the state is not understood, but hated as the evil eye, and as sin against

This sign I give unto you: every people speaketh its language of good and evil: this its neighbour

But the state lieth in all languages of good and evil; and whatever it saith it lieth; and whatever it hath it hath

False is everything in it; with stolen teeth it biteth, the biting one. False are even its bowels.

Confusion of language of good and evil; this sign I give unto you as the sign of the state. Verily, the will to

See just how it enticeth them to it, the manytoomany! How it swalloweth and cheweth and recheweth

"On earth there is nothing greater than I: it is I who am the regulating finger of God"thus roareth the

Ah! even in your ears, ye great souls, it whispereth its gloomy lies! Ah! it findeth out the rich hearts which

Yea, it findeth you out too, ye conquerors of the old God! Weary ye became of the conflict, and now your

Heroes and honourable ones, it would fain set up around it, the new idol! Gladly it basketh in the sunshine of

Everything will it give YOU, if YE worship it, the new idol: thus it purchaseth the lustre of your virtue, and

It seeketh to allure by means of you, the manytoomany! Yea, a hellish artifice hath here been devised, a

Yea, a dying for many hath here been devised, which glorifieth itself as life: verily, a hearty service unto all

The state, I call it, where all are poisondrinkers, the good and the bad: the state, where all lose themselves,

Just see these superfluous ones! They steal the works of the inventors and the treasures of the wise. Culture,

Just see these superfluous ones! Sick are they always; they vomit their bile and call it a newspaper. They

Just see these superfluous ones! Wealth they acquire and become poorer thereby. Power they seek for, and

See them clamber, these nimble apes! They clamber over one another, and thus scuffle into the mud and the

Towards the throne they all strive: it is their madnessas if happiness sat on the throne! Ofttimes sitteth filth

Madmen they all seem to me, and clambering apes, and too eager. Badly smelleth their idol to me, the cold

My brethren, will ye suffocate in the fumes of their maws and appetites! Better break the windows and jump

Do go out of the way of the bad odour! Withdraw from the idolatry of the superfluous!

Do go out of the way of the bad odour! Withdraw from the steam of these human sacrifices!

Open still remaineth the earth for great souls. Empty are still many sites for lone ones and twain ones, around

Open still remaineth a free life for great souls. Verily, he who possesseth little is so much the less possessed:

There, where the state ceaseththere only commenceth the man who is not superfluous: there commenceth

There, where the state CEASETHpray look thither, my brethren! Do ye not see it, the rainbow and the

Flee, my friend, into thy solitude! I see thee deafened with the noise of the great men, and stung all over with

Admirably do forest and rock know how to be silent with thee. Resemble again the tree which thou lovest, the

Where solitude endeth, there beginneth the marketplace; and where the marketplace beginneth, there

beginneth also the noise of the great actors, and the buzzing of the poisonflies.

In the world even the best things are worthless without those who represent them: those representers, the

Little do the people understand what is greatthat is to say, the creating agency. But they have a taste for all

Around the devisers of new values revolveth the world:invisibly it revolveth. But around the actors revolve

Spirit, hath the actor, but little conscience of the spirit. He believeth always in that wherewith he maketh

Tomorrow he hath a new belief, and the day after, one still newer. Sharp perceptions hath he, like the people,

To upsetthat meaneth with him to prove. To drive madthat meaneth with him to convince. And blood is

A truth which only glideth into fine ears, he calleth falsehood and trumpery. Verily, he believeth only in Gods

Full of clattering buffoons is the marketplace,and the people glory in their great men! These are for them

But the hour presseth them; so they press thee. And also from thee they want Yea or Nay. Alas! thou wouldst

On account of those absolute and impatient ones, be not jealous, thou lover of truth! Never yet did truth cling

On account of those abrupt ones, return into thy security: only in the marketplace is one assailed by Yea? or

Slow is the experience of all deep fountains: long have they to wait until they know WHAT hath fallen into

Away from the marketplace and from fame taketh place all that is great: away from the marketPlace and

Flee, my friend, into thy solitude: I see thee stung all over by the poisonous flies. Flee thither, where a rough,

Flee into thy solitude! Thou hast lived too closely to the small and the pitiable. Flee from their invisible

Raise no longer an arm against them! Innumerable are they, and it is not thy lot to be a flyflap.

Innumerable are the small and pitiable ones; and of many a proud structure, raindrops and weeds have been

Thou art not stone; but already hast thou become hollow by the numerous drops. Thou wilt yet break and

Exhausted I see thee, by poisonous flies; bleeding I see thee, and torn at a hundred spots; and thy pride will

Blood they would have from thee in all innocence; blood their bloodless souls crave forand they sting,

But thou, profound one, thou sufferest too profoundly even from small wounds; and ere thou hadst recovered,

Too proud art thou to kill these sweettooths. But take care lest it be thy fate to suffer all their poisonous

They buzz around thee also with their praise: obtrusiveness, is their praise. They want to be close to thy skin

They flatter thee, as one flattereth a God or devil; they whimper before thee, as before a God or devil. What

Often, also, do they show themselves to thee as amiable ones. But that hath ever been the prudence of the

They think much about thee with their circumscribed soulsthou art always suspected by them! Whatever is

They punish thee for all thy virtues. They pardon thee in their inmost hearts onlyfor thine errors.

Because thou art gentle and of upright character, thou sayest: "Blameless are they for their small existence."

Even when thou art gentle towards them, they still feel themselves despised by thee; and they repay thy

Thy silent pride is always counter to their taste; they rejoice if once thou be humble enough to be frivolous.

What we recognise in a man, we also irritate in him. Therefore be on your guard against the small ones!

In thy presence they feel themselves small, and their baseness gleameth and gloweth against thee in invisible

Sawest thou not how often they became dumb when thou approachedst them, and how their energy left them

Yea, my friend, the bad conscience art thou of thy neighbours; for they are unworthy of thee. Therefore they

Thy neighbours will always be poisonous flies; what is great in theethat itself must make them more

Flee, my friend, into thy solitudeand thither, where a rough strong breeze bloweth. It is not thy lot to be a

I love the forest. It is bad to live in cities: there, there are too many of the lustful.

Is it not better to fall into the hands of a murderer, than into the dreams of a lustful woman?

And just look at these men: their eye saith itthey know nothing better on earth than to lie with a woman.

Filth is at the bottom of their souls; and alas! if their filth hath still spirit in it!

Would that ye were perfectat 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!

Ye love tragedies and all that breaketh the heart? But I am distrustful of your doggish lust.

Ye have too cruel eyes, and ye look wantonly towards the sufferers. Hath not your lust just disguised itself

And also this parable give I unto you: Not a few who meant to cast out their devil, went thereby into the

To whom chastity is difficult, it is to be dissuaded: lest it become the road to hellto filth and lust of soul.

Not when the truth is filthy, but when it is shallow, doth the discerning one go unwillingly into its waters.

Verily, there are chaste ones from their very nature; they are gentler of heart, and laugh better and oftener

We offered that guest harbour and heart: now it dwelleth with uslet it stay as long as it will!"

"One, is always too many about me"thinketh the anchorite. "Always once onethat maketh two in the

I and me are always too earnestly in conversation: how could it be endured, if there were not a friend?

The friend of the anchorite is always the third one: the third one is the cork which preventeth the conversation

Ah! there are too many depths for all anchorites. Therefore, do they long so much for a friend, and for his

Our faith in others betrayeth wherein we would fain have faith in ourselves. Our longing for a friend is our

And often with our love we want merely to overleap envy. And often we attack and make ourselves enemies,

"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

One ought still to honour the enemy in one's friend. Canst thou go nigh unto thy friend, and not go over to

In one's friend one shall have one's best enemy. Thou shalt be closest unto him with thy heart when thou

Thou wouldst wear no raiment before thy friend? It is in honour of thy friend that thou showest thyself to him

He who maketh no secret of himself shocketh: so much reason have ye to fear nakedness! Aye, if ye were

Thou canst not adorn thyself fine enough for thy friend; for thou shalt be unto him an arrow and a longing for

Sawest thou ever thy friend asleepto know how he looketh? What is usually the countenance of thy friend?

Sawest thou ever thy friend asleep? Wert thou not dismayed at thy friend looking so? O my friend, man is

In divining and keeping silence shall the friend be a master: not everything must thou wish to see. Thy dream

Let thy pity be a divining: to know first if thy friend wanteth pity. Perhaps he loveth in thee the unmoved eye,

Let thy pity for thy friend be hid under a hard shell; thou shalt bite out a tooth upon it. Thus will it have

Art thou pure air and solitude and bread and medicine to thy friend? Many a one cannot loosen his own

Art thou a slave? Then thou canst not be a friend. Art thou a tyrant? Then thou canst not have friends.

Far too long hath there been a slave and a tyrant concealed in woman. On that account woman is not yet

In woman's love there is injustice and blindness to all she doth not love. And even in woman's conscious

love, there is still always surprise and lightning and night, along with the light.

As yet woman is not capable of friendship: women are still cats, and birds. Or at the best, cows.

As yet woman is not capable of friendship. But tell me, ye men, who of you are capable of friendship?

Oh! your poverty, ye men, and your sordidness of soul! As much as ye give to your friend, will I give even to

Many lands saw Zarathustra, and many peoples: thus he discovered the good and bad of many peoples. No

No people could live without first valuing; if a people will maintain itself, however, it must not value as its

Much that passed for good with one people was regarded with scorn and contempt by another: thus I found it.

Never did the one neighbour understand the other: ever did his soul marvel at his neighbour's delusion and

A table of excellencies hangeth over every people. Lo! it is the table of their triumphs; lo! it is the voice of

It is laudable, what they think hard; what is indispensable and hard they call good; and what relieveth in the

Whatever maketh them rule and conquer and shine, to the dismay and envy of their neighbours, they regard

Verily, my brother, if thou knewest but a people's need, its land, its sky, and its neighbour, then wouldst thou

divine the law of its surmountings, and why it climbeth up that ladder to its hope.

"Always shalt thou be the foremost and prominent above others: no one shall thy jealous soul love, except a

friend"that made the soul of a Greek thrill: thereby went he his way to greatness.

"To speak truth, and be skilful with bow and arrow"so seemed it alike pleasing and hard to the people from

"To honour father and mother, and from the root of the soul to do their will"this table of surmounting hung

"To have fidelity, and for the sake of fidelity to risk honour and blood, even in evil and dangerous

courses"teaching itself so, another people mastered itself, and thus mastering itself, became pregnant and

Verily, men have given unto themselves all their good and bad. Verily, they took it not, they found it not, it

Values did man only assign to things in order to maintain himselfhe 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

Change of valuesthat is, change of the creating ones. Always doth he destroy who hath to be a creator.

Creating ones were first of all peoples, and only in late times individuals; verily, the individual himself is still

Peoples once hung over them tables of the good. Love which would rule and love which would obey, created

Older is the pleasure in the herd than the pleasure in the ego: and as long as the good conscience is for the

Verily, the crafty ego, the loveless one, that seeketh its advantage in the advantage of manyit is not the

Loving ones, was it always, and creating ones, that created good and bad. Fire of love gloweth in the names

Many lands saw Zarathustra, and many peoples: no greater power did Zarathustra find on earth than the

Verily, a prodigy is this power of praising and blaming. Tell me, ye brethren, who will master it for me? Who

A thousand goals have there been hitherto, for a thousand peoples have there been. Only the fetter for the

thousand necks is still lacking; there is lacking the one goal. As yet humanity hath not a goal.

But pray tell me, my brethren, if the goal of humanity be still lacking, is there not also still

Ye crowd around your neighbour, and have fine words for it. But I say unto you: your neighbourlove is your

Ye flee unto your neighbour from yourselves, and would fain make a virtue thereof: but I fathom your

The THOU is older than the _I_; the THOU hath been consecrated, but not yet the _I_: so man presseth nigh

Do I advise you to neighbourlove? Rather do I advise you to neighbourflight 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

The phantom that runneth on before thee, my brother, is fairer than thou; why dost thou not give unto it thy

Ye cannot endure it with yourselves, and do not love yourselves sufficiently: so ye seek to mislead your

Would that ye could not endure it with any kind of near ones, or their neighbours; then would ye have to

Ye call in a witness when ye want to speak well of yourselves; and when ye have misled him to think well of

Not only doth he lie, who speaketh contrary to his knowledge, but more so, he who speaketh contrary to his

ignorance. And thus speak ye of yourselves in your intercourse, and belie your neighbour with yourselves.

Thus saith the fool: "Association with men spoileth the character, especially when one hath none."

The one goeth to his neighbour because he seeketh himself, and the other because he would fain lose himself.

The furthest ones are they who pay for your love to the near ones; and when there are but five of you

I love not your festivals either: too many actors found I there, and even the spectators often behaved like

Not the neighbour do I teach you, but the friend. Let the friend be the festival of the earth to you, and a

I teach you the friend and his overflowing heart. But one must know how to be a sponge, if one would be

I teach you the friend in whom the world standeth complete, a capsule of the good,the creating friend, who

And as the world unrolled itself for him, so rolleth it together again for him in rings, as the growth of good

Let the future and the furthest be the motive of thy today; in thy friend shalt thou love the Superman as thy

Wouldst thou go into isolation, my brother? Wouldst thou seek the way unto thyself? Tarry yet a little and

"He who seeketh may easily get lost himself. All isolation is wrong": so say the herd. And long didst thou

The voice of the herd will still echo in thee. And when thou sayest, "I have no longer a conscience in

Lo, that pain itself did the same conscience produce; and the last gleam of that conscience still gloweth on

But thou wouldst go the way of thine affliction, which is the way unto thyself? Then show me thine authority

Art thou a new strength and a new authority? A first motion? A selfrolling wheel? Canst thou also compel

Alas! there is so much lusting for loftiness! There are so many convulsions of the ambitions! Show me that

Alas! there are so many great thoughts that do nothing more than the bellows: they inflate, and make emptier

Free, dost thou call thyself? Thy ruling thought would I hear of, and not that thou hast escaped from a yoke.

Art thou one ENTITLED to escape from a yoke? Many a one hath cast away his final worth when he hath

Free from what? What doth that matter to Zarathustra! Clearly, however, shall thine eye show unto me: free

Canst thou give unto thyself thy bad and thy good, and set up thy will as a law over thee? Canst thou be judge

Terrible is aloneness with the judge and avenger of one's own law. Thus is a star projected into desert space,

Today sufferest thou still from the multitude, thou individual; today hast thou still thy courage unabated,

But one day will the solitude weary thee; one day will thy pride yield, and thy courage quail. Thou wilt one

One day wilt thou see no longer thy loftiness, and see too closely thy lowliness; thy sublimity itself will

There are feelings which seek to slay the lonesome one; if they do not succeed, then must they themselves

Hast thou ever known, my brother, the word "disdain"? And the anguish of thy justice in being just to those

Thou forcest many to think differently about thee; that, charge they heavily to thine account. Thou camest

Thou goest beyond them: but the higher thou risest, the smaller doth the eye of envy see thee. Most of all,

"How could ye be just unto me!"must thou say"I choose your injustice as my allotted portion."

Injustice and filth cast they at the lonesome one: but, my brother, if thou wouldst be a star, thou must shine

And be on thy guard against the good and just! They would fain crucify those who devise their own

Be on thy guard, also, against holy simplicity! All is unholy to it that is not simple; fain, likewise, would it

And be on thy guard, also, against the assaults of thy love! Too readily doth the recluse reach his hand to any

To many a one mayest thou not give thy hand, but only thy paw; and I wish thy paw also to have claws.

But the worst enemy thou canst meet, wilt thou thyself always be; thou waylayest thyself in caverns and

Thou lonesome one, thou goest the way to thyself! And past thyself and thy seven devils leadeth thy way!

A heretic wilt thou be to thyself, and a wizard and a soothsayer, and a fool, and a doubter, and a reprobate,

Ready must thou be to burn thyself in thine own flame; how couldst thou become new if thou have not first

Thou lonesome one, thou goest the way of the creating one: a God wilt thou create for thyself out of thy

Thou lonesome one, thou goest the way of the loving one: thou lovest thyself, and on that account despisest

To create, desireth the loving one, because he despiseth! What knoweth he of love who hath not been obliged

With thy love, go into thine isolation, my brother, and with thy creating; and late only will justice limp after

With my tears, go into thine isolation, my brother. I love him who seeketh to create beyond himself, and thus

"Why stealest thou along so furtively in the twilight, Zarathustra? And what hidest thou so carefully under

Is it a treasure that hath been given thee? Or a child that hath been born thee? Or goest thou thyself on a

Verily, my brother, said Zarathustra, it is a treasure that hath been given me: it is a little truth which I carry.

But it is naughty, like a young child; and if I hold not its mouth, it screameth too loudly.

As I went on my way alone today, at the hour when the sun declineth, there met me an old woman, and she

"Much hath Zarathustra spoken also to us women, but never spake he unto us concerning woman."

"Talk also unto me of woman," said she; "I am old enough to forget it presently."

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

Man shall be trained for war, and woman for the recreation of the warrior: all else is folly.

Too sweet fruitsthese the warrior liketh not. Therefore liketh he woman;bitter is even the sweetest

Better than man doth woman understand children, but man is more childish than woman.

In the true man there is a child hidden: it wanteth to play. Up then, ye women, and discover the child in man!

A plaything let woman be, pure and fine like the precious stone, illumined with the virtues of a world not yet

Let the beam of a star shine in your love! Let your hope say: "May I bear the Superman!"

In your love let there be valour! With your love shall ye assail him who inspireth you with fear!

In your love be your honour! Little doth woman understand otherwise about honour. But let this be your

Let man fear woman when she loveth: then maketh she every sacrifice, and everything else she regardeth as

Let man fear woman when she hateth: for man in his innermost soul is merely evil; woman, however, is

Whom hateth woman most?Thus spake the iron to the loadstone: "I hate thee most, because thou attractest,

"Lo! now hath the world become perfect!"thus thinketh every woman when she obeyeth with all her love.

Obey, must the woman, and find a depth for her surface. Surface, is woman's soul, a mobile, stormy film on

Man's soul, however, is deep, its current gusheth in subterranean caverns: woman surmiseth its force, but

Then answered me the old woman: "Many fine things hath Zarathustra said, especially for those who are

Strange! Zarathustra knoweth little about woman, and yet he is right about them! Doth this happen, because

Swaddle it up and hold its mouth: otherwise it will scream too loudly, the little truth."

One day had Zarathustra fallen asleep under a figtree, owing to the heat, with his arms over his face. And

there came an adder and bit him in the neck, so that Zarathustra screamed with pain. When he had taken his

arm from his face he looked at the serpent; and then did it recognise the eyes of Zarathustra, wriggled

awkwardly, and tried to get away. "Not at all," said Zarathustra, "as yet hast thou not received my thanks!

Thou hast awakened me in time; my journey is yet long." "Thy journey is short," said the adder sadly; "my

poison is fatal." Zarathustra smiled. "When did ever a dragon die of a serpent's poison?"said he. "But take

thy poison back! Thou art not rich enough to present it to me." Then fell the adder again on his neck, and

When Zarathustra once told this to his disciples they asked him: "And what, O Zarathustra, is the moral of

When, however, ye have an enemy, then return him not good for evil: for that would abash him. But prove

And rather be angry than abash any one! And when ye are cursed, it pleaseth me not that ye should then

And should a great injustice befall you, then do quickly five small ones besides. Hideous to behold is he on

Did ye ever know this? Shared injustice is half justice. And he who can bear it, shall take the injustice upon

A small revenge is humaner than no revenge at all. And if the punishment be not also a right and an honour to

Nobler is it to own oneself in the wrong than to establish one's right, especially if one be in the right. Only,

I do not like your cold justice; out of the eye of your judges there always glanceth the executioner and his

Devise me, then, the love which not only beareth all punishment, but also all guilt!

And would ye hear this likewise? To him who seeketh to be just from the heart, even the lie becometh

But how could I be just from the heart! How can I give every one his own! Let this be enough for me: I give

Finally, my brethren, guard against doing wrong to any anchorite. How could an anchorite forget! How could

Like a deep well is an anchorite. Easy is it to throw in a stone: if it should sink to the bottom, however, tell

Guard against injuring the anchorite! If ye have done so, however, well then, kill him also!

I have a question for thee alone, my brother: like a soundinglead, cast I this question into thy soul, that I

Thou art young, and desirest child and marriage. But I ask thee: Art thou a man ENTITLED to desire a child?

Art thou the victorious one, the selfconqueror, the ruler of thy passions, the master of thy virtues? Thus do I

Or doth the animal speak in thy wish, and necessity? Or isolation? Or discord in thee?

I would have thy victory and freedom long for a child. Living monuments shalt thou build to thy victory and

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

A higher body shalt thou create, a first movement, a spontaneously rolling wheela creating one shalt thou

Marriage: so call I the will of the twain to create the one that is more than those who created it. The reverence

Let this be the significance and the truth of thy marriage. But that which the manytoomany call marriage,

Ah, the poverty of soul in the twain! Ah, the filth of soul in the twain! Ah, the pitiable selfcomplacency in

Well, I do not like it, that heaven of the superfluous! No, I do not like them, those animals tangled in the

Far from me also be the God who limpeth thither to bless what he hath not matched!

Laugh not at such marriages! What child hath not had reason to weep over its parents?

Worthy did this man seem, and ripe for the meaning of the earth: but when I saw his wife, the earth seemed to

Yea, I would that the earth shook with convulsions when a saint and a goose mate with one another.

This one went forth in quest of truth as a hero, and at last got for himself a small deckedup lie: his marriage

That one was reserved in intercourse and chose choicely. But one time he spoilt his company for all time: his

Another sought a handmaid with the virtues of an angel. But all at once he became the handmaid of a woman,

Careful, have I found all buyers, and all of them have astute eyes. But even the astutest of them buyeth his

Many short folliesthat is called love by you. And your marriage putteth an end to many short follies, with

Your love to woman, and woman's love to manah, would that it were sympathy for suffering and veiled

But even your best love is only an enraptured simile and a painful ardour. It is a torch to light you to loftier

Beyond yourselves shall ye love some day! Then LEARN first of all to love. And on that account ye had to

Bitterness is in the cup even of the best love: thus doth it cause longing for the Superman; thus doth it cause

Thirst in the creating one, arrow and longing for the Superman: tell me, my brother, is this thy will to

Many die too late, and some die too early. Yet strange soundeth the precept: "Die at the right time!

To be sure, he who never liveth at the right time, how could he ever die at the right time? Would that he

But even the superfluous ones make much ado about their death, and even the hollowest nut wanteth to be

Every one regardeth dying as a great matter: but as yet death is not a festival. Not yet have people learned to

The consummating death I show unto you, which becometh a stimulus and promise to the living.

His death, dieth the consummating one triumphantly, surrounded by hoping and promising ones.

Thus should one learn to die; and there should be no festival at which such a dying one doth not consecrate

Thus to die is best; the next best, however, is to die in battle, and sacrifice a great soul.

But to the fighter equally hateful as to the victor, is your grinning death which stealeth nigh like a thief,and

My death, praise I unto you, the voluntary death, which cometh unto me because _I_ want it.

And when shall I want it?He that hath a goal and an heir, wanteth death at the right time for the goal and

And out of reverence for the goal and the heir, he will hang up no more withered wreaths in the sanctuary of

Verily, not the ropemakers will I resemble: they lengthen out their cord, and thereby go ever backward.

Many a one, also, waxeth too old for his truths and triumphs; a toothless mouth hath no longer the right to

And whoever wanteth to have fame, must take leave of honour betimes, and practise the difficult art

One must discontinue being feasted upon when one tasteth best: that is known by those who want to be long

Sour apples are there, no doubt, whose lot is to wait until the last day of autumn: and at the same time they

In some ageth the heart first, and in others the spirit. And some are hoary in youth, but the late young keep

To many men life is a failure; a poisonworm gnaweth at their heart. Then let them see to it that their dying

Many never become sweet; they rot even in the summer. It is cowardice that holdeth them fast to their

Far too many live, and far too long hang they on their branches. Would that a storm came and shook all this

Would that there came preachers of SPEEDY death! Those would be the appropriate storms and agitators of

the trees of life! But I hear only slow death preached, and patience with all that is "earthly."

Ah! ye preach patience with what is earthly? This earthly is it that hath too much patience with you, ye

Verily, too early died that Hebrew whom the preachers of slow death honour: and to many hath it proved a

As yet had he known only tears, and the melancholy of the Hebrews, together with the hatred of the good and

Had he but remained in the wilderness, and far from the good and just! Then, perhaps, would he have learned

Believe it, my brethren! He died too early; he himself would have disavowed his doctrine had he attained to

But he was still immature. Immaturely loveth the youth, and immaturely also hateth he man and earth.

But in man there is more of the child than in the youth, and less of melancholy: better understandeth he about

Free for death, and free in death; a holy Naysayer, when there is no longer time for Yea: thus understandeth

That your dying may not be a reproach to man and the earth, my friends: that do I solicit from the honey of

In your dying shall your spirit and your virtue still shine like an evening afterglow around the earth:

Thus will I die myself, that ye friends may love the earth more for my sake; and earth will I again become, to

Verily, a goal had Zarathustra; he threw his ball. Now be ye friends the heirs of my goal; to you throw I the

Best of all, do I see you, my friends, throw the golden ball! And so tarry I still a little while on the

When Zarathustra had taken leave of the town to which his heart was attached, the name of which is "The

Pied Cow," there followed him many people who called themselves his disciples, and kept him company.

Thus came they to a crossroad. Then Zarathustra told them that he now wanted to go alone; for he was fond

of going alone. His disciples, however, presented him at his departure with a staff, on the golden handle of

which a serpent twined round the sun. Zarathustra rejoiced on account of the staff, and supported himself

Tell me, pray: how came gold to the highest value? Because it is uncommon, and unprofiting, and beaming,

Only as image of the highest virtue came gold to the highest value. Goldlike, beameth the glance of the

Uncommon is the highest virtue, and unprofiting, beaming is it, and soft of lustre: a bestowing virtue is the

Verily, I divine you well, my disciples: ye strive like me for the bestowing virtue. What should ye have in

It is your thirst to become sacrifices and gifts yourselves: and therefore have ye the thirst to accumulate all

Insatiably striveth your soul for treasures and jewels, because your virtue is insatiable in desiring to bestow.

Ye constrain all things to flow towards you and into you, so that they shall flow back again out of your

Verily, an appropriator of all values must such bestowing love become; but healthy and holy, call I this

Another selfishness is there, an alltoopoor and hungry kind, which would always stealthe selfishness of

With the eye of the thief it looketh upon all that is lustrous; with the craving of hunger it measureth him who

Sickness speaketh in such craving, and invisible degeneration; of a sickly body, speaketh the larcenous

Tell me, my brother, what do we think bad, and worst of all? Is it not DEGENERATION?And we always

Upward goeth our course from genera on to supergenera. But a horror to us is the degenerating sense, which

Upward soareth our sense: thus is it a simile of our body, a simile of an elevation. Such similes of elevations

Thus goeth the body through history, a becomer and fighter. And the spiritwhat is it to the body? Its fights'

Similes, are all names of good and evil; they do not speak out, they only hint. A fool who seeketh knowledge

Give heed, my brethren, to every hour when your spirit would speak in similes: there is the origin of your

Elevated is then your body, and raised up; with its delight, enraptureth it the spirit; so that it becometh

When your heart overfloweth broad and full like the river, a blessing and a danger to the lowlanders: there is

When ye are exalted above praise and blame, and your will would command all things, as a loving one's will:

When ye despise pleasant things, and the effeminate couch, and cannot couch far enough from the

When ye are willers of one will, and when that change of every need is needful to you: there is the origin of

Verily, a new good and evil is it! Verily, a new deep murmuring, and the voice of a new fountain!

Power is it, this new virtue; a ruling thought is it, and around it a subtle soul: a golden sun, with the serpent of

Here paused Zarathustra awhile, and looked lovingly on his disciples. Then he continued to speak thusand

Remain true to the earth, my brethren, with the power of your virtue! Let your bestowing love and your

knowledge be devoted to be the meaning of the earth! Thus do I pray and conjure you.

Let it not fly away from the earthly and beat against eternal walls with its wings! Ah, there hath always been

Lead, like me, the flownaway virtue back to the earthyea, back to body and life: that it may give to the

A hundred times hitherto hath spirit as well as virtue flown away and blundered. Alas! in our body dwelleth

A hundred times hitherto hath spirit as well as virtue attempted and erred. Yea, an attempt hath man been.

Not only the rationality of millenniumsalso their madness, breaketh out in us. Dangerous is it to be an heir.

Still fight we step by step with the giant Chance, and over all mankind hath hitherto ruled nonsense, the

Let your spirit and your virtue be devoted to the sense of the earth, my brethren: let the value of everything be

determined anew by you! Therefore shall ye be fighters! Therefore shall ye be creators!

Intelligently doth the body purify itself; attempting with intelligence it exalteth itself; to the discerners all

Physician, heal thyself: then wilt thou also heal thy patient. Let it be his best cure to see with his eyes him

A thousand paths are there which have never yet been trodden; a thousand salubrities and hidden islands of

Awake and hearken, ye lonesome ones! From the future come winds with stealthy pinions, and to fine ears

Ye lonesome ones of today, ye seceding ones, ye shall one day be a people: out of you who have chosen

Verily, a place of healing shall the earth become! And already is a new odour diffused around it, a

When Zarathustra had spoken these words, he paused, like one who had not said his last word; and long did

he balance the staff doubtfully in his hand. At last he spake thusand his voice had changed:

I now go alone, my disciples! Ye also now go away, and alone! So will I have it.

Verily, I advise you: depart from me, and guard yourselves against Zarathustra! And better still: be ashamed

The man of knowledge must be able not only to love his enemies, but also to hate his friends.

One requiteth a teacher badly if one remain merely a scholar. And why will ye not pluck at my wreath?

Ye venerate me; but what if your veneration should some day collapse? Take heed lest a statue crush you!

Ye say, ye believe in Zarathustra? But of what account is Zarathustra! Ye are my believers: but of what

Ye had not yet sought yourselves: then did ye find me. So do all believers; therefore all belief is of so little

Now do I bid you lose me and find yourselves; and only when ye have all denied me, will I return unto you.

Verily, with other eyes, my brethren, shall I then seek my lost ones; with another love shall I then love you.

And once again shall ye have become friends unto me, and children of one hope: then will I be with you for

And it is the great noontide, when man is in the middle of his course between animal and Superman, and

celebrateth his advance to the evening as his highest hope: for it is the advance to a new morning.

At such time will the downgoer bless himself, that he should be an overgoer; and the sun of his knowledge

Verily, with other eyes, my brethren, shall I then seek my lost ones; with another love shall I then love

After this Zarathustra returned again into the mountains to the solitude of his cave, and withdrew himself

from men, waiting like a sower who hath scattered his seed. His soul, however, became impatient and full of

longing for those whom he loved: because he had still much to give them. For this is hardest of all: to close

Thus passed with the lonesome one months and years; his wisdom meanwhile increased, and caused him pain

One morning, however, he awoke ere the rosy dawn, and having meditated long on his couch, at last spake

Why did I startle in my dream, so that I awoke? Did not a child come to me, carrying a mirror?

But when I looked into the mirror, I shrieked, and my heart throbbed: for not myself did I see therein, but a

Verily, all too well do I understand the dream's portent and monition: my DOCTRINE is in danger; tares

Mine enemies have grown powerful and have disfigured the likeness of my doctrine, so that my dearest ones

With these words Zarathustra started up, not however like a person in anguish seeking relief, but rather like a

seer and a singer whom the spirit inspireth. With amazement did his eagle and serpent gaze upon him: for a

What hath happened unto me, mine animals?said Zarathustra. Am I not transformed? Hath not bliss come

Foolish is my happiness, and foolish things will it speak: it is still too youngso have patience with it!

To my friends can I again go down, and also to mine enemies! Zarathustra can again speak and bestow, and

My impatient love overfloweth in streams,down towards sunrise and sunset. Out of silent mountains and

Too long have I longed and looked into the distance. Too long hath solitude possessed me: thus have I

Utterance have I become altogether, and the brawling of a brook from high rocks: downward into the valleys

And let the stream of my love sweep into unfrequented channels! How should a stream not finally find its

Forsooth, there is a lake in me, sequestered and selfsufficing; but the stream of my love beareth this along

New paths do I tread, a new speech cometh unto me; tired have I become like all creatorsof the old

Too slowly runneth all speaking for me:into thy chariot, O storm, do I leap! And even thee will I whip

Like a cry and an huzza will I traverse wide seas, till I find the Happy Isles where my friends sojourn;

And mine enemies amongst them! How I now love every one unto whom I may but speak! Even mine

And when I want to mount my wildest horse, then doth my spear always help me up best: it is my foot's ever

The spear which I hurl at mine enemies! How grateful am I to mine enemies that I may at last hurl it!

Too great hath been the tension of my cloud: 'twixt laughters of lightnings will I cast hailshowers into the

Violently will my breast then heave; violently will it blow its storm over the mountains: thus cometh its

Verily, like a storm cometh my happiness, and my freedom! But mine enemies shall think that THE EVIL

Yea, ye also, my friends, will be alarmed by my wild wisdom; and perhaps ye will flee therefrom, along with

Ah, that I knew how to lure you back with shepherds' flutes! Ah, that my lioness wisdom would learn to roar

My wild wisdom became pregnant on the lonesome mountains; on the rough stones did she bear the youngest

Now runneth she foolishly in the arid wilderness, and seeketh and seeketh the soft swardmine old, wild

On the soft sward of your hearts, my friends!on your love, would she fain couch her dearest one!

The figs fall from the trees, they are good and sweet; and in falling the red skins of them break. A north wind

Thus, like figs, do these doctrines fall for you, my friends: imbibe now their juice and their sweet substance!

Lo, what fullness is around us! And out of the midst of superabundance, it is delightful to look out upon

Once did people say God, when they looked out upon distant seas; now, however, have I taught you to say,

God is a conjecture: but I do not wish your conjecturing to reach beyond your creating will.

Could ye CREATE a God?Then, I pray you, be silent about all Gods! But ye could well create the

Not perhaps ye yourselves, my brethren! But into fathers and forefathers of the Superman could ye transform

God is a conjecture: but I should like your conjecturing restricted to the conceivable.

Could ye CONCEIVE a God?But let this mean Will to Truth unto you, that everything be transformed into

the humanly conceivable, the humanly visible, the humanly sensible! Your own discernment shall ye follow

And what ye have called the world shall but be created by you: your reason, your likeness, your will, your

And how would ye endure life without that hope, ye discerning ones? Neither in the inconceivable could ye

But that I may reveal my heart entirely unto you, my friends: IF there were gods, how could I endure it to be

God is a conjecture: but who could drink all the bitterness of this conjecture without dying? Shall his faith be

God is a thoughtit maketh all the straight crooked, and all that standeth reel. What? Time would be gone,

To think this is giddiness and vertigo to human limbs, and even vomiting to the stomach: verily, the reeling

Evil do I call it and misanthropic: all that teaching about the one, and the plenum, and the unmoved, and the

But of time and of becoming shall the best similes speak: a praise shall they be, and a justification of all

Creatingthat is the great salvation from suffering, and life's alleviation. But for the creator to appear,

Yea, much bitter dying must there be in your life, ye creators! Thus are ye advocates and justifiers of all

For the creator himself to be the newborn child, he must also be willing to be the childbearer, and endure

Verily, through a hundred souls went I my way, and through a hundred cradles and birththroes. Many a

But so willeth it my creating Will, my fate. Or, to tell you it more candidly: just such a fatewilleth my

All FEELING suffereth in me, and is in prison: but my WILLING ever cometh to me as mine emancipator

Willing emancipateth: that is the true doctrine of will and emancipation so teacheth you Zarathustra.

No longer willing, and no longer valuing, and no longer creating! Ah, that that great debility may ever be far

And also in discerning do I feel only my will's procreating and evolving delight; and if there be innocence in

Away from God and Gods did this will allure me; what would there be to create if there wereGods!

But to man doth it ever impel me anew, my fervent creative will; thus impelleth it the hammer to the stone.

Ah, ye men, within the stone slumbereth an image for me, the image of my visions! Ah, that it should

Now rageth my hammer ruthlessly against its prison. From the stone fly the fragments: what's that to me?

I will complete it: for a shadow came unto methe stillest and lightest of all things once came unto me!

The beauty of the Superman came unto me as a shadow. Ah, my brethren! Of what account now arethe

My friends, there hath arisen a satire on your friend: "Behold Zarathustra! Walketh he not amongst us as if

But it is better said in this wise: "The discerning one walketh amongst men AS amongst animals."

How hath that happened unto him? Is it not because he hath had to be ashamed too oft?

O my friends! Thus speaketh the discerning one: shame, shame, shamethat is the history of man!

And on that account doth the noble one enjoin upon himself not to abash: bashfulness doth he enjoin on

Verily, I like them not, the merciful ones, whose bliss is in their pity: too destitute are they of bashfulness.

If I must be pitiful, I dislike to be called so; and if I be so, it is preferably at a distance.

Preferably also do I shroud my head, and flee, before being recognised: and thus do I bid you do, my friends!

May my destiny ever lead unafflicted ones like you across my path, and those with whom I MAY have hope

Verily, I have done this and that for the afflicted: but something better did I always seem to do when I had

Since humanity came into being, man hath enjoyed himself too little: that alone, my brethren, is our original

And when we learn better to enjoy ourselves, then do we unlearn best to give pain unto others, and to

Therefore do I wash the hand that hath helped the sufferer; therefore do I wipe also my soul.

For in seeing the sufferer sufferingthereof was I ashamed on account of his shame; and in helping him,

Great obligations do not make grateful, but revengeful; and when a small kindness is not forgotten, it

"Be shy in accepting! Distinguish by accepting!"thus do I advise those who have naught to bestow.

I, however, am a bestower: willingly do I bestow as friend to friends. Strangers, however, and the poor, may

Beggars, however, one should entirely do away with! Verily, it annoyeth one to give unto them, and it

And likewise sinners and bad consciences! Believe me, my friends: the sting of conscience teacheth one to

The worst things, however, are the petty thoughts. Verily, better to have done evilly than to have thought

To be sure, ye say: "The delight in petty evils spareth one many a great evil deed." But here one should not

Like a boil is the evil deed: it itcheth and irritateth and breaketh forthit speaketh honourably.

But like infection is the petty thought: it creepeth and hideth, and wanteth to be nowhereuntil the whole

To him however, who is possessed of a devil, I would whisper this word in the ear: "Better for thee to rear up

Ah, my brethren! One knoweth a little too much about every one! And many a one becometh transparent to

And not to him who is offensive to us are we most unfair, but to him who doth not concern us at all.

If, however, thou hast a suffering friend, then be a restingplace for his suffering; like a hard bed, however, a

And if a friend doeth thee wrong, then say: "I forgive thee what thou hast done unto me; that thou hast done it

One should hold fast one's heart; for when one letteth it go, how quickly doth one's head run away!

Ah, where in the world have there been greater follies than with the pitiful? And what in the world hath

Thus spake the devil unto me, once on a time: "Even God hath his hell: it is his love for man."

And lately, did I hear him say these words: "God is dead: of his pity for man hath God died."

So be ye warned against pity: FROM THENCE there yet cometh unto men a heavy cloud! Verily, I

But attend also to this word: All great love is above all its pity: for it seekethto create what is loved!

"Myself do I offer unto my love, AND MY NEIGHBOUR AS MYSELF"such is the language of all

And one day Zarathustra made a sign to his disciples, and spake these words unto them:

"Here are priests: but although they are mine enemies, pass them quietly and with sleeping swords!

Even among them there are heroes; many of them have suffered too much: so they want to make others

Bad enemies are they: nothing is more revengeful than their meekness. And readily doth he soil himself who

But my blood is related to theirs; and I want withal to see my blood honoured in theirs."

And when they had passed, a pain attacked Zarathustra; but not long had he struggled with the pain, when he

It moveth my heart for those priests. They also go against my taste; but that is the smallest matter unto me,

But I suffer and have suffered with them: prisoners are they unto me, and stigmatised ones. He whom they

In fetters of false values and fatuous words! Oh, that some one would save them from their Saviour!

On an isle they once thought they had landed, when the sea tossed them about; but behold, it was a

False values and fatuous words: these are the worst monsters for mortals long slumbereth and waiteth the

But at last it cometh and awaketh and devoureth and engulfeth whatever hath built tabernacles upon it.

Oh, just look at those tabernacles which those priests have built themselves! Churches, they call their

Oh, that falsified light, that mustified air! Where the soulmay not fly aloft to its height!

Verily, rather would I see a shameless one than the distorted eyes of their shame and devotion!

Who created for themselves such caves and penitencestairs? Was it not those who sought to conceal

And only when the clear sky looketh again through ruined roofs, and down upon grass and red poppies on

They called God that which opposed and afflicted them: and verily, there was much herospirit in their

And they knew not how to love their God otherwise than by nailing men to the cross!

As corpses they thought to live; in black draped they their corpses; even in their talk do I still feel the evil

And he who liveth nigh unto them liveth nigh unto black pools, wherein the toad singeth his song with sweet

Better songs would they have to sing, for me to believe in their Saviour: more like saved ones would his

Naked, would I like to see them: for beauty alone should preach penitence. But whom would that disguised

Verily, their Saviours themselves came not from freedom and freedom's seventh heaven! Verily, they

Of defects did the spirit of those Saviours consist; but into every defect had they put their illusion, their

In their pity was their spirit drowned; and when they swelled and o'erswelled with pity, there always floated

Eagerly and with shouts drove they their flock over their footbridge; as if there were but one footbridge to

Small spirits and spacious souls had those shepherds: but, my brethren, what small domains have even the

Characters of blood did they write on the way they went, and their folly taught that truth is proved by blood.

But blood is the very worst witness to truth; blood tainteth the purest teaching, and turneth it into delusion

And when a person goeth through fire for his teachingwhat doth that prove! It is more, verily, when out of

Sultry heart and cold head; where these meet, there ariseth the blusterer, the "Saviour."

Greater ones, verily, have there been, and higherborn ones, than those whom the people call Saviours, those

And by still greater ones than any of the Saviours must ye be saved, my brethren, if ye would find the way to

Never yet hath there been a Superman. Naked have I seen both of them, the greatest man and the smallest

Alltoosimilar are they still to each other. Verily, even the greatest found Ialltoohuman!

With thunder and heavenly fireworks must one speak to indolent and somnolent senses.

But beauty's voice speaketh gently: it appealeth only to the most awakened souls.

Gently vibrated and laughed unto me today my buckler; it was beauty's holy laughing and thrilling.

At you, ye virtuous ones, laughed my beauty today. And thus came its voice unto me: "They wantto be

Ye want to be paid besides, ye virtuous ones! Ye want reward for virtue, and heaven for earth, and eternity

And now ye upbraid me for teaching that there is no rewardgiver, nor paymaster? And verily, I do not even

Ah! this is my sorrow: into the basis of things have reward and punishment been insinuatedand now even

But like the snout of the boar shall my word grub up the basis of your souls; a ploughshare will I be called by

All the secrets of your heart shall be brought to light; and when ye lie in the sun, grubbed up and broken, then

For this is your truth: ye are TOO PURE for the filth of the words: vengeance, punishment, recompense,

Ye love your virtue as a mother loveth her child; but when did one hear of a mother wanting to be paid for

It is your dearest Self, your virtue. The ring's thirst is in you: to reach itself again struggleth every ring, and

And like the star that goeth out, so is every work of your virtue: ever is its light on its way and

Thus is the light of your virtue still on its way, even when its work is done. Be it forgotten and dead, still its

That your virtue is your Self, and not an outward thing, a skin, or a cloak: that is the truth from the basis of

But sure enough there are those to whom virtue meaneth writhing under the lash: and ye have hearkened too

And others are there who call virtue the slothfulness of their vices; and when once their hatred and jealousy

And others are there who are drawn downwards: their devils draw them. But the more they sink, the more

Ah! their crying also hath reached your ears, ye virtuous ones: "What I am NOT, that, that is God to me, and

And others are there who go along heavily and creakingly, like carts taking stones downhill: they talk much

And others are there who are like eightday clocks when wound up; they tick, and want people to call

Verily, in those have I mine amusement: wherever I find such clocks I shall wind them up with my mockery,

And others are proud of their modicum of righteousness, and for the sake of it do violence to all things: so

Ah! how ineptly cometh the word "virtue" out of their mouth! And when they say: "I am just," it always

With their virtues they want to scratch out the eyes of their enemies; and they elevate themselves only that

And again there are those who sit in their swamp, and speak thus from among the bulrushes: "Virtuethat is

We bite no one, and go out of the way of him who would bite; and in all matters we have the opinion that is

And again there are those who love attitudes, and think that virtue is a sort of attitude.

Their knees continually adore, and their hands are eulogies of virtue, but their heart knoweth naught thereof.

And again there are those who regard it as virtue to say: "Virtue is necessary"; but after all they believe only

And many a one who cannot see men's loftiness, calleth it virtue to see their baseness far too well: thus

And some want to be edified and raised up, and call it virtue: and others want to be cast down,and likewise

And thus do almost all think that they participate in virtue; and at least every one claimeth to be an authority

But Zarathustra came not to say unto all those liars and fools: "What do YE know of virtue! What COULD ye

But that ye, my friends, might become weary of the old words which ye have learned from the fools and liars:

That ye might become weary of the words "reward," "retribution," "punishment," "righteous vengeance."

That ye might become weary of saying: "That an action is good is because it is unselfish."

Ah! my friends! That YOUR very Self be in your action, as the mother is in the child: let that be YOUR

Verily, I have taken from you a hundred formulae and your virtue's favourite playthings; and now ye upbraid

They played by the seathen came there a wave and swept their playthings into the deep: and now do they

But the same wave shall bring them new playthings, and spread before them new speckled shells!

Thus will they be comforted; and like them shall ye also, my friends, have your comfortingand new

Life is a well of delight; but where the rabble also drink, there all fountains are poisoned.

To everything cleanly am I well disposed; but I hate to see the grinning mouths and the thirst of the unclean.

They cast their eye down into the fountain: and now glanceth up to me their odious smile out of the fountain.

The holy water have they poisoned with their lustfulness; and when they called their filthy dreams delight,

Indignant becometh the flame when they put their damp hearts to the fire; the spirit itself bubbleth and

Mawkish and overmellow becometh the fruit in their hands: unsteady, and withered at the top, doth their

And many a one who hath turned away from life, hath only turned away from the rabble: he hated to share

And many a one who hath gone into the wilderness and suffered thirst with beasts of prey, disliked only to sit

And many a one who hath come along as a destroyer, and as a hailstorm to all cornfields, wanted merely to

And it is not the mouthful which hath most choked me, to know that life itself requireth enmity and death and

But I asked once, and suffocated almost with my question: What? is the rabble also NECESSARY for life?

Are poisoned fountains necessary, and stinking fires, and filthy dreams, and maggots in the bread of life?

Not my hatred, but my loathing, gnawed hungrily at my life! Ah, ofttimes became I weary of spirit, when I

And on the rulers turned I my back, when I saw what they now call ruling: to traffic and bargain for

Amongst peoples of a strange language did I dwell, with stopped ears: so that the language of their trafficking

And holding my nose, I went morosely through all yesterdays and todays: verily, badly smell all yesterdays

Like a cripple become deaf, and blind, and dumbthus have I lived long; that I might not live with the

Toilsomely did my spirit mount stairs, and cautiously; alms of delight were its refreshment; on the staff did

What hath happened unto me? How have I freed myself from loathing? Who hath rejuvenated mine eye?

Did my loathing itself create for me wings and fountaindivining powers? Verily, to the loftiest height had I

Oh, I have found it, my brethren! Here on the loftiest height bubbleth up for me the well of delight! And there

Almost too violently dost thou flow for me, thou fountain of delight! And often emptiest thou the goblet

And yet must I learn to approach thee more modestly: far too violently doth my heart still flow towards

My heart on which my summer burneth, my short, hot, melancholy, overhappy summer: how my summer

Past, the lingering distress of my spring! Past, the wickedness of my snowflakes in June! Summer have I

A summer on the loftiest height, with cold fountains and blissful stillness: oh, come, my friends, that the

For this is OUR height and our home: too high and steep do we here dwell for all uncleanly ones and their

Cast but your pure eyes into the well of my delight, my friends! How could it become turbid thereby! It shall

On the tree of the future build we our nest; eagles shall bring us lone ones food in their beaks!

Verily, no food of which the impure could be fellowpartakers! Fire, would they think they devoured, and

Verily, no abodes do we here keep ready for the impure! An icecave to their bodies would our happiness be,

And as strong winds will we live above them, neighbours to the eagles, neighbours to the snow, neighbours

And like a wind will I one day blow amongst them, and with my spirit, take the breath from their spirit: thus

Verily, a strong wind is Zarathustra to all low places; and this counsel counselleth he to his enemies, and to

Lo, this is the tarantula's den! Would'st thou see the tarantula itself? Here hangeth its web: touch this, so that

There cometh the tarantula willingly: Welcome, tarantula! Black on thy back is thy triangle and symbol; and I

Revenge is in thy soul: wherever thou bitest, there ariseth black scab; with revenge, thy poison maketh the

Thus do I speak unto you in parable, ye who make the soul giddy, ye preachers of EQUALITY! Tarantulas

But I will soon bring your hidingplaces to the light: therefore do I laugh in your face my laughter of the

Therefore do I tear at your web, that your rage may lure you out of your den of lies, and that your revenge

Because, FOR MAN TO BE REDEEMED FROM REVENGEthat is for me the bridge to the highest hope,

Otherwise, however, would the tarantulas have it. "Let it be very justice for the world to become full of the

"Vengeance will we use, and insult, against all who are not like us"thus do the tarantulahearts pledge

"And 'Will to Equality'that itself shall henceforth be the name of virtue; and against all that hath power

Ye preachers of equality, the tyrantfrenzy of impotence crieth thus in you for "equality": your most secret

Fretted conceit and suppressed envyperhaps your fathers' conceit and envy: in you break they forth as

What the father hath hid cometh out in the son; and oft have I found in the son the father's revealed secret.

Inspired ones they resemble: but it is not the heart that inspireth them but vengeance. And when they

Their jealousy leadeth them also into thinkers' paths; and this is the sign of their jealousythey always go

In all their lamentations soundeth vengeance, in all their eulogies is maleficence; and being judge seemeth to

But thus do I counsel you, my friends: distrust all in whom the impulse to punish is powerful!

They are people of bad race and lineage; out of their countenances peer the hangman and the sleuthhound.

Distrust all those who talk much of their justice! Verily, in their souls not only honey is lacking.

And when they call themselves "the good and just," forget not, that for them to be Pharisees, nothing is

There are those who preach my doctrine of life, and are at the same time preachers of equality, and tarantulas.

That they speak in favour of life, though they sit in their den, these poisonspiders, and withdrawn from

To those would they thereby do injury who have power at present: for with those the preaching of death is

Were it otherwise, then would the tarantulas teach otherwise: and they themselves were formerly the best

With these preachers of equality will I not be mixed up and confounded. For thus speaketh justice UNTO

And neither shall they become so! What would be my love to the Superman, if I spake otherwise?

On a thousand bridges and piers shall they throng to the future, and always shall there be more war and

Inventors of figures and phantoms shall they be in their hostilities; and with those figures and phantoms shall

Good and evil, and rich and poor, and high and low, and all names of values: weapons shall they be, and

Aloft will it build itself with columns and stairslife itself: into remote distances would it gaze, and out

And because it requireth elevation, therefore doth it require steps, and variance of steps and climbers! To rise

And just behold, my friends! Here where the tarantula's den is, riseth aloft an ancient temple's ruinsjust

Verily, he who here towered aloft his thoughts in stone, knew as well as the wisest ones about the secret of

That there is struggle and inequality even in beauty, and war for power and supremacy: that doth he here

How divinely do vault and arch here contrast in the struggle: how with light and shade they strive against

Thus, steadfast and beautiful, let us also be enemies, my friends! Divinely will we strive AGAINST one

Alas! There hath the tarantula bit me myself, mine old enemy! Divinely steadfast and beautiful, it hath bit me

"Punishment must there be, and justice"so thinketh it: "not gratuitously shall he here sing songs in honour

Yea, it hath revenged itself! And alas! now will it make my soul also dizzy with revenge!

That I may NOT turn dizzy, however, bind me fast, my friends, to this pillar! Rather will I be a pillarsaint

Verily, no cyclone or whirlwind is Zarathustra: and if he be a dancer, he is not at all a tarantuladancer!

The people have ye served and the people's superstitionNOT the truth! all ye famous wise ones! And

And on that account also did they tolerate your unbelief, because it was a pleasantry and a bypath 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 dogsis the free spirit, the enemy of fetters, the

To hunt him out of his lairthat was always called "sense of right" by the people: on him do they still hound

"For there the truth is, where the people are! Woe, woe to the seeking ones!"thus hath it echoed through all

Your people would ye justify in their reverence: that called ye "Will to Truth," ye famous wise ones!

And your heart hath always said to itself: "From the people have I come: from thence came to me also the

Stiffnecked and artful, like the ass, have ye always been, as the advocates of the people.

And many a powerful one who wanted to run well with the people, hath harnessed in front of his horsesa

And now, ye famous wise ones, I would have you finally throw off entirely the skin of the lion!

The skin of the beast of prey, the speckled skin, and the dishevelled locks of the investigator, the searcher,

Ah! for me to learn to believe in your "conscientiousness," ye would first have to break your venerating will.

Conscientiousso call I him who goeth into Godforsaken wildernesses, and hath broken his venerating

In the yellow sands and burnt by the sun, he doubtless peereth thirstily at the isles rich in fountains, where life

But his thirst doth not persuade him to become like those comfortable ones: for where there are oases, there

Free from the happiness of slaves, redeemed from Deities and adorations, fearless and fearinspiring, grand

In the wilderness have ever dwelt the conscientious, the free spirits, as lords of the wilderness; but in the

Not that I on that account upbraid them: but serving ones do they remain, and harnessed ones, even though

And often have they been good servants and worthy of their hire. For thus saith virtue: "If thou must be a

The spirit and virtue of thy master shall advance by thou being his servant: thus wilt thou thyself advance

And verily, ye famous wise ones, ye servants of the people! Ye yourselves have advanced with the people's

But the people ye remain for me, even with your virtues, the people with purblind eyesthe people who

Spirit is life which itself cutteth into life: by its own torture doth it increase its own knowledge,did ye

And the spirit's happiness is this: to be anointed and consecrated with tears as a sacrificial victim,did ye

And the blindness of the blind one, and his seeking and groping, shall yet testify to the power of the sun into

And with mountains shall the discerning one learn to BUILD! It is a small thing for the spirit to remove

Ye know only the sparks of the spirit: but ye do not see the anvil which it is, and the cruelty of its hammer!

Verily, ye know not the spirit's pride! But still less could ye endure the spirit's humility, should it ever want to

And never yet could ye cast your spirit into a pit of snow: ye are not hot enough for that! Thus are ye

In all respects, however, ye make too familiar with the spirit; and out of wisdom have ye often made an

Ye are not eagles: thus have ye never experienced the happiness of the alarm of the spirit. And he who is not

Ye seem to me lukewarm ones: but coldly floweth all deep knowledge. Icecold are the innermost wells of the

Respectable do ye there stand, and stiff, and with straight backs, ye famous wise ones!no strong wind or

Have ye ne'er seen a sail crossing the sea, rounded and inflated, and trembling with the violence of the wind?

Like the sail trembling with the violence of the spirit, doth my wisdom cross the seamy wild wisdom!

'Tis night: now do all gushing fountains speak louder. And my soul also is a gushing fountain.

'Tis night: now only do all songs of the loving ones awake. And my soul also is the song of a loving one.

Something unappeased, unappeasable, is within me; it longeth to find expression. A craving for love is within

Light am I: ah, that I were night! But it is my lonesomeness to be begirt with light!

And you yourselves would I bless, ye twinkling starlets and glowworms aloft!and would rejoice in the

But I live in mine own light, I drink again into myself the flames that break forth from me.

I know not the happiness of the receiver; and oft have I dreamt that stealing must be more blessed than

It is my poverty that my hand never ceaseth bestowing; it is mine envy that I see waiting eyes and the

Oh, the misery of all bestowers! Oh, the darkening of my sun! Oh, the craving to crave! Oh, the violent

They take from me: but do I yet touch their soul? There is a gap 'twixt giving and receiving; and the smallest

A hunger ariseth out of my beauty: I should like to injure those I illumine; I should like to rob those I have

Withdrawing my hand when another hand already stretcheth out to it; hesitating like the cascade, which

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

Mine eye no longer overfloweth for the shame of suppliants; my hand hath become too hard for the trembling

Whence have gone the tears of mine eye, and the down of my heart? Oh, the lonesomeness of all bestowers!

Many suns circle in desert space: to all that is dark do they speak with their lightbut to me they are silent.

Oh, this is the hostility of light to the shining one: unpityingly doth it pursue its course.

Unfair to the shining one in its innermost heart, cold to the suns:thus travelleth every sun.

Like a storm do the suns pursue their courses: that is their travelling. Their inexorable will do they follow:

Oh, ye only is it, ye dark, nightly ones, that extract warmth from the shining ones! Oh, ye only drink milk and

Ah, there is ice around me; my hand burneth with the iciness! Ah, there is thirst in me; it panteth after your

'Tis night: alas, that I have to be light! And thirst for the nightly! And lonesomeness!

'Tis night: now doth my longing break forth in me as a fountain,for speech do I long.

'Tis night: now do all gushing fountains speak louder. And my soul also is a gushing fountain.

'Tis night: now do all songs of loving ones awake. And my soul also is the song of a loving one.

One evening went Zarathustra and his disciples through the forest; and when he sought for a well, lo, he

lighted upon a green meadow peacefully surrounded with trees and bushes, where maidens were dancing

together. As soon as the maidens recognised Zarathustra, they ceased dancing; Zarathustra, however,

Cease not your dancing, ye lovely maidens! No gamespoiler hath come to you with evil eye, no enemy of

God's advocate am I with the devil: he, however, is the spirit of gravity. How could I, ye lightfooted ones,

To be sure, I am a forest, and a night of dark trees: but he who is not afraid of my darkness, will find banks

And even the little God may he find, who is dearest to maidens: beside the well lieth he quietly, with closed

Verily, in broad daylight did he fall asleep, the sluggard! Had he perhaps chased butterflies too much?

Upbraid me not, ye beautiful dancers, when I chasten the little God somewhat! He will cry, certainly, and

And with tears in his eyes shall he ask you for a dance; and I myself will sing a song to his dance:

A dancesong and satire on the spirit of gravity my supremest, powerfulest devil, who is said to be "lord of

And this is the song that Zarathustra sang when Cupid and the maidens danced together:

Of late did I gaze into thine eye, O Life! And into the unfathomable did I there seem to sink.

But thou pulledst me out with a golden angle; derisively didst thou laugh when I called thee unfathomable.

"Such is the language of all fish," saidst thou; "what THEY do not fathom is unfathomable.

But changeable am I only, and wild, and altogether a woman, and no virtuous one:

Though I be called by you men the 'profound one,' or the 'faithful one,' 'the eternal one,' 'the mysterious one.'

Thus did she laugh, the unbelievable one; but never do I believe her and her laughter, when she speaketh evil

And when I talked face to face with my wild Wisdom, she said to me angrily: "Thou willest, thou cravest,

Then had I almost answered indignantly and told the truth to the angry one; and one cannot answer more

For thus do things stand with us three. In my heart do I love only Life and verily, most when I hate her!

But that I am fond of Wisdom, and often too fond, is because she remindeth me very strongly of Life!

She hath her eye, her laugh, and even her golden anglerod: am I responsible for it that both are so alike?

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.

Changeable is she, and wayward; often have I seen her bite her lip, and pass the comb against the grain of her

Perhaps she is wicked and false, and altogether a woman; but when she speaketh ill of herself, just then doth

When I had said this unto Life, then laughed she maliciously, and shut her eyes. "Of whom dost thou speak?"

And if thou wert rightis it proper to say THAT in such wise to my face! But now, pray, speak also of thy

Ah, and now hast thou again opened thine eyes, O beloved Life! And into the unfathomable have I again

Thus sang Zarathustra. But when the dance was over and the maidens had departed, he became sad.

"The sun hath been long set," said he at last, "the meadow is damp, and from the forest cometh coolness.

An unknown presence is about me, and gazeth thoughtfully. What! Thou livest still, Zarathustra?

Ah, my friends; the evening is it which thus interrogateth in me. Forgive me my sadness!

"Yonder is the graveisland, the silent isle; yonder also are the graves of my youth. Thither will I carry an

Oh, ye sights and scenes of my youth! Oh, all ye gleams of love, ye divine fleeting gleams! How could ye

From you, my dearest dead ones, cometh unto me a sweet savour, heartopening and melting. Verily, it

Still am I the richest and most to be enviedI, the lonesomest one! For I HAVE POSSESSED you, and ye

possess me still. Tell me: to whom hath there ever fallen such rosy apples from the tree as have fallen unto

Still am I your love's heir and heritage, blooming to your memory with manyhued, wildgrowing virtues, O

Ah, we were made to remain nigh unto each other, ye kindly strange marvels; and not like timid birds did ye

Yea, made for faithfulness, like me, and for fond eternities, must I now name you by your faithlessness, ye

Verily, too early did ye die for me, ye fugitives. Yet did ye not flee from me, nor did I flee from you:

To kill ME, did they strangle you, ye singing birds of my hopes! Yea, at you, ye dearest ones, did malice ever

And they hit it! Because ye were always my dearest, my possession and my possessedness: ON THAT

At my most vulnerable point did they shoot the arrownamely, at you, whose skin is like downor more

But this word will I say unto mine enemies: What is all manslaughter in comparison with what ye have done

Worse evil did ye do unto me than all manslaughter; the irretrievable did ye take from me:thus do I speak

Slew ye not my youth's visions and dearest marvels! My playmates took ye from me, the blessed spirits! To

This curse upon you, mine enemies! Have ye not made mine eternal short, as a tone dieth away in a cold

night! Scarcely, as the twinkle of divine eyes, did it come to meas a fleeting gleam!

Thus spake once in a happy hour my purity: "Divine shall everything be unto me."

Then did ye haunt me with foul phantoms; ah, whither hath that happy hour now fled!

"All days shall be holy unto me"so spake once the wisdom of my youth: verily, the language of a joyous

But then did ye enemies steal my nights, and sold them to sleepless torture: ah, whither hath that joyous

Once did I long for happy auspices: then did ye lead an owlmonster across my path, an adverse sign. Ah,

All loathing did I once vow to renounce: then did ye change my nigh ones and nearest ones into ulcerations.

As a blind one did I once walk in blessed ways: then did ye cast filth on the blind one's course: and now is he

And when I performed my hardest task, and celebrated the triumph of my victories, then did ye make those

Verily, it was always your doing: ye embittered to me my best honey, and the diligence of my best bees.

To my charity have ye ever sent the most impudent beggars; around my sympathy have ye ever crowded the

And when I offered my holiest as a sacrifice, immediately did your "piety" put its fatter gifts beside it: so that

And once did I want to dance as I had never yet danced: beyond all heavens did I want to dance. Then did ye

And now hath he struck up an awful, melancholy air; alas, he tooted as a mournful horn to mine ear!

Murderous minstrel, instrument of evil, most innocent instrument! Already did I stand prepared for the best

Only in the dance do I know how to speak the parable of the highest things:and now hath my grandest

Unspoken and unrealised hath my highest hope remained! And there have perished for me all the visions and

How did I ever bear it? How did I survive and surmount such wounds? How did my soul rise again out of

Yea, something invulnerable, unburiable is with me, something that would rend rocks asunder: it is called

Its course will it go upon my feet, mine old Will; hard of heart is its nature and invulnerable.

Invulnerable am I only in my heel. Ever livest thou there, and art like thyself, thou most patient one! Ever

In thee still liveth also the unrealisedness of my youth; and as life and youth sittest thou here hopeful on the

Yea, thou art still for me the demolisher of all graves: Hail to thee, my Will! And only where there are graves

"Will to Truth" do ye call it, ye wisest ones, that which impelleth you and maketh you ardent?

All being would ye MAKE thinkable: for ye doubt with good reason whether it be already thinkable.

But it shall accommodate and bend itself to you! So willeth your will. Smooth shall it become and subject to

That is your entire will, ye wisest ones, as a Will to Power; and even when ye speak of good and evil, and of

Ye would still create a world before which ye can bow the knee: such is your ultimate hope and ecstasy.

The ignorant, to be sure, the peoplethey are like a river on which a boat floateth along: and in the boat sit

Your will and your valuations have ye put on the river of becoming; it betrayeth unto me an old Will to

It was ye, ye wisest ones, who put such guests in this boat, and gave them pomp and proud namesye and

Onward the river now carrieth your boat: it MUST carry it. A small matter if the rough wave foameth and

It is not the river that is your danger and the end of your good and evil, ye wisest ones: but that Will itself, the

But that ye may understand my gospel of good and evil, for that purpose will I tell you my gospel of life, and

The living thing did I follow; I walked in the broadest and narrowest paths to learn its nature.

With a hundredfaced mirror did I catch its glance when its mouth was shut, so that its eye might speak unto

But wherever I found living things, there heard I also the language of obedience. All living things are obeying

And this heard I secondly: Whatever cannot obey itself, is commanded. Such is the nature of living things.

This, however, is the third thing which I heardnamely, that commanding is more difficult than obeying.

And not only because the commander beareth the burden of all obeyers, and because this burden readily

An attempt and a risk seemed all commanding unto me; and whenever it commandeth, the living thing risketh

Yea, even when it commandeth itself, then also must it atone for its commanding. Of its own law must it

How doth this happen! so did I ask myself. What persuadeth the living thing to obey, and command, and even

Hearken now unto my word, ye wisest ones! Test it seriously, whether I have crept into the heart of life itself,

Wherever I found a living thing, there found I Will to Power; and even in the will of the servant found I the

That to the stronger the weaker shall servethereto persuadeth he his will who would be master over a still

And as the lesser surrendereth himself to the greater that he may have delight and power over the least of all,

so doth even the greatest surrender himself, and stakethlife, for the sake of power.

It is the surrender of the greatest to run risk and danger, and play dice for death.

And where there is sacrifice and service and loveglances, there also is the will to be master. By byways

doth the weaker then slink into the fortress, and into the heart of the mightier oneand there stealeth power.

And this secret spake Life herself unto me. "Behold," said she, "I am that WHICH MUST EVER SURPASS

To be sure, ye call it will to procreation, or impulse towards a goal, towards the higher, remoter, more

Rather would I succumb than disown this one thing; and verily, where there is succumbing and leaffalling,

That I have to be struggle, and becoming, and purpose, and crosspurpose ah, he who divineth my will,

Whatever I create, and however much I love it,soon must I be adverse to it, and to my love: so willeth my

And even thou, discerning one, art only a path and footstep of my will: verily, my Will to Power walketh

He certainly did not hit the truth who shot at it the formula: 'Will to existence': that willdoth not exist!

For what is not, cannot will; that, however, which is in existencehow could it still strive for existence!

Only where there is life, is there also will: not, however, Will to Life, butso teach I theeWill to Power!

Much is reckoned higher than life itself by the living one; but out of the very reckoning speakeththe Will

Thus did Life once teach me: and thereby, ye wisest ones, do I solve you the riddle of your hearts.

Verily, I say unto you: good and evil which would be everlastingit doth not exist! Of its own accord must

With your values and formulae of good and evil, ye exercise power, ye valuing ones: and that is your secret

But a stronger power groweth out of your values, and a new surpassing: by it breaketh egg and eggshell.

And he who hath to be a creator in good and evilverily, he hath first to be a destroyer, and break values in

Thus doth the greatest evil pertain to the greatest good: that, however, is the creating good.

Let us SPEAK thereof, ye wisest ones, even though it be bad. To be silent is worse; all suppressed truths

And let everything break up whichcan break up by our truths! Many a house is still to be built!

A sublime one saw I today, a solemn one, a penitent of the spirit: Oh, how my soul laughed at his ugliness!

With upraised breast, and like those who draw in their breath: thus did he stand, the sublime one, and in

O'erhung with ugly truths, the spoil of his hunting, and rich in torn raiment; many thorns also hung on

Not yet had he learned laughing and beauty. Gloomy did this hunter return from the forest of knowledge.

From the fight with wild beasts returned he home: but even yet a wild beast gazeth out of his seriousnessan

As a tiger doth he ever stand, on the point of springing; but I do not like those strained souls; ungracious is

And ye tell me, friends, that there is to be no dispute about taste and tasting? But all life is a dispute about

Taste: that is weight at the same time, and scales and weigher; and alas for every living thing that would live

Should he become weary of his sublimeness, this sublime one, then only will his beauty beginand then

And only when he turneth away from himself will he o'erleap his own shadow and verily! into HIS sun.

Far too long did he sit in the shade; the cheeks of the penitent of the spirit became pale; he almost starved on

Contempt is still in his eye, and loathing hideth in his mouth. To be sure, he now resteth, but he hath not yet

As the ox ought he to do; and his happiness should smell of the earth, and not of contempt for the earth.

As a white ox would I like to see him, which, snorting and lowing, walketh before the ploughshare: and his

Dark is still his countenance; the shadow of his hand danceth upon it. O'ershadowed is still the sense of his

His deed itself is still the shadow upon him: his doing obscureth the doer. Not yet hath he overcome his deed.

To be sure, I love in him the shoulders of the ox: but now do I want to see also the eye of the angel.

Also his herowill hath he still to unlearn: an exalted one shall he be, and not only a sublime one:the ether

He hath subdued monsters, he hath solved enigmas. But he should also redeem his monsters and enigmas;

As yet hath his knowledge not learned to smile, and to be without jealousy; as yet hath his gushing passion

Verily, not in satiety shall his longing cease and disappear, but in beauty! Gracefulness belongeth to the

His arm across his head: thus should the hero repose; thus should he also surmount his repose.

But precisely to the hero is BEAUTY the hardest thing of all. Unattainable is beauty by all ardent wills.

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 visibleI 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

Verily, I have often laughed at the weaklings, who think themselves good because they have crippled paws!

The virtue of the pillar shalt thou strive after: more beautiful doth it ever become, and more gracefulbut

Yea, thou sublime one, one day shalt thou also be beautiful, and hold up the mirror to thine own beauty.

Then will thy soul thrill with divine desires; and there will be adoration even in thy vanity!

For this is the secret of the soul: when the hero hath abandoned it, then only approacheth it in dreamsthe

Then did I fly backwards, homewardsand always faster. Thus did I come unto you, ye presentday men,

For the first time brought I an eye to see you, and good desire: verily, with longing in my heart did I come.

But how did it turn out with me? Although so alarmedI had yet to laugh! Never did mine eye see anything

I laughed and laughed, while my foot still trembled, and my heart as well. "Here forsooth, is the home of all

With fifty patches painted on faces and limbsso sat ye there to mine astonishment, ye presentday men!

And with fifty mirrors around you, which flattered your play of colours, and repeated it!

Verily, ye could wear no better masks, ye presentday men, than your own faces! Who

Written all over with the characters of the past, and these characters also pencilled over with new

And though one be a trier of the reins, who still believeth that ye have reins! Out of colours ye seem to be

All times and peoples gaze diverscoloured out of your veils; all customs and beliefs speak diverscoloured

He who would strip you of veils and wrappers, and paints and gestures, would just have enough left to scare

Verily, I myself am the scared crow that once saw you naked, and without paint; and I flew away when the

Rather would I be a daylabourer in the netherworld, and among the shades of the bygone!Fatter and

This, yea this, is bitterness to my bowels, that I can neither endure you naked nor clothed, ye presentday

All that is unhomelike in the future, and whatever maketh strayed birds shiver, is verily more homelike and

For thus speak ye: "Real are we wholly, and without faith and superstition": thus do ye plume

Indeed, how would ye be ABLE to believe, ye diverscoloured ones!ye who are pictures of all that hath

Perambulating refutations are ye, of belief itself, and a dislocation of all thought. UNTRUSTWORTHY

All periods prate against one another in your spirits; and the dreams and pratings of all periods were even

Unfruitful are ye: THEREFORE do ye lack belief. But he who had to create, had always his presaging

Halfopen doors are ye, at which gravediggers wait. And this is YOUR reality: "Everything deserveth to

Alas, how ye stand there before me, ye unfruitful ones; how lean your ribs! And many of you surely have had

Many a one hath said: "There hath surely a God filched something from me secretly whilst I slept? Verily,

Yea, ye are laughable unto me, ye presentday men! And especially when ye marvel at yourselves!

And woe unto me if I could not laugh at your marvelling, and had to swallow all that is repugnant in your

As it is, however, I will make lighter of you, since I have to carry what is heavy; and what matter if beetles

Verily, it shall not on that account become heavier to me! And not from you, ye presentday men, shall my

Ah, whither shall I now ascend with my longing! From all mountains do I look out for fatherlands and

But a home have I found nowhere: unsettled am I in all cities, and decamping at all gates.

Alien to me, and a mockery, are the presentday men, to whom of late my heart impelled me; and exiled am I

Thus do I love only my CHILDREN'S LAND, the undiscovered in the remotest sea: for it do I bid my sails

Unto my children will I make amends for being the child of my fathers: and unto all the futurefor THIS

When yestereve the moon arose, then did I fancy it about to bear a sun: so broad and teeming did it lie on

But it was a liar with its pregnancy; and sooner will I believe in the man in the moon than in the woman.

To be sure, little of a man is he also, that timid nightreveller. Verily, with a bad conscience doth he stalk

For he is covetous and jealous, the monk in the moon; covetous of the earth, and all the joys of lovers.

Nay, I like him not, that tomcat on the roofs! Hateful unto me are all that slink around halfclosed

Piously and silently doth he stalk along on the starcarpets:but I like no lighttreading human feet, on

Every honest one's step speaketh; the cat however, stealeth along over the ground. Lo! catlike doth the

This parable speak I unto you sentimental dissemblers, unto you, the "pure discerners!" You do _I_

Also ye love the earth, and the earthly: I have divined you well!but shame is in your love, and a bad

To despise the earthly hath your spirit been persuaded, but not your bowels: these, however, are the strongest

And now is your spirit ashamed to be at the service of your bowels, and goeth byways and lying ways to

"That would be the highest thing for me"so saith your lying spirit unto itself"to gaze upon life without

To be happy in gazing: with dead will, free from the grip and greed of selfishnesscold and ashygrey all

That would be the dearest thing to me"thus doth the seduced one seduce himself,"to love the earth as

And this do I call IMMACULATE perception of all things: to want nothing else from them, but to be allowed

Oh, ye sentimental dissemblers, ye covetous ones! Ye lack innocence in your desire: and now do ye defame

Where is innocence? Where there is will to procreation. And he who seeketh to create beyond himself, hath

Where is beauty? Where I MUST WILL with my whole Will; where I will love and perish, that an image

Loving and perishing: these have rhymed from eternity. Will to love: that is to be ready also for death. Thus

But now doth your emasculated ogling profess to be "contemplation!" And that which can be examined with

But it shall be your curse, ye immaculate ones, ye pure discerners, that ye shall never bring forth, even though

Verily, ye fill your mouth with noble words: and we are to believe that your heart overfloweth, ye cozeners?

But MY words are poor, contemptible, stammering words: gladly do I pick up what falleth from the table at

Yet still can I say therewith the truthto dissemblers! Yea, my fishbones, shells, and prickly leaves

Bad air is always about you and your repasts: your lascivious thoughts, your lies, and secrets are indeed in the

Dare only to believe in yourselvesin yourselves and in your inward parts! He who doth not believe in

A God's mask have ye hung in front of you, ye "pure ones": into a God's mask hath your execrable coiling

Verily ye deceive, ye "contemplative ones!" Even Zarathustra was once the dupe of your godlike exterior; he

A God's soul, I once thought I saw playing in your games, ye pure discerners! No better arts did I once dream

Serpents' filth and evil odour, the distance concealed from me: and that a lizard's craft prowled thereabouts

But I came NIGH unto you: then came to me the day,and now cometh it to you,at an end is the moon's

For already she cometh, the glowing one,HER love to the earth cometh! Innocence and creative desire, is

See there, how she cometh impatiently over the sea! Do ye not feel the thirst and the hot breath of her love?

At the sea would she suck, and drink its depths to her height: now riseth the desire of the sea with its

Kissed and sucked WOULD it be by the thirst of the sun; vapour WOULD it become, and height, and path of

When I lay asleep, then did a sheep eat at the ivywreath on my head,it ate, and said thereby: "Zarathustra

I like to lie here where the children play, beside the ruined wall, among thistles and red poppies.

A scholar am I still to the children, and also to the thistles and red poppies. Innocent are they, even in their

For this is the truth: I have departed from the house of the scholars, and the door have I also slammed behind

Too long did my soul sit hungry at their table: not like them have I got the knack of investigating, as the

Freedom do I love, and the air over fresh soil; rather would I sleep on oxskins than on their honours and

I am too hot and scorched with mine own thought: often is it ready to take away my breath. Then have I to go

But they sit cool in the cool shade: they want in everything to be merely spectators, and they avoid sitting

Like those who stand in the street and gape at the passersby: thus do they also wait, and gape at the thoughts

Should one lay hold of them, then do they raise a dust like floursacks, and involuntarily: but who would

divine that their dust came from corn, and from the yellow delight of the summer fields?

When they give themselves out as wise, then do their petty sayings and truths chill me: in their wisdom there

is often an odour as if it came from the swamp; and verily, I have even heard the frog croak in it!

Clever are theythey have dexterous fingers: what doth MY simplicity pretend to beside their multiplicity!

All threading and knitting and weaving do their fingers understand: thus do they make the hose of the spirit!

Good clockworks are they: only be careful to wind them up properly! Then do they indicate the hour without

Like millstones do they work, and like pestles: throw only seedcorn unto them!they know well how to

They keep a sharp eye on one another, and do not trust each other the best. Ingenious in little artifices, they

I saw them always prepare their poison with precaution; and always did they put glass gloves on their fingers

They also know how to play with false dice; and so eagerly did I find them playing, that they perspired

We are alien to each other, and their virtues are even more repugnant to my taste than their falsehoods and

And when I lived with them, then did I live above them. Therefore did they take a dislike to me.

They want to hear nothing of any one walking above their heads; and so they put wood and earth and rubbish

Thus did they deafen the sound of my tread: and least have I hitherto been heard by the most learned.

All mankind's faults and weaknesses did they put betwixt themselves and me:they call it "false ceiling" in

But nevertheless I walk with my thoughts ABOVE their heads; and even should I walk on mine own errors,

"Since I have known the body better"said Zarathustra to one of his disciples"the spirit hath only been to

"So have I heard thee say once before," answered the disciple, "and then thou addedst: 'But the poets lie too

"Why?" said Zarathustra. "Thou askest why? I do not belong to those who may be asked after their Why.

Is my experience but of yesterday? It is long ago that I experienced the reasons for mine opinions.

Should I not have to be a cask of memory, if I also wanted to have my reasons with me?

It is already too much for me even to retain mine opinions; and many a bird flieth away.

And sometimes, also, do I find a fugitive creature in my dovecote, which is alien to me, and trembleth when I

But what did Zarathustra once say unto thee? That the poets lie too much? But Zarathustra also is a poet.

The disciple answered: "I believe in Zarathustra." But Zarathustra shook his head and smiled.

But granting that some one did say in all seriousness that the poets lie too much: he was rightWE do lie too

And which of us poets hath not adulterated his wine? Many a poisonous hotchpotch hath evolved in our

And because we know little, therefore are we pleased from the heart with the poor in spirit, especially when

And even of those things are we desirous, which old women tell one another in the evening. This do we call

And as if there were a special secret access to knowledge, which CHOKETH UP for those who learn

This, however, do all poets believe: that whoever pricketh up his ears when lying in the grass or on lonely

And if there come unto them tender emotions, then do the poets always think that nature herself is in love

And that she stealeth to their ear to whisper secrets into it, and amorous flatteries: of this do they plume and

Ah, there are so many things betwixt heaven and earth of which only the poets have dreamed!

And especially ABOVE the heavens: for all Gods are poetsymbolisations, poetsophistications!

Verily, ever are we drawn aloftthat is, to the realm of the clouds: on these do we set our gaudy puppets,

Ah, how I am weary of all the inadequate that is insisted on as actual! Ah, how I am weary of the poets!

When Zarathustra so spake, his disciple resented it, but was silent. And Zarathustra also was silent; and his

eye directed itself inwardly, as if it gazed into the far distance. At last he sighed and drew breath.

I am of today and heretofore, said he thereupon; but something is in me that is of the morrow, and the day

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

Ghostbreathing and ghostwhisking, seemeth to me all the jinglejangling of their harps; what have they

They are also not pure enough for me: they all muddle their water that it may seem deep.

And fain would they thereby prove themselves reconcilers: but mediaries and mixers are they unto me, and

Ah, I cast indeed my net into their sea, and meant to catch good fish; but always did I draw up the head of

Thus did the sea give a stone to the hungry one. And they themselves may well originate from the sea.

Certainly, one findeth pearls in them: thereby they are the more like hard molluscs. And instead of a soul, I

They have learned from the sea also its vanity: is not the sea the peacock of peacocks?

Even before the ugliest of all buffaloes doth it spread out its tail; never doth it tire of its lacefan of silver and

Disdainfully doth the buffalo glance thereat, nigh to the sand with its soul, nigher still to the thicket, nighest,

What is beauty and sea and peacocksplendour to it! This parable I speak unto the poets.

But of this spirit became I weary; and I see the time coming when it will become weary of itself.

There is an isle in the seanot far from the Happy Isles of Zarathustra on which a volcano ever smoketh;

of which isle the people, and especially the old women amongst them, say that it is placed as a rock before

the gate of the netherworld; but that through the volcano itself the narrow way leadeth downwards which

Now about the time that Zarathustra sojourned on the Happy Isles, it happened that a ship anchored at the isle

on which standeth the smoking mountain, and the crew went ashore to shoot rabbits. About the noontide

hour, however, when the captain and his men were together again, they saw suddenly a man coming towards

them through the air, and a voice said distinctly: "It is time! It is the highest time!" But when the figure was

nearest to them (it flew past quickly, however, like a shadow, in the direction of the volcano), then did they

recognise with the greatest surprise that it was Zarathustra; for they had all seen him before except the captain

himself, and they loved him as the people love: in such wise that love and awe were combined in equal

About the same time that these sailors landed on the fireisle, there was a rumour that Zarathustra had

disappeared; and when his friends were asked about it, they said that he had gone on board a ship by night,

Thus there arose some uneasiness. After three days, however, there came the story of the ship's crew in

addition to this uneasinessand then did all the people say that the devil had taken Zarathustra. His disciples

laughed, sure enough, at this talk; and one of them said even: "Sooner would I believe that Zarathustra hath

taken the devil." But at the bottom of their hearts they were all full of anxiety and longing: so their joy was

The earth, said he, hath a skin; and this skin hath diseases. One of these diseases, for example, is called

And another of these diseases is called "the firedog": concerning HIM men have greatly deceived

To fathom this mystery did I go o'er the sea; and I have seen the truth naked, verily! barefooted up to the

Now do I know how it is concerning the firedog; and likewise concerning all the spouting and subversive

"Up with thee, firedog, out of thy depth!" cried I, "and confess how deep that depth is! Whence cometh that

Thou drinkest copiously at the sea: that doth thine embittered eloquence betray! In sooth, for a dog of the

At the most, I regard thee as the ventriloquist of the earth: and ever, when I have heard subversive and

spouting devils speak, I have found them like thee: embittered, mendacious, and shallow.

Ye understand how to roar and obscure with ashes! Ye are the best braggarts, and have sufficiently learned

Where ye are, there must always be dregs at hand, and much that is spongy, hollow, and compressed: it

'Freedom' ye all roar most eagerly: but I have unlearned the belief in 'great events,' when there is much

And believe me, friend Hullabaloo! The greatest eventsare 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;

And just own to it! Little had ever taken place when thy noise and smoke passed away. What, if a city did

And this do I say also to the o'erthrowers of statues: It is certainly the greatest folly to throw salt into the sea,

In the mud of your contempt lay the statue: but it is just its law, that out of contempt, its life and living beauty

With diviner features doth it now arise, seducing by its suffering; and verily! it will yet thank you for

This counsel, however, do I counsel to kings and churches, and to all that is weak with age or virtuelet

yourselves be o'erthrown! That ye may again come to life, and that virtuemay come to you!"

Thus spake I before the firedog: then did he interrupt me sullenly, and asked: "Church? What is that?"

"Church?" answered I, "that is a kind of state, and indeed the most mendacious. But remain quiet, thou

Like thyself the state is a dissembling dog; like thee doth it like to speak with smoke and roaringto make

For it seeketh by all means to be the most important creature on earth, the state; and people think it so."

When I had said this, the firedog acted as if mad with envy. "What!" cried he, "the most important creature

on earth? And people think it so?" And so much vapour and terrible voices came out of his throat, that I

At last he became calmer and his panting subsided; as soon, however, as he was quiet, I said laughingly:

And that I may also maintain the right, hear the story of another firedog; he speaketh actually out of the

Gold doth his breath exhale, and golden rain: so doth his heart desire. What are ashes and smoke and hot

Laughter flitteth from him like a variegated cloud; adverse is he to thy gargling and spewing and grips in the

The gold, however, and the laughterthese doth he take out of the heart of the earth: for, that thou mayst

When the firedog heard this, he could no longer endure to listen to me. Abashed did he draw in his tail, said

Thus told Zarathustra. His disciples, however, hardly listened to him: so great was their eagerness to tell him

But it may have been my shadow. Ye have surely heard something of the Wanderer and his Shadow?

One thing, however, is certain: I must keep a tighter hold of it; otherwise it will spoil my reputation."

And once more Zarathustra shook his head and wondered. "What am I to think of it!" said he once more.

"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!'

To be sure we have harvested: but why have all our fruits become rotten and brown? What was it fell last

In vain was all our labour, poison hath our wine become, the evil eye hath singed yellow our fields and

Arid have we all become; and fire falling upon us, then do we turn dust like ashes:yea, the fire itself have

All our fountains have dried up, even the sea hath receded. All the ground trieth to gape, but the depth will

'Alas! where is there still a sea in which one could be drowned?' so soundeth our plaintacross shallow

Verily, even for dying have we become too weary; now do we keep awake and live onin sepulchres."

Thus did Zarathustra hear a soothsayer speak; and the foreboding touched his heart and transformed him.

Sorrowfully did he go about and wearily; and he became like unto those of whom the soothsayer had

Verily, said he unto his disciples, a little while, and there cometh the long twilight. Alas, how shall I preserve

That it may not smother in this sorrowfulness! To remoter worlds shall it be a light, and also to remotest

Thus did Zarathustra go about grieved in his heart, and for three days he did not take any meat or drink: he

had no rest, and lost his speech. At last it came to pass that he fell into a deep sleep. His disciples, however,

sat around him in long nightwatches, and waited anxiously to see if he would awake, and speak again, and

And this is the discourse that Zarathustra spake when he awoke; his voice, however, came unto his disciples

Hear, I pray you, the dream that I dreamed, my friends, and help me to divine its meaning!

A riddle is it still unto me, this dream; the meaning is hidden in it and encaged, and doth not yet fly above it

All life had I renounced, so I dreamed. Nightwatchman and graveguardian had I become, aloft, in the lone

There did I guard his coffins: full stood the musty vaults of those trophies of victory. Out of glass coffins did

The odour of dustcovered eternities did I breathe: sultry and dustcovered lay my soul. And who could have

Brightness of midnight was ever around me; lonesomeness cowered beside her; and as a third, deathrattle

Keys did I carry, the rustiest of all keys; and I knew how to open with them the most creaking of all gates.

Like a bitterly angry croaking ran the sound through the long corridors when the leaves of the gate opened:

But more frightful even, and more heartstrangling was it, when it again became silent and still all around,

Thus did time pass with me, and slip by, if time there still was: what do I know thereof! But at last there

Thrice did there peal peals at the gate like thunders, thrice did the vaults resound and howl again: then did I

Alpa! cried I, who carrieth his ashes unto the mountain? Alpa! Alpa! who carrieth his ashes unto the

And I pressed the key, and pulled at the gate, and exerted myself. But not a finger'sbreadth was it yet open:

Then did a roaring wind tear the folds apart: whistling, whizzing, and piercing, it threw unto me a black

And in the roaring, and whistling, and whizzing the coffin burst up, and spouted out a thousand peals of

And a thousand caricatures of children, angels, owls, fools, and childsized butterflies laughed and mocked,

Fearfully was I terrified thereby: it prostrated me. And I cried with horror as I ne'er cried before.

Thus did Zarathustra relate his dream, and then was silent: for as yet he knew not the interpretation thereof.

But the disciple whom he loved most arose quickly, seized Zarathustra's hand, and said:

Art thou not thyself the wind with shrill whistling, which bursteth open the gates of the fortress of Death?

Art thou not thyself the coffin full of manyhued malices and angelcaricatures of life?

Verily, like a thousand peals of children's laughter cometh Zarathustra into all sepulchres, laughing at those

With thy laughter wilt thou frighten and prostrate them: fainting and recovering will demonstrate thy power

And when the long twilight cometh and the mortal weariness, even then wilt thou not disappear from our

New stars hast thou made us see, and new nocturnal glories: verily, laughter itself hast thou spread out over

Now will children's laughter ever from coffins flow; now will a strong wind ever come victoriously unto all

Verily, THEY THEMSELVES DIDST THOU DREAM, thine enemies: that was thy sorest dream.

But as thou awokest from them and camest to thyself, so shall they awaken from themselvesand come unto

Thus spake the disciple; and all the others then thronged around Zarathustra, grasped him by the hands, and

tried to persuade him to leave his bed and his sadness, and return unto them. Zarathustra, however, sat upright

on his couch, with an absent look. Like one returning from long foreign sojourn did he look on his disciples,

and examined their features; but still he knew them not. When, however, they raised him, and set him upon

his feet, behold, all on a sudden his eye changed; he understood everything that had happened, stroked his

"Well! this hath just its time; but see to it, my disciples, that we have a good repast; and without delay! Thus

The soothsayer, however, shall eat and drink at my side: and verily, I will yet show him a sea in which he can

Thus spake Zarathustra. Then did he gaze long into the face of the disciple who had been the

When Zarathustra went one day over the great bridge, then did the cripples and beggars surround him, and a

"Behold, Zarathustra! Even the people learn from thee, and acquire faith in thy teaching: but for them to

believe fully in thee, one thing is still needfulthou must first of all convince us cripples! Here hast thou

now a fine selection, and verily, an opportunity with more than one forelock! The blind canst thou heal, and

make the lame run; and from him who hath too much behind, couldst thou well, also, take away a

little;that, I think, would be the right method to make the cripples believe in Zarathustra!"

Zarathustra, however, answered thus unto him who so spake: When one taketh his hump from the hunchback,

then doth one take from him his spiritso do the people teach. And when one giveth the blind man eyes,

then doth he see too many bad things on the earth: so that he curseth him who healed him. He, however, who

maketh the lame man run, inflicteth upon him the greatest injury; for hardly can he run, when his vices run

away with himso do the people teach concerning cripples. And why should not Zarathustra also learn from

It is, however, the smallest thing unto me since I have been amongst men, to see one person lacking an eye,

another an ear, and a third a leg, and that others have lost the tongue, or the nose, or the head.

I see and have seen worse things, and divers things so hideous, that I should neither like to speak of all

matters, nor even keep silent about some of them: namely, men who lack everything, except that they have

too much of one thingmen who are nothing more than a big eye, or a big mouth, or a big belly, or

And when I came out of my solitude, and for the first time passed over this bridge, then I could not trust mine

eyes, but looked again and again, and said at last: "That is an ear! An ear as big as a man!" I looked still more

attentivelyand actually there did move under the ear something that was pitiably small and poor and slim.

And in truth this immense ear was perched on a small thin stalkthe stalk, however, was a man! A person

putting a glass to his eyes, could even recognise further a small envious countenance, and also that a bloated

soullet dangled at the stalk. The people told me, however, that the big ear was not only a man, but a great

man, a genius. But I never believed in the people when they spake of great menand I hold to my belief that

it was a reversed cripple, who had too little of everything, and too much of one thing.

When Zarathustra had spoken thus unto the hunchback, and unto those of whom the hunchback was the

mouthpiece and advocate, then did he turn to his disciples in profound dejection, and said:

Verily, my friends, I walk amongst men as amongst the fragments and limbs of human beings!

This is the terrible thing to mine eye, that I find man broken up, and scattered about, as on a battle and

And when mine eye fleeth from the present to the bygone, it findeth ever the same: fragments and limbs and

The present and the bygone upon earthah! my friendsthat is MY most unbearable trouble; and I should

A seer, a purposer, a creator, a future itself, and a bridge to the future and alas! also as it were a cripple on

And ye also asked yourselves often: "Who is Zarathustra to us? What shall he be called by us?" And like me,

Is he a promiser? Or a fulfiller? A conqueror? Or an inheritor? A harvest? Or a ploughshare? A physician? Or

Is he a poet? Or a genuine one? An emancipator? Or a subjugator? A good one? Or an evil one?

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

And how could I endure to be a man, if man were not also the composer, and riddlereader, and redeemer of

To redeem what is past, and to transform every "It was" into "Thus would I have it!"that only do I call

Willso is the emancipator and joybringer called: thus have I taught you, my friends! But now learn this

Willing emancipateth: but what is that called which still putteth the emancipator in chains?

"It was": thus is the Will's teethgnashing and lonesomest tribulation called. Impotent towards what hath

Not backward can the Will will; that it cannot break time and time's desirethat is the Will's lonesomest

Willing emancipateth: what doth Willing itself devise in order to get free from its tribulation and mock at its

Ah, a fool becometh every prisoner! Foolishly delivereth itself also the imprisoned Will.

That time doth not run backwardthat is its animosity: "That which was": so is the stone which it cannot roll

And thus doth it roll stones out of animosity and illhumour, and taketh revenge on whatever doth not, like it,

Thus did the Will, the emancipator, become a torturer; and on all that is capable of suffering it taketh

This, yea, this alone is REVENGE itself: the Will's antipathy to time, and its "It was."

Verily, a great folly dwelleth in our Will; and it became a curse unto all humanity, that this folly acquired

THE SPIRIT OF REVENGE: my friends, that hath hitherto been man's best contemplation; and where there

"Penalty," so calleth itself revenge. With a lying word it feigneth a good conscience.

And because in the willer himself there is suffering, because he cannot will backwardsthus was Willing

And then did cloud after cloud roll over the spirit, until at last madness preached: "Everything perisheth,

"And this itself is justice, the law of timethat he must devour his children:" thus did madness preach.

"Morally are things ordered according to justice and penalty. Oh, where is there deliverance from the flux of

"Can there be deliverance when there is eternal justice? Alas, unrollable is the stone, 'It was': eternal must

"No deed can be annihilated: how could it be undone by the penalty! This, this is what is eternal in the

'existence' of penalty, that existence also must be eternally recurring deed and guilt!

Unless the Will should at last deliver itself, and Willing become nonWilling :" but ye know, my brethren,

Away from those fabulous songs did I lead you when I taught you: "The Will is a creator."

All "It was" is a fragment, a riddle, a fearful chanceuntil the creating Will saith thereto: "But thus would I

Until the creating Will saith thereto: "But thus do I will it! Thus shall I will it!"

But did it ever speak thus? And when doth this take place? Hath the Will been unharnessed from its own

Hath the Will become its own deliverer and joybringer? Hath it unlearned the spirit of revenge and all

And who hath taught it reconciliation with time, and something higher than all reconciliation?

Something higher than all reconciliation must the Will will which is the Will to Power: but how doth that

But at this point in his discourse it chanced that Zarathustra suddenly paused, and looked like a person in

the greatest alarm. With terror in his eyes did he gaze on his disciples; his glances pierced as with arrows

their thoughts and arrearthoughts. But after a brief space he again laughed, and said soothedly:

"It is difficult to live amongst men, because silence is so difficult especially for a babbler."

Thus spake Zarathustra. The hunchback, however, had listened to the conversation and had covered his face

during the time; but when he heard Zarathustra laugh, he looked up with curiosity, and said slowly:

Zarathustra answered: "What is there to be wondered at! With hunchbacks one may well speak in a

"Very good," said the hunchback; "and with pupils one may well tell tales out of school.

The declivity, where the gaze shooteth DOWNWARDS, and the hand graspeth UPWARDS. There doth the

This, this is MY declivity and my danger, that my gaze shooteth towards the summit, and my hand would

To man clingeth my will; with chains do I bind myself to man, because I am pulled upwards to the

And THEREFORE do I live blindly among men, as if I knew them not: that my hand may not entirely lose

This is my first manly prudence, that I allow myself to be deceived, so as not to be on my guard against

Ah, if I were on my guard against man, how could man be an anchor to my ball! Too easily would I be pulled

And he who would not languish amongst men, must learn to drink out of all glasses; and he who would keep

And thus spake I often to myself for consolation: "Courage! Cheer up! old heart! An unhappiness hath failed

This, however, is mine other manly prudence: I am more forbearing to the VAIN than to the proud.

Is not wounded vanity the mother of all tragedies? Where, however, pride is wounded, there there groweth up

That life may be fair to behold, its game must be well played; for that purpose, however, it needeth good

Good actors have I found all the vain ones: they play, and wish people to be fond of beholding themall

They represent themselves, they invent themselves; in their neighbourhood I like to look upon lifeit cureth

Therefore am I forbearing to the vain, because they are the physicians of my melancholy, and keep me

And further, who conceiveth the full depth of the modesty of the vain man! I am favourable to him, and

From you would he learn his belief in himself; he feedeth upon your glances, he eateth praise out of your

Your lies doth he even believe when you lie favourably about him: for in its depths sigheth his heart: "What

And if that be the true virtue which is unconscious of itselfwell, the vain man is unconscious of his

This is, however, my third manly prudence: I am not put out of conceit with the WICKED by your

I am happy to see the marvels the warm sun hatcheth: tigers and palms and rattlesnakes.

Also amongst men there is a beautiful brood of the warm sun, and much that is marvellous in the wicked.

In truth, as your wisest did not seem to me so very wise, so found I also human wickedness below the fame of

Verily, there is still a future even for evil! And the warmest south is still undiscovered by man.

How many things are now called the worst wickedness, which are only twelve feet broad and three months

For that the Superman may not lack his dragon, the superdragon that is worthy of him, there must still much

Out of your wild cats must tigers have evolved, and out of your poisontoads, crocodiles: for the good hunter

And verily, ye good and just! In you there is much to be laughed at, and especially your fear of what hath

So alien are ye in your souls to what is great, that to you the Superman would be FRIGHTFUL in his

And ye wise and knowing ones, ye would flee from the solarglow of the wisdom in which the Superman

Ye highest men who have come within my ken! this is my doubt of you, and my secret laughter: I suspect ye

Ah, I became tired of those highest and best ones: from their "height" did I long to be up, out, and away to the

A horror came over me when I saw those best ones naked: then there grew for me the pinions to soar away

Into more distant futures, into more southern souths than ever artist dreamed of: thither, where Gods are

But disguised do I want to see YOU, ye neighbours and fellowmen, and wellattired and vain and estimable,

And disguised will I myself sit amongst youthat I may MISTAKE you and myself: for that is my last

What hath happened unto me, my friends? Ye see me troubled, driven forth, unwillingly obedient, ready to

Yea, once more must Zarathustra retire to his solitude: but unjoyously this time doth the bear go back to his

What hath happened unto me? Who ordereth this?Ah, mine angry mistress wisheth it so; she spake unto

Yesterday towards evening there spake unto me MY STILLEST HOUR: that is the name of my terrible

And thus did it happenfor everything must I tell you, that your heart may not harden against the suddenly

To the very toes he is terrified, because the ground giveth way under him, and the dream beginneth.

This do I speak unto you in parable. Yesterday at the stillest hour did the ground give way under me: the

The hourhand moved on, the timepiece of my life drew breathnever did I hear such stillness around me,

And I cried in terror at this whispering, and the blood left my face: but I was silent.

Then was there once more spoken unto me without voice: "Thou knowest it, Zarathustra, but thou dost not

And at last I answered, like one defiant: "Yea, I know it, but I will not speak it!"

Then was there again spoken unto me without voice: "Thou WILT not, Zarathustra? Is this true? Conceal

And I wept and trembled like a child, and said: "Ah, I would indeed, but how can I do it! Exempt me only

Then was there again spoken unto me without voice: "What matter about thyself, Zarathustra! Speak thy

And I answered: "Ah, is it MY word? Who am _I_? I await the worthier one; I am not worthy even to

Then was there again spoken unto me without voice: "What matter about thyself? Thou art not yet humble

And I answered: "What hath not the skin of my humility endured! At the foot of my height do I dwell: how

Then was there again spoken unto me without voice: "O Zarathustra, he who hath to remove mountains

And I answered: "As yet hath my word not removed mountains, and what I have spoken hath not reached

Then was there again spoken unto me without voice: "What knowest thou THEREOF! The dew falleth on the

And I answered: "They mocked me when I found and walked in mine own path; and certainly did my feet

And thus did they speak unto me: Thou forgottest the path before, now dost thou also forget how to walk!"

Then was there again spoken unto me without voice: "What matter about their mockery! Thou art one who

To execute great things is difficult: but the more difficult task is to command great things.

This is thy most unpardonable obstinacy: thou hast the power, and thou wilt not rule."

Then was there again spoken unto me as a whispering: "It is the stillest words which bring the storm.

O Zarathustra, thou shalt go as a shadow of that which is to come: thus wilt thou command, and in

Then was there again spoken unto me without voice: "Thou must yet become a child, and be without shame.

The pride of youth is still upon thee; late hast thou become young: but he who would become a child must

And I considered a long while, and trembled. At last, however, did I say what I had said at first. "I will not."

Then did a laughing take place all around me. Alas, how that laughing lacerated my bowels and cut into my

And there was spoken unto me for the last time: "O Zarathustra, thy fruits are ripe, but thou art not ripe for

And again was there a laughing, and it fled: then did it become still around me, as with a double stillness. I

Now have ye heard all, and why I have to return into my solitude. Nothing have I kept hidden from you,

But even this have ye heard from me, WHO is still the most reserved of men and will be so!

Ah, my friends! I should have something more to say unto you! I should have something more to give unto

When, however, Zarathustra had spoken these words, the violence of his pain, and a sense of the nearness of

his departure from his friends came over him, so that he wept aloud; and no one knew how to console him. In

"Ye look aloft when ye long for exaltation, and I look downward because I am exalted.

"He who climbeth on the highest mountains, laugheth at all tragic plays and tragic

Then, when it was about midnight, Zarathustra went his way over the ridge of the isle, that he might arrive

early in the morning at the other coast; because there he meant to embark. For there was a good roadstead

there, in which foreign ships also liked to anchor: those ships took many people with them, who wished to

cross over from the Happy Isles. So when Zarathustra thus ascended the mountain, he thought on the way of

his many solitary wanderings from youth onwards, and how many mountains and ridges and summits he had

I am a wanderer and mountainclimber, said he to his heart, I love not the plains, and it seemeth I cannot

And whatever may still overtake me as fate and experiencea wandering will be therein, and a

The time is now past when accidents could befall me; and what COULD now fall to my lot which would not

It returneth only, it cometh home to me at lastmine own Self, and such of it as hath been long abroad, and

And one thing more do I know: I stand now before my last summit, and before that which hath been longest

reserved for me. Ah, my hardest path must I ascend! Ah, I have begun my lonesomest wandering!

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 abyssthese 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

Thou goest the way to thy greatness: here shall no one steal after thee! Thy foot itself hath effaced the path

And if all ladders henceforth fail thee, then must thou learn to mount upon thine own head: how couldst thou

Upon thine own head, and beyond thine own heart! Now must the gentlest in thee become the hardest.

He who hath always muchindulged himself, sickeneth at last by his muchindulgence. Praises on what

To learn TO LOOK AWAY FROM oneself, is necessary in order to see MANY THINGS:this hardiness is

He, however, who is obtrusive with his eyes as a discerner, how can he ever see more of anything than its

But thou, O Zarathustra, wouldst view the ground of everything, and its background: thus must thou mount

Yea! To look down upon myself, and even upon my stars: that only would I call my SUMMIT, that hath

Thus spake Zarathustra to himself while ascending, comforting his heart with harsh maxims: for he was sore

at heart as he had never been before. And when he had reached the top of the mountainridge, behold, there

lay the other sea spread out before him: and he stood still and was long silent. The night, however, was cold

I recognise my destiny, said he at last, sadly. Well! I am ready. Now hath my last lonesomeness begun.

Ah, this sombre, sad sea, below me! Ah, this sombre nocturnal vexation! Ah, fate and sea! To you must I now

Before my highest mountain do I stand, and before my longest wandering: therefore must I first go deeper

Deeper down into pain than I ever ascended, even into its darkest flood! So willeth my fate. Well! I am

Whence come the highest mountains? so did I once ask. Then did I learn that they come out of the sea.

That testimony is inscribed on their stones, and on the walls of their summits. Out of the deepest must the

Thus spake Zarathustra on the ridge of the mountain where it was cold: when, however, he came into the

vicinity of the sea, and at last stood alone amongst the cliffs, then had he become weary on his way, and

Everything as yet sleepeth, said he; even the sea sleepeth. Drowsily and strangely doth its eye gaze upon me.

But it breatheth warmlyI feel it. And I feel also that it dreameth. It tosseth about dreamily on hard pillows.

Ah, I am sad along with thee, thou dusky monster, and angry with myself even for thy sake.

Ah, that my hand hath not strength enough! Gladly, indeed, would I free thee from evil dreams!

And while Zarathustra thus spake, he laughed at himself with melancholy and bitterness. What! Zarathustra,

Ah, thou amiable fool, Zarathustra, thou tooblindly confiding one! But thus hast thou ever been: ever hast

Every monster wouldst thou caress. A whiff of warm breath, a little soft tuft on its paw: and immediately

LOVE is the danger of the lonesomest one, love to anything, IF IT ONLY LIVE! Laughable, verily, is my

Thus spake Zarathustra, and laughed thereby a second time. Then, however, he thought of his abandoned

friendsand as if he had done them a wrong with his thoughts, he upbraided himself because of his

thoughts. And forthwith it came to pass that the laugher weptwith anger and longing wept Zarathustra

When it got abroad among the sailors that Zarathustra was on board the shipfor a man who came from the

Happy Isles had gone on board along with him,there was great curiosity and expectation. But Zarathustra

kept silent for two days, and was cold and deaf with sadness; so that he neither answered looks nor questions.

On the evening of the second day, however, he again opened his ears, though he still kept silent: for there

were many curious and dangerous things to be heard on board the ship, which came from afar, and was to go

still further. Zarathustra, however, was fond of all those who make distant voyages, and dislike to live

without danger. And behold! when listening, his own tongue was at last loosened, and the ice of his heart

To you, the daring venturers and adventurers, and whoever hath embarked with cunning sails upon frightful

To you the enigmaintoxicated, the twilightenjoyers, whose souls are allured by flutes to every treacherous

For ye dislike to grope at a thread with cowardly hand; and where ye can DIVINE, there do ye hate to

Gloomily walked I lately in corpsecoloured twilightgloomily and sternly, with compressed lips. Not only

A path which ascended daringly among boulders, an evil, lonesome path, which neither herb nor shrub any

Mutely marching over the scornful clinking of pebbles, trampling the stone that let it slip: thus did my foot

Upwards:in spite of the spirit that drew it downwards, towards the abyss, the spirit of gravity, my devil and

Upwards:although it sat upon me, halfdwarf, halfmole; paralysed, paralysing; dripping lead in mine ear,

"O Zarathustra," it whispered scornfully, syllable by syllable, "thou stone of wisdom! Thou threwest thyself

O Zarathustra, thou stone of wisdom, thou slingstone, thou stardestroyer! Thyself threwest thou so

Condemned of thyself, and to thine own stoning: O Zarathustra, far indeed threwest thou thy stonebut

Then was the dwarf silent; and it lasted long. The silence, however, oppressed me; and to be thus in pairs, one

I ascended, I ascended, I dreamt, I thought,but everything oppressed me. A sick one did I resemble, whom

But there is something in me which I call courage: it hath hitherto slain for me every dejection. This courage

For courage is the best slayer,courage which ATTACKETH: for in every attack there is sound of triumph.

Man, however, is the most courageous animal: thereby hath he overcome every animal. With sound of

Courage slayeth also giddiness at abysses: and where doth man not stand at abysses! Is not seeing

Courage is the best slayer: courage slayeth also fellowsuffering. Fellowsuffering, however, is the deepest

abyss: as deeply as man looketh into life, so deeply also doth he look into suffering.

Courage, however, is the best slayer, courage which attacketh: it slayeth even death itself; for it saith: "WAS

In such speech, however, there is much sound of triumph. He who hath ears to hear, let him hear.

"Halt, dwarf!" said I. "Either Ior thou! I, however, am the stronger of the two:thou knowest not mine

Then happened that which made me lighter: for the dwarf sprang from my shoulder, the prying sprite! And it

squatted on a stone in front of me. There was however a gateway just where we halted.

"Look at this gateway! Dwarf!" I continued, "it hath two faces. Two roads come together here: these hath no

This long lane backwards: it continueth for an eternity. And that long lane forwardthat is another eternity.

They are antithetical to one another, these roads; they directly abut on one another:and it is here, at this

gateway, that they come together. The name of the gateway is inscribed above: 'This Moment.'

But should one follow them furtherand ever further and further on, thinkest thou, dwarf, that these roads

"Everything straight lieth," murmured the dwarf, contemptuously. "All truth is crooked; time itself is a

"Thou spirit of gravity!" said I wrathfully, "do not take it too lightly! Or I shall let thee squat where thou

"Observe," continued I, "This Moment! From the gateway, This Moment, there runneth a long eternal lane

Must not whatever CAN run its course of all things, have already run along that lane? Must not whatever

And if everything have already existed, what thinkest thou, dwarf, of This Moment? Must not this gateway

And are not all things closely bound together in such wise that This Moment draweth all coming things after

For whatever CAN run its course of all things, also in this long lane OUTWARDMUST it once more

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 thingsmust we not all have already existed?

And must we not return and run in that other lane out before us, that long weird lanemust we not

Thus did I speak, and always more softly: for I was afraid of mine own thoughts, and arrearthoughts. Then,

Had I ever heard a dog howl thus? My thoughts ran back. Yes! When I was a child, in my most distant

Then did I hear a dog howl thus. And saw it also, with hair bristling, its head upwards, trembling in the

So that it excited my commiseration. For just then went the full moon, silent as death, over the house; just

then did it stand still, a glowing globeat rest on the flat roof, as if on some one's property:

Thereby had the dog been terrified: for dogs believe in thieves and ghosts. And when I again heard such

Where was now the dwarf? And the gateway? And the spider? And all the whispering? Had I dreamt? Had I

awakened? 'Twixt rugged rocks did I suddenly stand alone, dreary in the dreariest moonlight.

BUT THERE LAY A MAN! And there! The dog leaping, bristling, whiningnow did it see me

comingthen did it howl again, then did it CRY:had I ever heard a dog cry so for help?

And verily, what I saw, the like had I never seen. A young shepherd did I see, writhing, choking, quivering,

with distorted countenance, and with a heavy black serpent hanging out of his mouth.

Had I ever seen so much loathing and pale horror on one countenance? He had perhaps gone to sleep? Then

My hand pulled at the serpent, and pulled:in vain! I failed to pull the serpent out of his throat. Then there

Its head off! Bite!"so cried it out of me; my horror, my hatred, my loathing, my pity, all my good and my

Ye daring ones around me! Ye venturers and adventurers, and whoever of you have embarked with cunning

Solve unto me the enigma that I then beheld, interpret unto me the vision of the lonesomest one!

For it was a vision and a foresight:WHAT did I then behold in parable? And WHO is it that must come

WHO is the shepherd into whose throat the serpent thus crawled? WHO is the man into whose throat all the

The shepherd however bit as my cry had admonished him; he bit with a strong bite! Far away did he spit

No longer shepherd, no longer mana transfigured being, a lightsurrounded being, that LAUGHED! Never

O my brethren, I heard a laughter which was no human laughter,and now gnaweth a thirst at me, a longing

My longing for that laughter gnaweth at me: oh, how can I still endure to live! And how could I endure to die

With such enigmas and bitterness in his heart did Zarathustra sail o'er the sea. When, however, he was four

dayjourneys from the Happy Isles and from his friends, then had he surmounted all his pain: triumphantly

and with firm foot did he again accept his fate. And then talked Zarathustra in this wise to his exulting

Alone am I again, and like to be so, alone with the pure heaven, and the open sea; and again is the afternoon

On an afternoon did I find my friends for the first time; on an afternoon, also, did I find them a second

For whatever happiness is still on its way 'twixt heaven and earth, now seeketh for lodging a luminous soul:

O afternoon of my life! Once did my happiness also descend to the valley that it might seek a lodging: then

O afternoon of my life! What did I not surrender that I might have one thing: this living plantation of my

Companions did the creating one once seek, and children of HIS hope: and lo, it turned out that he could not

Thus am I in the midst of my work, to my children going, and from them returning: for the sake of his

For in one's heart one loveth only one's child and one's work; and where there is great love to oneself, then is

Still are my children verdant in their first spring, standing nigh one another, and shaken in common by the

But one day will I take them up, and put each by itself alone: that it may learn lonesomeness and defiance and

Gnarled and crooked and with flexible hardness shall it then stand by the sea, a living lighthouse of

Yonder where the storms rush down into the sea, and the snout of the mountain drinketh water, shall each on

Recognised and tested shall each be, to see if he be of my type and lineage:if he be master of a long will,

So that he may one day become my companion, a fellowcreator and fellowenjoyer with

Zarathustra:such a one as writeth my will on my tables, for the fuller perfection of all things.

And for his sake and for those like him, must I perfect MYSELF: therefore do I now avoid my happiness, and

And verily, it were time that I went away; and the wanderer's shadow and the longest tedium and the stillest

The word blew to me through the keyhole and said "Come!" The door sprang subtlely open unto me, and said

But I lay enchained to my love for my children: desire spread this snare for methe desire for lovethat I

Desiringthat is now for me to have lost myself. I POSSESS YOU, MY CHILDREN! In this possessing

But brooding lay the sun of my love upon me, in his own juice stewed Zarathustra,then did shadows and

For frost and winter I now longed: "Oh, that frost and winter would again make me crack and crunch!" sighed

My past burst its tomb, many pains buried alive woke up: fully slept had they merely, concealed in

So called everything unto me in signs: "It is time!" But Iheard not, until at last mine abyss moved, and my

Ah, abysmal thought, which art MY thought! When shall I find strength to hear thee burrowing, and no

To my very throat throbbeth my heart when I hear thee burrowing! Thy muteness even is like to strangle me,

As yet have I never ventured to call thee UP; it hath been enough that I have carried thee about with me!

As yet have I not been strong enough for my final lionwantonness and playfulness.

Sufficiently formidable unto me hath thy weight ever been: but one day shall I yet find the strength and the

When I shall have surmounted myself therein, then will I surmount myself also in that which is greater; and a

Meanwhile do I sail along on uncertain seas; chance flattereth me, smoothtongued chance; forward and

As yet hath the hour of my final struggle not come to meor doth it come to me perhaps just now? Verily,

O afternoon of my life! O happiness before eventide! O haven upon high seas! O peace in uncertainty! How I

Verily, distrustful am I of your insidious beauty! Like the lover am I, who distrusteth too sleek smiling.

As he pusheth the bestbeloved before himtender even in severity, the jealous one, so do I push this

Away with thee, thou blissful hour! With thee hath there come to me an involuntary bliss! Ready for my

Away with thee, thou blissful hour! Rather harbour therewith my children! Hasten! and bless them before

Thus spake Zarathustra. And he waited for his misfortune the whole night; but he waited in vain. The night

remained clear and calm, and happiness itself came nigher and nigher unto him. Towards morning, however,

Zarathustra laughed to his heart, and said mockingly: "Happiness runneth after me. That is because I do not

O heaven above me, thou pure, thou deep heaven! Thou abyss of light! Gazing on thee, I tremble with divine

Up to thy height to toss myselfthat is MY depth! In thy purity to hide myselfthat is MINE innocence!

The God veileth his beauty: thus hidest thou thy stars. Thou speakest not: THUS proclaimest thou thy

Mute o'er the raging sea hast thou risen for me today; thy love and thy modesty make a revelation unto my

In that thou camest unto me beautiful, veiled in thy beauty, in that thou spakest unto me mutely, obvious in

Oh, how could I fail to divine all the modesty of thy soul! BEFORE the sun didst thou come unto methe

We have been friends from the beginning: to us are grief, gruesomeness, and ground common; even the sun is

We do not speak to each other, because we know too much: we keep silent to each other, we smile our

Art thou not the light of my fire? Hast thou not the sistersoul of mine insight?

Together did we learn everything; together did we learn to ascend beyond ourselves to ourselves, and to smile

Uncloudedly to smile down out of luminous eyes and out of miles of distance, when under us constraint

And wandered I alone, for WHAT did my soul hunger by night and in labyrinthine paths? And climbed I

And all my wandering and mountainclimbing: a necessity was it merely, and a makeshift of the unhandy

And what have I hated more than passing clouds, and whatever tainteth thee? And mine own hatred have I

The passing clouds I detestthose stealthy cats of prey: they take from thee and me what is common to

These mediators and mixers we detestthe passing clouds: those halfandhalf ones, that have neither

Rather will I sit in a tub under a closed heaven, rather will I sit in the abyss without heaven, than see thee,

And oft have I longed to pin them fast with the jagged goldwires of lightning, that I might, like the thunder,

An angry drummer, because they rob me of thy Yea and Amen!thou heaven above me, thou pure, thou

For rather will I have noise and thunders and tempestblasts, than this discreet, doubting catrepose; and also

amongst men do I hate most of all the softtreaders, and halfandhalf ones, and the doubting, hesitating,

And "he who cannot bless shall LEARN to curse!"this clear teaching dropt unto me from the clear heaven;

I, however, am a blesser and a Yeasayer, if thou be but around me, thou pure, thou luminous heaven! Thou

A blesser have I become and a Yeasayer: and therefore strove I long and was a striver, that I might one day

This, however, is my blessing: to stand above everything as its own heaven, its round roof, its azure bell and

For all things are baptized at the font of eternity, and beyond good and evil; good and evil themselves,

Verily, it is a blessing and not a blasphemy when I teach that "above all things there standeth the heaven of

chance, the heaven of innocence, the heaven of hazard, the heaven of wantonness."

"Of Hazard"that is the oldest nobility in the world; that gave I back to all things; I emancipated them from

This freedom and celestial serenity did I put like an azure bell above all things, when I taught that over them

This wantonness and folly did I put in place of that Will, when I taught that "In everything there is one thing

A LITTLE reason, to be sure, a germ of wisdom scattered from star to star this leaven is mixed in all

A little wisdom is indeed possible; but this blessed security have I found in all things, that they preferto

O heaven above me! thou pure, thou lofty heaven! This is now thy purity unto me, that there is no eternal

That thou art to me a dancingfloor for divine chances, that thou art to me a table of the Gods, for divine

But thou blushest? Have I spoken unspeakable things? Have I abused, when I meant to bless thee?

Or is it the shame of being two of us that maketh thee blush!Dost thou bid me go and be silent, because

The world is deep:and deeper than e'er the day could read. Not everything may be uttered in presence of

O heaven above me, thou modest one! thou glowing one! O thou, my happiness before sunrise! The day

When Zarathustra was again on the continent, he did not go straightway to his mountains and his cave, but

made many wanderings and questionings, and ascertained this and that; so that he said of himself jestingly:

"Lo, a river that floweth back unto its source in many windings!" For he wanted to learn what had taken place

AMONG MEN during the interval: whether they had become greater or smaller. And once, when he saw a

Did perhaps a silly child take them out of its toybox? Would that another child put them again into the box!

And these rooms and chamberscan MEN go out and in there? They seem to be made for silk dolls; or for

And Zarathustra stood still and meditated. At last he said sorrowfully: "There hath EVERYTHING become

Everywhere do I see lower doorways: he who is of MY type can still go therethrough, buthe must stoop!

Oh, when shall I arrive again at my home, where I shall no longer have to stoopshall no longer have to

stoop BEFORE THE SMALL ONES!"And Zarathustra sighed, and gazed into the distance.

I pass through this people and keep mine eyes open: they do not forgive me for not envying their virtues.

They bite at me, because I say unto them that for small people, small virtues are necessaryand because it is

Here am I still like a cock in a strange farmyard, at which even the hens peck: but on that account I am not

I am courteous towards them, as towards all small annoyances; to be prickly towards what is small, seemeth

They all speak of me when they sit around their fire in the eveningthey speak of me, but no one

This is the new stillness which I have experienced: their noise around me spreadeth a mantle over my

They shout to one another: "What is this gloomy cloud about to do to us? Let us see that it doth not bring a

And recently did a woman seize upon her child that was coming unto me: "Take the children away," cried

They cough when I speak: they think coughing an objection to strong winds they divine nothing of the

"We have not yet time for Zarathustra"so they object; but what matter about a time that "hath no time" for

And if they should altogether praise me, how could I go to sleep on THEIR praise? A girdle of spines is their

And this also did I learn among them: the praiser doeth as if he gave back; in truth, however, he wanteth more

Ask my foot if their lauding and luring strains please it! Verily, to such measure and ticktack, it liketh neither

To small virtues would they fain lure and laud me; to the ticktack of small happiness would they fain

I pass through this people and keep mine eyes open; they have become SMALLER, and ever become

For they are moderate also in virtue,because they want comfort. With comfort, however, moderate virtue

To be sure, they also learn in their way to stride on and stride forward: that, I call their

And many of them go forward, and look backwards thereby, with stiffened necks: those do I like to run up

Foot and eye shall not lie, nor give the lie to each other. But there is much lying among small people.

Some of them WILL, but most of them are WILLED. Some of them are genuine, but most of them are bad

There are actors without knowing it amongst them, and actors without intending it, the genuine ones are

Of man there is little here: therefore do their women masculinise themselves. For only he who is man enough,

And this hypocrisy found I worst amongst them, that even those who command feign the virtues of those who

"I serve, thou servest, we serve"so chanteth here even the hypocrisy of the rulersand alas! if the first

Ah, even upon their hypocrisy did mine eyes' curiosity alight; and well did I divine all their flyhappiness,

So much kindness, so much weakness do I see. So much justice and pity, so much weakness.

Round, fair, and considerate are they to one another, as grains of sand are round, fair, and considerate to

Modestly to embrace a small happinessthat do they call "submission"! and at the same time they peer

In their hearts they want simply one thing most of all: that no one hurt them. Thus do they anticipate every

And when they chance to speak harshly, those small people, then do _I_ hear therein only their

Shrewd indeed are they, their virtues have shrewd fingers. But they lack fists: their fingers do not know how

Virtue for them is what maketh modest and tame: therewith have they made the wolf a dog, and man himself

"We set our chair in the MIDST"so saith their smirking unto me"and as far from dying gladiators as

I pass through this people and let fall many words: but they know neither how to take nor how to retain them.

They wonder why I came not to revile venery and vice; and verily, I came not to warn against pickpockets

They wonder why I am not ready to abet and whet their wisdom: as if they had not yet enough of wiseacres,

And when I call out: "Curse all the cowardly devils in you, that would fain whimper and fold the hands and

And especially do their teachers of submission shout this;but precisely in their ears do I love to cry: "Yea!

Those teachers of submission! Wherever there is aught puny, or sickly, or scabby, there do they creep like

Well! This is my sermon for THEIR ears: I am Zarathustra the godless, who saith: "Who is more godless than

I am Zarathustra the godless: where do I find mine equal? And all those are mine equals who give unto

I am Zarathustra the godless! I cook every chance in MY pot. And only when it hath been quite cooked do I

And verily, many a chance came imperiously unto me: but still more imperiously did my WILL speak unto

Imploring that it might find home and heart with me, and saying flatteringly: "See, O Zarathustra, how

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

Also what ye omit weaveth at the web of all the human future; even your naught is a cobweb, and a spider

And when ye take, then is it like stealing, ye small virtuous ones; but even among knaves HONOUR saith

"It giveth itself"that is also a doctrine of submission. But I say unto you, ye comfortable ones, that IT

Ah, that ye would renounce all HALFwilling, and would decide for idleness as ye decide for action!

Ah, that ye understood my word: "Do ever what ye willbut first be such as CAN WILL.

Such as love with great love, such as love with great contempt!" Thus speaketh Zarathustra the godless.

But why talk I, when no one hath MINE ears! It is still an hour too early for me here.

But THEIR hour cometh! And there cometh also mine! Hourly do they become smaller, poorer,

And SOON shall they stand before me like dry grass and prairie, and verily, weary of themselvesand

O blessed hour of the lightning! O mystery before noontide!Running fires will I one day make of them,

Herald shall they one day with flaming tongues: It cometh, it is nigh, THE GREAT NOONTIDE!

Winter, a bad guest, sitteth with me at home; blue are my hands with his friendly handshaking.

I honour him, that bad guest, but gladly leave him alone. Gladly do I run away from him; and when one

With warm feet and warm thoughts do I run where the wind is calmto the sunny corner of mine

There do I laugh at my stern guest, and am still fond of him; because he cleareth my house of flies, and

For he suffereth it not if a gnat wanteth to buzz, or even two of them; also the lanes maketh he lonesome, so

A hard guest is he,but I honour him, and do not worship, like the tenderlings, the potbellied fireidol.

Better even a little teethchattering than idoladoration!so willeth my nature. And especially have I a

Him whom I love, I love better in winter than in summer; better do I now mock at mine enemies, and more

Heartily, verily, even when I CREEP into bed: there, still laugheth and wantoneth my hidden happiness;

I, acreeper? Never in my life did I creep before the powerful; and if ever I lied, then did I lie out of love.

A poor bed warmeth me more than a rich one, for I am jealous of my poverty. And in winter she is most

With a wickedness do I begin every day: I mock at the winter with a cold bath: on that account grumbleth my

Also do I like to tickle him with a waxtaper, that he may finally let the heavens emerge from ashygrey

For especially wicked am I in the morning: at the early hour when the pail rattleth at the well, and horses

Impatiently do I then wait, that the clear sky may finally dawn for me, the snowbearded wintersky, the

Did I perhaps learn from it the long clear silence? Or did it learn it from me? Or hath each of us devised it

Of all good things the origin is a thousandfold,all good roguish things spring into existence for joy: how

A good roguish thing is also the long silence, and to look, like the wintersky, out of a clear, roundeyed

Like it to stifle one's sun, and one's inflexible solar will: verily, this art and this winterroguishness have I

My bestloved wickedness and art is it, that my silence hath learned not to betray itself by silence.

Clattering with diction and dice, I outwit the solemn assistants: all those stern watchers, shall my will and

That no one might see down into my depth and into mine ultimate willfor that purpose did I devise the

Many a shrewd one did I find: he veiled his countenance and made his water muddy, that no one might see

But precisely unto him came the shrewder distrusters and nutcrackers: precisely from him did they fish his

But the clear, the honest, the transparentthese are for me the wisest silent ones: in them, so PROFOUND is

Thou snowbearded, silent, wintersky, thou roundeyed whitehead above me! Oh, thou heavenly simile of

And MUST I not conceal myself like one who hath swallowed goldlest my soul should be ripped up?

MUST I not wear stilts, that they may OVERLOOK my long legsall those enviers and injurers around me?

Those dingy, firewarmed, usedup, greentinted, illnatured soulshow COULD their envy endure my

Thus do I show them only the ice and winter of my peaksand NOT that my mountain windeth all the solar

They hear only the whistling of my winterstorms: and know NOT that I also travel over warm seas, like

They commiserate also my accidents and chances:but MY word saith: "Suffer the chance to come unto

How COULD they endure my happiness, if I did not put around it accidents, and winterprivations, and

If I did not myself commiserate their PITY, the pity of those enviers and injurers!

If I did not myself sigh before them, and chatter with cold, and patiently LET myself be swathed in their

This is the wise waggishwill and goodwill of my soul, that it CONCEALETH NOT its winters and glacial

To one man, lonesomeness is the flight of the sick one; to another, it is the flight FROM the sick ones.

Let them HEAR me chattering and sighing with wintercold, all those poor squinting knaves around me!

Let them sympathise with me and sigh with me on account of my chilblains: "At the ice of knowledge will he

Meanwhile do I run with warm feet hither and thither on mine olivemount: in the sunny corner of mine

Thus slowly wandering through many peoples and divers cities, did Zarathustra return by roundabout roads

to his mountains and his cave. And behold, thereby came he unawares also to the gate of the GREAT CITY.

Here, however, a foaming fool, with extended hands, sprang forward to him and stood in his way. It was the

same fool whom the people called "the ape of Zarathustra:" for he had learned from him something of the

expression and modulation of language, and perhaps liked also to borrow from the store of his wisdom. And

O Zarathustra, here is the great city: here hast thou nothing to seek and everything to lose.

Why wouldst thou wade through this mire? Have pity upon thy foot! Spit rather on the gate of the city,

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 rattleboned sensations rattle!

Smellest thou not already the shambles and cookshops of the spirit? Steameth not this city with the fumes of

Seest thou not the souls hanging like limp dirty rags?And they make newspapers also out of these rags!

Hearest thou not how spirit hath here become a verbal game? Loathsome verbal swill doth it vomit

They hound one another, and know not whither! They inflame one another, and know not why! They tinkle

They are cold, and seek warmth from distilled waters: they are inflamed, and seek coolness from frozen

All lusts and vices are here at home; but here there are also the virtuous; there is much appointable appointed

Much appointable virtue with scribefingers, and hardy sittingflesh and waitingflesh, blessed with small

There is here also much piety, and much faithful spittlelicking and spittlebacking, before the God of Hosts.

"From on high," drippeth the star, and the gracious spittle; for the high, longeth every starless bosom.

The moon hath its court, and the court hath its mooncalves: unto all, however, that cometh from the court do

"I serve, thou servest, we serve"so prayeth all appointable virtue to the prince: that the merited star may at

But the moon still revolveth around all that is earthly: so revolveth also the prince around what is earthliest of

The God of the Hosts of war is not the God of the golden bar; the prince proposeth, but the

By all that is luminous and strong and good in thee, O Zarathustra! Spit on this city of shopmen and return

Here floweth all blood putridly and tepidly and frothily through all veins: spit on the great city, which is the

Spit on the city of compressed souls and slender breasts, of pointed eyes and sticky fingers

On the city of the obtrusive, the brazenfaced, the pendemagogues and tonguedemagogues, the

Where everything maimed, illfamed, lustful, untrustful, overmellow, sicklyyellow and seditious, festereth

Stop this at once! called out Zarathustra, long have thy speech and thy species disgusted me!

Why didst thou live so long by the swamp, that thou thyself hadst to become a frog and a toad?

Floweth there not a tainted, frothy, swampblood in thine own veins, when thou hast thus learned to croak

Why wentest thou not into the forest? Or why didst thou not till the ground? Is the sea not full of green

I despise thy contempt; and when thou warnedst mewhy didst thou not warn thyself?

Out of love alone shall my contempt and my warning bird take wing; but not out of the swamp!

They call thee mine ape, thou foaming fool: but I call thee my gruntingpig, by thy grunting, thou spoilest

What was it that first made thee grunt? Because no one sufficiently FLATTERED thee:therefore didst thou

seat thyself beside this filth, that thou mightest have cause for much grunting,

That thou mightest have cause for much VENGEANCE! For vengeance, thou vain fool, is all thy foaming;

But thy fools'word injureth ME, even when thou art right! And even if Zarathustra's word WERE a hundred

Thus spake Zarathustra. Then did he look on the great city and sighed, and was long silent. At last he spake

I loathe also this great city, and not only this fool. Here and there there is nothing to better, nothing to

Woe to this great city!And I would that I already saw the pillar of fire in which it will be consumed!

For such pillars of fire must precede the great noontide. But this hath its time and its own fate.

This precept, however, give I unto thee, in parting, thou fool: Where one can no longer love, there should

Ah, lieth everything already withered and grey which but lately stood green and manyhued on this meadow!

Those young hearts have already all become oldand not old even! only weary, ordinary,

Of late did I see them run forth at early morn with valorous steps: but the feet of their knowledge became

Verily, many of them once lifted their legs like the dancer; to them winked the laughter of my

wisdom:then did they bethink themselves. Just now have I seen them bent downto creep to the cross.

Around light and liberty did they once flutter like gnats and young poets. A little older, a little colder: and

Did perhaps their hearts despond, because lonesomeness had swallowed me like a whale? Did their ear

perhaps hearken yearninglylong for me IN VAIN, and for my trumpetnotes and heraldcalls?

Ah! Ever are there but few of those whose hearts have persistent courage and exuberance; and in such

The rest: these are always the great majority, the commonplace, the superfluous, the fartoo manythose

Him who is of my type, will also the experiences of my type meet on the way: so that his first companions

His second companions, howeverthey will call themselves his BELIEVERS, will be a living host, with

To those believers shall he who is of my type among men not bind his heart; in those springtimes and

manyhued meadows shall he not believe, who knoweth the fickly fainthearted human species!

COULD they do otherwise, then would they also WILL otherwise. The halfand half spoil every whole. That

Let them go and fall away, O Zarathustra, and do not lament! Better even to blow amongst them with rustling

Blow amongst those leaves, O Zarathustra, that everything WITHERED may run away from thee the

"We have again become pious"so do those apostates confess; and some of them are still too pusillanimous

Unto them I look into the eye,before them I say it unto their face and unto the blush on their cheeks: Ye

It is however a shame to pray! Not for all, but for thee, and me, and whoever hath his conscience in his head.

Thou knowest it well: the fainthearted devil in thee, which would fain fold its arms, and place its hands in

its bosom, and take it easier:this fainthearted devil persuadeth thee that "there IS a God!"

THEREBY, however, dost thou belong to the lightdreading type, to whom light never permitteth repose:

And verily, thou choosest the hour well: for just now do the nocturnal birds again fly abroad. The hour hath

come for all lightdreading people, the vesper hour and leisure hour, when they do not"take leisure."

I hear it and smell it: it hath cometheir hour for hunt and procession, not indeed for a wild hunt, but for a

For a hunt after susceptible simpletons: all mousetraps for the heart have again been set! And whenever I

Did it perhaps squat there along with another nightmoth? For everywhere do I smell small concealed

communities; and wherever there are closets there are new devotees therein, and the atmosphere of devotees.

They sit for long evenings beside one another, and say: "Let us again become like little children and say,

Or they look for long evenings at a crafty, lurking crossspider, that preacheth prudence to the spiders

Or they sit all day at swamps with anglerods, and on that account think themselves PROFOUND; but

Or they learn in godlygay style to play the harp with a hymnpoet, who would fain harp himself into the

Or they learn to shudder with a learned semimadcap, who waiteth in darkened rooms for spirits to come to

Or they listen to an old roving howland growlpiper, who hath learnt from the sad winds the sadness of

And some of them have even become nightwatchmen: they know now how to blow horns, and go about at

Five words about old things did I hear yesternight at the gardenwall: they came from such old, sorrowful,

"For a father he careth not sufficiently for his children: human fathers do this better!"

"He is too old! He now careth no more for his children,"answered the other nightwatchman.

"HATH he then children? No one can prove it unless he himself prove it! I have long wished that he would

"Prove? As if HE had ever proved anything! Proving is difficult to him; he layeth great stress on one's

"Ay! Ay! Belief saveth him; belief in him. That is the way with old people! So it is with us also!"

Thus spake to each other the two old nightwatchmen and lightscarers, and tooted thereupon sorrowfully

To me, however, did the heart writhe with laughter, and was like to break; it knew not where to go, and sunk

Verily, it will be my death yetto choke with laughter when I see asses drunken, and hear nightwatchmen

Hath the time not LONG since passed for all such doubts? Who may nowadays awaken such old slumbering,

With the old Deities hath it long since come to an end:and verily, a good joyful Deityend had they!

They did not "begloom" themselves to deaththat do people fabricate! On the contrary, theyLAUGHED

That took place when the unGodliest utterance came from a God himselfthe utterance: "There is but one

And all the Gods then laughed, and shook upon their thrones, and exclaimed: "Is it not just divinity that there

Thus talked Zarathustra in the city he loved, which is surnamed "The Pied Cow." For from here he had but

two days to travel to reach once more his cave and his animals; his soul, however, rejoiced unceasingly on

O lonesomeness! My HOME, lonesomeness! Too long have I lived wildly in wild remoteness, to return to

Now threaten me with the finger as mothers threaten; now smile upon me as mothers smile; now say just:

Who when departing called out: 'Too long have I sat with lonesomeness; there have I unlearned silence!'

O Zarathustra, everything do I know; and that thou wert MORE FORSAKEN amongst the many, thou unique

One thing is forsakenness, another matter is lonesomeness: THAT hast thou now learned! And that amongst

Wild and strange even when they love thee: for above all they want to be TREATED INDULGENTLY!

Here, however, art thou at home and house with thyself; here canst thou utter everything, and unbosom all

Here do all things come caressingly to thy talk and flatter thee: for they want to ride upon thy back. On every

Uprightly and openly mayest thou here talk to all things: and verily, it soundeth as praise in their ears, for one

Another matter, however, is forsakenness. For, dost thou remember, O Zarathustra? When thy bird screamed

overhead, when thou stoodest in the forest, irresolute, ignorant where to go, beside a corpse:

When thou spakest: 'Let mine animals lead me! More dangerous have I found it among men than among

And dost thou remember, O Zarathustra? When thou sattest in thine isle, a well of wine giving and granting

Until at last thou alone sattest thirsty amongst the drunken ones, and wailedst nightly: 'Is taking not more

blessed than giving? And stealing yet more blessed than taking?'THAT was forsakenness!

And dost thou remember, O Zarathustra? When thy stillest hour came and drove thee forth from thyself,

When it disgusted thee with all thy waiting and silence, and discouraged thy humble courage: THAT was

O lonesomeness! My home, lonesomeness! How blessedly and tenderly speaketh thy voice unto me!

We do not question each other, we do not complain to each other; we go together openly through open doors.

For all is open with thee and clear; and even the hours run here on lighter feet. For in the dark, time weigheth

Here fly open unto me all being's words and wordcabinets: here all being wanteth to become words, here all

Down there, howeverall talking is in vain! There, forgetting and passingby are the best wisdom: THAT

He who would understand everything in man must handle everything. But for that I have too clean hands.

I do not like even to inhale their breath; alas! that I have lived so long among their noise and bad breaths!

O blessed stillness around me! O pure odours around me! How from a deep breast this stillness fetcheth pure

But down therethere speaketh everything, there is everything misheard. If one announce one's wisdom

Everything among them talketh; no one knoweth any longer how to understand. Everything falleth into the

Everything among them talketh, nothing succeedeth any longer and accomplisheth itself. Everything

Everything among them talketh, everything is outtalked. And that which yesterday was still too hard for

time itself and its tooth, hangeth today, outchamped and outchewed, from the mouths of the men of today.

Everything among them talketh, everything is betrayed. And what was once called the secret and secrecy of

O human hubbub, thou wonderful thing! Thou noise in dark streets! Now art thou again behind me:my

In indulging and pitying lay ever my greatest danger; and all human hubbub wisheth to be indulged and

With suppressed truths, with fool's hand and befooled heart, and rich in petty lies of pity:thus have I ever

Disguised did I sit amongst them, ready to misjudge MYSELF that I might endure THEM, and willingly

One unlearneth men when one liveth amongst them: there is too much foreground in all menwhat can

And, fool that I was, when they misjudged me, I indulged them on that account more than myself, being

habitually hard on myself, and often even taking revenge on myself for the indulgence.

Stung all over by poisonous flies, and hollowed like the stone by many drops of wickedness: thus did I sit

among them, and still said to myself: "Innocent is everything petty of its pettiness!"

Especially did I find those who call themselves "the good," the most poisonous flies; they sting in all

He who liveth amongst the goodpity teacheth him to lie. Pity maketh stifling air for all free souls. For the

To conceal myself and my richesTHAT did I learn down there: for every one did I still find poor in spirit.

That I saw and scented in every one, what was ENOUGH of spirit for him, and what was TOO MUCH!

Their stiff wise men: I call them wise, not stiffthus did I learn to slur over words.

The gravediggers dig for themselves diseases. Under old rubbish rest bad vapours. One should not stir up

With blessed nostrils do I again breathe mountainfreedom. Freed at last is my nose from the smell of all

With sharp breezes tickled, as with sparkling wine, SNEEZETH my soul sneezeth, and shouteth

In my dream, in my last morningdream, I stood today on a promontory beyond the world; I held a pair

Alas, that the rosy dawn came too early to me: she glowed me awake, the jealous one! Jealous is she always

Measurable by him who hath time, weighable by a good weigher, attainable by strong pinions, divinable by

My dream, a bold sailor, halfship, halfhurricane, silent as the butterfly, impatient as the falcon: how had it

Did my wisdom perhaps speak secretly to it, my laughing, wideawake daywisdom, which mocketh at all

"infinite worlds"? For it saith: "Where force is, there becometh NUMBER the master: it hath more force."

How confidently did my dream contemplate this finite world, not newfangledly, not oldfangledly, not

As if a big round apple presented itself to my hand, a ripe golden apple, with a coollysoft, velvety

As if a tree nodded unto me, a broadbranched, strongwilled tree, curved as a recline and a footstool for

As if delicate hands carried a casket towards mea casket open for the delectation of modest adoring

Not riddle enough to scare human love from it, not solution enough to put to sleep human wisdom:a

humanly good thing was the world to me today, of which such bad things are said!

How I thank my morningdream that I thus at today's dawn, weighed the world! As a humanly good thing

And that I may do the like by day, and imitate and copy its best, now will I put the three worst things on the

He who taught to bless taught also to curse: what are the three best cursed things in the world? These will I

VOLUPTUOUSNESS, PASSION FOR POWER, and SELFISHNESS: these three things have hitherto been

best cursed, and have been in worst and falsest repute these three things will I weigh humanly well.

Well! Here is my promontory, and there is the seaIT rolleth hither unto me, shaggily and fawningly, the

Well! Here will I hold the scales over the weltering sea: and also a witness do I choose to look onthee, the

On what bridge goeth the now to the hereafter? By what constraint doth the high stoop to the low? And what

Now stand the scales poised and at rest: three heavy questions have I thrown in; three heavy answers carrieth

Voluptuousness: unto all hairshirted 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

Voluptuousness: to free hearts, a thing innocent and free, the gardenhappiness of the earth, all the future's

Voluptuousness: only to the withered a sweet poison; to the lionwilled, however, the great cordial, and the

Voluptuousness: the great symbolic happiness of a higher happiness and highest hope. For to many is

To many that are more unknown to each other than man and woman:and who hath fully understood

Voluptuousness:but I will have hedges around my thoughts, and even around my words, lest swine and

Passion for power: the glowing scourge of the hardest of the hearthard; the cruel torture reserved for the

Passion for power: the wicked gadfly which is mounted on the vainest peoples; the scorner of all uncertain

Passion for power: the earthquake which breaketh and upbreaketh all that is rotten and hollow; the rolling,

rumbling, punitive demolisher of whited sepulchres; the flashing interrogativesign beside premature

Passion for power: before whose glance man creepeth and croucheth and drudgeth, and becometh lower than

Passion for power: the terrible teacher of great contempt, which preacheth to their face to cities and empires:

Passion for power: which, however, mounteth alluringly even to the pure and lonesome, and up to

selfsatisfied elevations, glowing like a love that painteth purple felicities alluringly on earthly heavens.

Passion for power: but who would call it PASSION, when the height longeth to stoop for power! Verily,

That the lonesome height may not for ever remain lonesome and selfsufficing; that the mountains may come

Oh, who could find the right prenomen and honouring name for such longing! "Bestowing virtue"thus did

And then it happened also,and verily, it happened for the first time! that his word blessed

SELFISHNESS, the wholesome, healthy selfishness, that springeth from the powerful soul:

From the powerful soul, to which the high body appertaineth, the handsome, triumphing, refreshing body,

The pliant, persuasive body, the dancer, whose symbol and epitome is the selfenjoying soul. Of such

With its words of good and bad doth such selfenjoyment shelter itself as with sacred groves; with the names

Away from itself doth it banish everything cowardly; it saith: "BadTHAT IS cowardly!" Contemptible

seem to it the eversolicitous, the sighing, the complaining, and whoever pick up the most trifling advantage.

It despiseth also all bittersweet wisdom: for verily, there is also wisdom that bloometh in the dark, a

Shy distrust is regarded by it as base, and every one who wanteth oaths instead of looks and hands: also all

Baser still it regardeth the obsequious, doggish one, who immediately lieth on his back, the submissive one;

and there is also wisdom that is submissive, and doggish, and pious, and obsequious.

Hateful to it altogether, and a loathing, is he who will never defend himself, he who swalloweth down

poisonous spittle and bad looks, the alltoo patient one, the allendurer, the allsatisfied one: for that is the

Whether they be servile before Gods and divine spurnings, or before men and stupid human opinions: at ALL

Bad: thus doth it call all that is spiritbroken, and sordidlyservile constrained, blinking eyes, depressed

And spurious wisdom: so doth it call all the wit that slaves, and hoaryheaded and weary ones affect; and

especially all the cunning, spuriouswitted, curiouswitted foolishness of priests!

The spurious wise, however, all the priests, the worldweary, and those whose souls are of feminine and

And precisely THAT was to be virtue and was to be called virtueto abuse selfishness! And "selfless"so

did they wish themselves with good reason, all those worldweary cowards and crossspiders!

But to all those cometh now the day, the change, the sword of judgment, THE GREAT NOONTIDE: then

And he who proclaimeth the EGO wholesome and holy, and selfishness blessed, verily, he, the

prognosticator, speaketh also what he knoweth: "BEHOLD, IT COMETH, IT IS NIGH, THE GREAT

My mouthpieceis of the people: too coarsely and cordially do I talk for Angora rabbits. And still stranger

My handis a fool's hand: woe unto all tables and walls, and whatever hath room for fool's sketching, fool's

My footis a horsefoot; therewith do I trample and trot over stick and stone, in the fields up and down, and

My stomachis surely an eagle's stomach? For it preferreth lamb's flesh. Certainly it is a bird's stomach.

Nourished with innocent things, and with few, ready and impatient to fly, to fly awaythat is now my

And especially that I am hostile to the spirit of gravity, that is birdnature: verily, deadly hostile, supremely

hostile, originally hostile! Oh, whither hath my hostility not flown and misflown!

Thereof could I sing a songand WILL sing it: though I be alone in an empty house, and must sing it to

Other singers are there, to be sure, to whom only the full house maketh the voice soft, the hand eloquent, the

He who one day teacheth men to fly will have shifted all landmarks; to him will all landmarks themselves fly

The ostrich runneth faster than the fastest horse, but it also thrusteth its head heavily into the heavy earth:

Heavy unto him are earth and life, and so WILLETH the spirit of gravity! But he who would become light,

Not, to be sure, with the love of the sick and infected, for with them stinketh even selflove!

One must learn to love oneselfthus do I teachwith a wholesome and healthy love: that one may endure

Such roving about christeneth itself "brotherly love"; with these words hath there hitherto been the best lying

And verily, it is no commandment for today and tomorrow to LEARN to love oneself. Rather is it of all

For to its possessor is all possession well concealed, and of all treasurepits one's own is last excavatedso

Almost in the cradle are we apportioned with heavy words and worths: "good" and "evil"so calleth itself

And therefore suffereth one little children to come unto one, to forbid them betimes to love themselvesso

And wewe bear loyally what is apportioned unto us, on hard shoulders, over rugged mountains! And when

But man himself only is hard to bear! The reason thereof is that he carrieth too many extraneous things on his

Especially the strong loadbearing man in whom reverence resideth. Too many EXTRANEOUS heavy

And verily! Many a thing also that is OUR OWN is hard to bear! And many internal things in man are like

So that an elegant shell, with elegant adornment, must plead for them. But this art also must one learn: to

Again, it deceiveth about many things in man, that many a shell is poor and pitiable, and too much of a shell.

Much concealed goodness and power is never dreamt of; the choicest dainties find no tasters!

Women know that, the choicest of them: a little fatter a little leaner oh, how much fate is in so little!

Man is difficult to discover, and unto himself most difficult of all; often lieth the spirit concerning the soul.

He, however, hath discovered himself who saith: This is MY good and evil: therewith hath he silenced the

Verily, neither do I like those who call everything good, and this world the best of all. Those do I call the

Allsatisfiedness, which knoweth how to taste everything,that is not the best taste! I honour the refractory,

fastidious tongues and stomachs, which have learned to say "I" and "Yea" and "Nay."

To chew and digest everything, howeverthat is the genuine swinenature! Ever to say YEAthat hath

Deep yellow and hot redso wanteth MY tasteit mixeth blood with all colours. He, however, who

With mummies, some fall in love; others with phantoms: both alike hostile to all flesh and bloodoh, how

And there will I not reside and abide where every one spitteth and speweth: that is now MY taste,rather

Still more repugnant unto me, however, are all lickspittles; and the most repugnant animal of man that I

found, did I christen "parasite": it would not love, and would yet live by love.

Unhappy do I call all those who have only one choice: either to become evil beasts, or evil beasttamers.

Unhappy do I also call those who have ever to WAIT,they are repugnant to my tasteall the

Verily, I learned waiting also, and thoroughly so,but only waiting for MYSELF. And above all did I learn

This however is my teaching: he who wisheth one day to fly, must first learn standing and walking and

With ropeladders learned I to reach many a window, with nimble legs did I climb high masts: to sit on high

To flicker like small flames on high masts: a small light, certainly, but a great comfort to castaway sailors

By divers ways and wendings did I arrive at my truth; not by one ladder did I mount to the height where mine

And unwillingly only did I ask my waythat was always counter to my taste! Rather did I question and test

A testing and a questioning hath been all my travelling:and verily, one must also LEARN to answer such

Neither a good nor a bad taste, but MY taste, of which I have no longer either shame or secrecy.

"Thisis now MY way,where is yours?" Thus did I answer those who asked me "the way." For THE

Here do I sit and wait, old broken tables around me and also new halfwritten tables. When cometh mine

For that hour do I now wait: for first must the signs come unto me that it is MINE hournamely, the

Meanwhile do I talk to myself as one who hath time. No one telleth me anything new, so I tell myself mine

When I came unto men, then found I them resting on an old infatuation: all of them thought they had long

An old wearisome business seemed to them all discourse about virtue; and he who wished to sleep well spake

This somnolence did I disturb when I taught that NO ONE YET KNOWETH what is good and bad:unless

It is he, however, who createth man's goal, and giveth to the earth its meaning and its future: he only

And I bade them upset their old academic chairs, and wherever that old infatuation had sat; I bade them laugh

At their gloomy sages did I bid them laugh, and whoever had sat admonishing as a black scarecrow on the

On their great gravehighway did I seat myself, and even beside the carrion and vulturesand I laughed at

Verily, like penitential preachers and fools did I cry wrath and shame on all their greatness and smallness.

Oh, that their best is so very small! Oh, that their worst is so very small! Thus did I laugh.

Thus did my wise longing, born in the mountains, cry and laugh in me; a wild wisdom, verily!my great

And oft did it carry me off and up and away and in the midst of laughter; then flew I quivering like an arrow

Out into distant futures, which no dream hath yet seen, into warmer souths than ever sculptor

(That I may speak in parables and halt and stammer like the poets: and verily I am ashamed that I have still to

Where all becoming seemed to me dancing of Gods, and wantoning of Gods, and the world unloosed and

As an eternal selffleeing and reseeking of one another of many Gods, as the blessed selfcontradicting,

Where all time seemed to me a blessed mockery of moments, where necessity was freedom itself, which

Where I also found again mine old devil and archenemy, the spirit of gravity, and all that it created:

constraint, law, necessity and consequence and purpose and will and good and evil:

For must there not be that which is danced OVER, danced beyond? Must there not, for the sake of the nimble,

There was it also where I picked up from the path the word "Superman," and that man is something that must

That man is a bridge and not a goalrejoicing over his noontides and evenings, as advances to new rosy

The Zarathustra word of the great noontide, and whatever else I have hung up over men like purple

Verily, also new stars did I make them see, along with new nights; and over cloud and day and night, did I

I taught them all MY poetisation and aspiration: to compose and collect into unity what is fragment in man,

As composer, riddlereader, and redeemer of chance, did I teach them to create the future, and all that

The past of man to redeem, and every "It was" to transform, until the Will saith: "But so did I will it! So shall

For once more will I go unto men: AMONGST them will my sun set; in dying will I give them my choicest

From the sun did I learn this, when it goeth down, the exuberant one: gold doth it then pour into the sea, out

So that the poorest fisherman roweth even with GOLDEN oars! For this did I once see, and did not tire of

Like the sun will also Zarathustra go down: now sitteth he here and waiteth, old broken tables around him,

Behold, here is a new table; but where are my brethren who will carry it with me to the valley and into hearts

Thus demandeth my great love to the remotest ones: BE NOT CONSIDERATE OF THY NEIGHBOUR!

There are many divers ways and modes of surpassing: see THOU thereto! But only a buffoon thinketh: "man

Surpass thyself even in thy neighbour: and a right which thou canst seize upon, shalt thou not allow to be

He who cannot command himself shall obey. And many a one CAN command himself, but still sorely

Thus wisheth the type of noble souls: they desire to have nothing GRATUITOUSLY, least of all, life.

He who is of the populace wisheth to live gratuitously; we others, however, to whom life hath given

And verily, it is a noble dictum which saith: "What life promiseth US, that promise will WE keepto life!"

One should not wish to enjoy where one doth not contribute to the enjoyment. And one should not WISH to

For enjoyment and innocence are the most bashful things. Neither like to be sought for. One should HAVE

O my brethren, he who is a firstling is ever sacrificed. Now, however, are we firstlings!

We all bleed on secret sacrificial altars, we all burn and broil in honour of ancient idols.

Our best is still young: this exciteth old palates. Our flesh is tender, our skin is only lambs' skin:how could

IN OURSELVES dwelleth he still, the old idolpriest, who broileth our best for his banquet. Ah, my

But so wisheth our type; and I love those who do not wish to preserve themselves, the downgoing ones do I

To be truethat CAN few be! And he who can, will not! Least of all, however, can the good be true.

Oh, those good ones! GOOD MEN NEVER SPEAK THE TRUTH. For the spirit, thus to be good, is a

They yield, those good ones, they submit themselves; their heart repeateth, their soul obeyeth: HE, however,

All that is called evil by the good, must come together in order that one truth may be born. O my brethren, are

The daring venture, the prolonged distrust, the cruel Nay, the tedium, the cuttingintothequickhow

BESIDE the bad conscience hath hitherto grown all KNOWLEDGE! Break up, break up, ye discerning ones,

When the water hath planks, when gangways and railings o'erspan the stream, verily, he is not believed who

But even the simpletons contradict him. "What?" say the simpletons, "all in flux? Planks and railings are still

"OVER the stream all is stable, all the values of things, the bridges and bearings, all 'good' and 'evil': these

Cometh, however, the hard winter, the streamtamer, then learn even the wittiest distrust, and verily, not only

"Fundamentally standeth everything still"that is an appropriate winter doctrine, good cheer for an

"Fundamentally standeth everything still": but CONTRARY thereto, preacheth the thawing wind!

The thawing wind, a bullock, which is no ploughing bullocka furious bullock, a destroyer, which with

O my brethren, is not everything AT PRESENT IN FLUX? Have not all railings and gangways fallen into the

"Woe to us! Hail to us! The thawing wind bloweth!"Thus preach, my brethren, through all the streets!

There is an old illusionit is called good and evil. Around soothsayers and astrologers hath hitherto

Once did one BELIEVE in soothsayers and astrologers; and THEREFORE did one believe, "Everything is

Then again did one distrust all soothsayers and astrologers; and THEREFORE did one believe, "Everything is

O my brethren, concerning the stars and the future there hath hitherto been only illusion, and not knowledge;

and THEREFORE concerning good and evil there hath hitherto been only illusion and not knowledge!

"Thou shalt not rob! Thou shalt not slay!"such precepts were once called holy; before them did one bow

But I ask you: Where have there ever been better robbers and slayers in the world than such holy precepts?

Is there not even in all liferobbing and slaying? And for such precepts to be called holy, was not TRUTH

Or was it a sermon of death that called holy what contradicted and dissuaded from life?O my brethren,

Abandoned to the favour, the spirit and the madness of every generation that cometh, and reinterpreteth all

A great potentate might arise, an artful prodigy, who with approval and disapproval could strain and constrain

all the past, until it became for him a bridge, a harbinger, a herald, and a cockcrowing.

This however is the other danger, and mine other sympathy:he who is of the populace, his thoughts go

Thus is all the past abandoned: for it might some day happen for the populace to become master, and drown

Therefore, O my brethren, a NEW NOBILITY is needed, which shall be the adversary of all populace and

For many noble ones are needed, and many kinds of noble ones, FOR A NEW NOBILITY! Or, as I once said

O my brethren, I consecrate you and point you to a new nobility: ye shall become procreators and cultivators

Verily, not to a nobility which ye could purchase like traders with traders' gold; for little worth is all that

Let it not be your honour henceforth whence ye come, but whither ye go! Your Will and your feet which seek

Verily, not that ye have served a princeof what account are princes now! nor that ye have become a

Not that your family have become courtly at courts, and that ye have learnedgaycoloured, like the

(For ABILITYtostand is a merit in courtiers; and all courtiers believe that unto blessedness after death

Nor even that a Spirit called Holy, led your forefathers into promised lands, which I do not praise: for where

And verily, wherever this "Holy Spirit" led its knights, always in such campaigns didgoats and geese,

O my brethren, not backward shall your nobility gaze, but OUTWARD! Exiles shall ye be from all

Your CHILDREN'S LAND shall ye love: let this love be your new nobility, the undiscovered in the

Unto your children shall ye MAKE AMENDS for being the children of your fathers: all the past shall ye

"Why should one live? All is vain! To livethat is to thrash straw; to livethat is to burn oneself and yet

Such ancient babbling still passeth for "wisdom"; because it is old, however, and smelleth mustily,

Children might thus speak: they SHUN the fire because it hath burnt them! There is much childishness in the

And he who ever "thrasheth straw," why should he be allowed to rail at thrashing! Such a fool one would

Such persons sit down to the table and bring nothing with them, not even good hunger:and then do they

But to eat and drink well, my brethren, is verily no vain art! Break up, break up for me the tables of the

"To the clean are all things clean"thus say the people. I, however, say unto you: To the swine all things

Therefore preach the visionaries and bowedheads (whose hearts are also bowed down): "The world itself is

For these are all unclean spirits; especially those, however, who have no peace or rest, unless they see the

TO THOSE do I say it to the face, although it sound unpleasantly: the world resembleth man, in that it hath a

There is in the world much filth: SO MUCH is true! But the world itself is not therefore a filthy monster!

There is wisdom in the fact that much in the world smelleth badly: loathing itself createth wings, and

In the best there is still something to loathe; and the best is still something that must be surpassed!

O my brethren, there is much wisdom in the fact that much filth is in the world!

Such sayings did I hear pious backworldsmen speak to their consciences, and verily without wickedness or

"Let whoever will choke and stab and skin and scrape the people: raise not a finger against it! Thereby will

"And thine own reasonthis shalt thou thyself stifle and choke; for it is a reason of this world,thereby wilt

Shatter, shatter, O my brethren, those old tables of the pious! Tatter the maxims of the

"He who learneth much unlearneth all violent cravings"that do people now whisper to one another in all

"Wisdom wearieth, nothing is worth while; thou shalt not crave!"this new table found I hanging even in

Break up for me, O my brethren, break up also that NEW table! The wearyo' theworld put it up, and the

Because they learned badly and not the best, and everything too early and everything too fast; because they

For a ruined stomach, is their spirit: IT persuadeth to death! For verily, my brethren, the spirit IS a

Life is a well of delight, but to him in whom the ruined stomach speaketh, the father of affliction, all

To discern: that is DELIGHT to the lionwilled! But he who hath become weary, is himself merely "willed";

And such is always the nature of weak men: they lose themselves on their way. And at last asketh their

TO THEM soundeth it pleasant to have preached in their ears: "Nothing is worth while! Ye shall not will!"

O my brethren, a fresh blustering wind cometh Zarathustra unto all wayweary ones; many noses will he yet

Even through walls bloweth my free breath, and in into prisons and imprisoned spirits!

Willing emancipateth: for willing is creating: so do I teach. And ONLY for creating shall ye learn!

And also the learning shall ye LEARN only from me, the learning well!He who hath ears let him hear!

There standeth the boatthither goeth it over, perhaps into vast nothingnessbut who willeth to enter into

None of you want to enter into the deathboat! How should ye then be WORLDWEARY ones!

Worldweary ones! And have not even withdrawn from the earth! Eager did I ever find you for the earth,

Not in vain doth your lip hang down:a small worldly wish still sitteth thereon! And in your eyefloateth

There are on the earth many good inventions, some useful, some pleasant: for their sake is the earth to be

And many such good inventions are there, that they are like woman's breasts: useful at the same time, and

Ye worldweary ones, however! Ye earthidlers! You, shall one beat with stripes! With stripes shall one

For if ye be not invalids, or decrepit creatures, of whom the earth is weary, then are ye sly sloths, or dainty,

sneaking pleasurecats. And if ye will not again RUN gaily, then shall yepass away!

To the incurable shall one not seek to be a physician: thus teacheth Zarathustra:so shall ye pass away!

But more COURAGE is needed to make an end than to make a new verse: that do all physicians and poets

O my brethren, there are tables which weariness framed, and tables which slothfulness framed, corrupt

See this languishing one! Only a spanbreadth is he from his goal; but from weariness hath he lain down

From weariness yawneth he at the path, at the earth, at the goal, and at himself: not a step further will he

Now gloweth the sun upon him, and the dogs lick at his sweat: but he lieth there in his obstinacy and

A spanbreadth from his goal, to languish! Verily, ye will have to drag him into his heaven by the hair of

Better still that ye let him lie where he hath lain down, that sleep may come unto him, the comforter, with

Let him lie, until of his own accord he awakeneth,until of his own accord he repudiateth all weariness, and

Only, my brethren, see that ye scare the dogs away from him, the idle skulkers, and all the swarming

All the swarming vermin of the "cultured," thatfeast on the sweat of every hero!

I form circles around me and holy boundaries; ever fewer ascend with me ever higher mountains: I build a

But wherever ye would ascend with me, O my brethren, take care lest a PARASITE ascend with you!

A parasite: that is a reptile, a creeping, cringing reptile, that trieth to fatten on your infirm and sore places.

And THIS is its art: it divineth where ascending souls are weary, in your trouble and dejection, in your

Where the strong are weak, where the noble are alltoogentlethere buildeth it its loathsome nest; the

What is the highest of all species of being, and what is the lowest? The parasite is the lowest species; he,

For the soul which hath the longest ladder, and can go deepest down: how could there fail to be most

The most comprehensive soul, which can run and stray and rove furthest in itself; the most necessary soul,

The soul in Being, which plungeth into Becoming; the possessing soul, which SEEKETH to attain desire

The soul fleeing from itself, which overtaketh itself in the widest circuit; the wisest soul, unto which folly

The soul most selfloving, in which all things have their current and countercurrent, their ebb and their

O my brethren, am I then cruel? But I say: What falleth, that shall one also push!

Everything of todayit falleth, it decayeth; who would preserve it! But II wish also to push it!

Know ye the delight which rolleth stones into precipitous depths?Those men of today, see just how they

A prelude am I to better players, O my brethren! An example! DO according to mine example!

I love the brave: but it is not enough to be a swordsman,one must also know WHEREON to use

And often is it greater bravery to keep quiet and pass by, that THEREBY one may reserve oneself for a

Ye shall only have foes to be hated; but not foes to be despised: ye must be proud of your foes. Thus have I

For the worthier foe, O my brethren, shall ye reserve yourselves: therefore must ye pass by many a one,

Especially many of the rabble, who din your ears with noise about people and peoples.

Keep your eye clear of their For and Against! There is there much right, much wrong: he who looketh on

Therein viewing, therein hewingthey are the same thing: therefore depart into the forests and lay your

Go YOUR ways! and let the people and peoples go theirs!gloomy ways, verily, on which not a single hope

Let there the trader rule, where all that still glittereth istraders' gold. It is the time of kings no longer: that

See how these peoples themselves now do just like the traders: they pick up the smallest advantage out of all

They lay lures for one another, they lure things out of one another,that they call "good neighbourliness." O

blessed remote period when a people said to itself: "I will beMASTER over peoples!"

For, my brethren, the best shall rule, the best also WILLETH to rule! And where the teaching is different,

If THEY hadbread for nothing, alas! for what would THEY cry! Their maintainmentthat is their true

Beasts of prey, are they: in their "working"there is even plundering, in their "earning"there is even

Better beasts of prey shall they thus become, subtler, cleverer, MORE MANLIKE: for man is the best beast

All the animals hath man already robbed of their virtues: that is why of all animals it hath been hardest for

Only the birds are still beyond him. And if man should yet learn to fly, alas! TO WHAT HEIGHTwould

Thus would I have man and woman: fit for war, the one; fit for maternity, the other; both, however, fit for

And lost be the day to us in which a measure hath not been danced. And false be every truth which hath not

Your marriagearranging: see that it be not a bad ARRANGING! Ye have arranged too hastily: so there

And better marriagebreaking than marriagebending, marriagelying!Thus spake a woman unto me:

The badly paired found I ever the most revengeful: they make every one suffer for it that they no longer run

On that account want I the honest ones to say to one another: "We love each other: let us SEE TO IT that we

"Give us a set term and a small marriage, that we may see if we are fit for the great marriage! It is a great

Thus do I counsel all honest ones; and what would be my love to the Superman, and to all that is to come, if I

Not only to propagate yourselves onwards but UPWARDSthereto, O my brethren, may the garden of

He who hath grown wise concerning old origins, lo, he will at last seek after the fountains of the future and

O my brethren, not long will it be until NEW PEOPLES shall arise and new fountains shall rush down into

For the earthquakeit choketh up many wells, it causeth much languishing: but it bringeth also to light inner

The earthquake discloseth new fountains. In the earthquake of old peoples new fountains burst forth.

And whoever calleth out: "Lo, here is a well for many thirsty ones, one heart for many longing ones, one will

for many instruments":around him collecteth a PEOPLE, that is to say, many attempting ones.

Who can command, who must obeyTHAT IS THERE ATTEMPTED! Ah, with what long seeking and

Human society: it is an attemptso I teacha long seeking: it seeketh however the ruler!

An attempt, my brethren! And NO "contract"! Destroy, I pray you, destroy that word of the softhearted

O my brethren! With whom lieth the greatest danger to the whole human future? Is it not with the good and

As those who say and feel in their hearts: "We already know what is good and just, we possess it also; woe

And whatever harm the wicked may do, the harm of the good is the harmfulest harm!

And whatever harm the worldmaligners may do, the harm of the good is the harmfulest harm!

O my brethren, into the hearts of the good and just looked some one once on a time, who said: "They are the

The good and just themselves were not free to understand him; their spirit was imprisoned in their good

The second one, however, who discovered their countrythe country, heart and soil of the good and

The CREATOR, hate they most, him who breaketh the tables and old values, the breaker,him they call the

They crucify him who writeth new values on new tables, they sacrifice UNTO THEMSELVES the

O my brethren, have ye also understood this word? And what I once said of the "last man"?

With whom lieth the greatest danger to the whole human future? Is it not with the good and just?

BREAK UP, BREAK UP, I PRAY YOU, THE GOOD AND JUST!O my brethren, have ye understood

O my brethren, when I enjoined you to break up the good, and the tables of the good, then only did I embark

And now only cometh unto him the great terror, the great outlook, the great sickness, the great nausea, the

False shores and false securities did the good teach you; in the lies of the good were ye born and bred.

But he who discovered the country of "man," discovered also the country of "man's future." Now shall ye be

Keep yourselves up betimes, my brethren, learn to keep yourselves up! The sea stormeth: many seek to raise

What of fatherland! THITHER striveth our helm where our CHILDREN'S LAND is! Thitherwards, stormier

"Why so hard!"said to the diamond one day the charcoal; "are we then not near relatives?"

Why so soft, so submissive and yielding? Why is there so much negation and abnegation in your hearts? Why

And if ye will not be fates and inexorable ones, how can ye one day conquer with me?

And if your hardness will not glance and cut and chip to pieces, how can ye one daycreate with me?

For the creators are hard. And blessedness must it seem to you to press your hand upon millenniums as upon

Blessedness to write upon the will of millenniums as upon brass,harder than brass, nobler than brass.

O thou, my Will! Thou change of every need, MY needfulness! Preserve me from all small victories!

Thou fatedness of my soul, which I call fate! Thou Inme! Overme! Preserve and spare me for one great

And thy last greatness, my Will, spare it for thy lastthat thou mayest be inexorable IN thy victory! Ah, who

Ah, whose eye hath not bedimmed in this intoxicated twilight! Ah, whose foot hath not faltered and forgotten

That I may one day be ready and ripe in the great noontide: ready and ripe like the glowing ore, the

Ready for myself and for my most hidden Will: a bow eager for its arrow, an arrow eager for its star:

A star, ready and ripe in its noontide, glowing, pierced, blessed, by annihilating sunarrows:

O Will, thou change of every need, MY needfulness! Spare me for one great victory!

One morning, not long after his return to his cave, Zarathustra sprang up from his couch like a madman,

crying with a frightful voice, and acting as if some one still lay on the couch who did not wish to rise.

Zarathustra's voice also resounded in such a manner that his animals came to him frightened, and out of all

the neighbouring caves and lurkingplaces all the creatures slipped awayflying, fluttering, creeping or

leaping, according to their variety of foot or wing. Zarathustra, however, spake these words:

Up, abysmal thought out of my depth! I am thy cock and morning dawn, thou overslept reptile: Up! Up! My

Unbind the fetters of thine ears: listen! For I wish to hear thee! Up! Up! There is thunder enough to make the

And rub the sleep and all the dimness and blindness out of thine eyes! Hear me also with thine eyes: my voice

And once thou art awake, then shalt thou ever remain awake. It is not MY custom to awake

Thou stirrest, stretchest thyself, wheezest? Up! Up! Not wheeze, shalt thou,but speak unto me! Zarathustra

I, Zarathustra, the advocate of living, the advocate of suffering, the advocate of the circuitthee do I call,

Joy to me! Thou comest,I hear thee! Mine abyss SPEAKETH, my lowest depth have I turned over into the

Joy to me! Come hither! Give me thy handha! let be! aha!Disgust, disgust, disgustalas to me!

Hardly, however, had Zarathustra spoken these words, when he fell down as one dead, and remained long as

one dead. When however he again came to himself, then was he pale and trembling, and remained lying; and

for long he would neither eat nor drink. This condition continued for seven days; his animals, however, did

not leave him day nor night, except that the eagle flew forth to fetch food. And what it fetched and foraged, it

laid on Zarathustra's couch: so that Zarathustra at last lay among yellow and red berries, grapes, rosy apples,

sweetsmelling herbage, and pinecones. At his feet, however, two lambs were stretched, which the eagle

At last, after seven days, Zarathustra raised himself upon his couch, took a rosy apple in his hand, smelt it and

found its smell pleasant. Then did his animals think the time had come to speak unto him.

"O Zarathustra," said they, "now hast thou lain thus for seven days with heavy eyes: wilt thou not set thyself

Step out of thy cave: the world waiteth for thee as a garden. The wind playeth with heavy fragrance which

All things long for thee, since thou hast remained alone for seven days step forth out of thy cave! All

Did perhaps a new knowledge come to thee, a bitter, grievous knowledge? Like leavened dough layest thou,

O mine animals, answered Zarathustra, talk on thus and let me listen! It refresheth me so to hear your talk:

How charming it is that there are words and tones; are not words and tones rainbows and seeming bridges

To each soul belongeth another world; to each soul is every other soul a backworld.

Among the most alike doth semblance deceive most delightfully: for the smallest gap is most difficult to

For mehow could there be an outsideofme? There is no outside! But this we forget on hearing tones;

Have not names and tones been given unto things that man may refresh himself with them? It is a beautiful

How lovely is all speech and all falsehoods of tones! With tones danceth our love on variegated rainbows.

"O Zarathustra," said then his animals, "to those who think like us, things all dance themselves: they come

Everything goeth, everything returneth; eternally rolleth the wheel of existence. Everything dieth, everything

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.

O ye wags and barrelorgans! answered Zarathustra, and smiled once more, how well do ye know what

And how that monster crept into my throat and choked me! But I bit off its head and spat it away from me.

And yeye have made a lyrelay out of it? Now, however, do I lie here, still exhausted with that biting and

AND YE LOOKED ON AT IT ALL? O mine animals, are ye also cruel? Did ye like to look at my great pain

At tragedies, bullfights, and crucifixions hath he hitherto been happiest on earth; and when he invented his

When the great man crieth: immediately runneth the little man thither, and his tongue hangeth out of his

The little man, especially the poethow passionately doth he accuse life in words! Hearken to him, but do

Such accusers of lifethem life overcometh with a glance of the eye. "Thou lovest me?" saith the insolent

Towards himself man is the cruellest animal; and in all who call themselves "sinners" and "bearers of the

cross" and "penitents," do not overlook the voluptuousness in their plaints and accusations!

And I myselfdo I thereby want to be man's accuser? Ah, mine animals, this only have I learned hitherto,

That all that is baddest is the best POWER, and the hardest stone for the highest creator; and that man

Not to THIS torturestake was I tied, that I know man is bad,but I cried, as no one hath yet cried:

The great disgust at manIT strangled me and had crept into my throat: and what the soothsayer had

A long twilight limped on before me, a fatally weary, fatally intoxicated sadness, which spake with yawning

"Eternally he returneth, the man of whom thou art weary, the small man"so yawned my sadness, and

A cavern, became the human earth to me; its breast caved in; everything living became to me human dust and

My sighing sat on all human graves, and could no longer arise: my sighing and questioning croaked and

Naked had I once seen both of them, the greatest man and the smallest man: all too like one anotherall too

All too small, even the greatest man!that was my disgust at man! And the eternal return also of the

Ah, Disgust! Disgust! Disgust!Thus spake Zarathustra, and sighed and shuddered; for he remembered his

"Do not speak further, thou convalescent!"so answered his animals, "but go out where the world waiteth

Go out unto the roses, the bees, and the flocks of doves! Especially, however, unto the singingbirds, to learn

For singing is for the convalescent; the sound ones may talk. And when the sound also want songs, then want

"O ye wags and barrelorgans, do be silent!" answered Zarathustra, and smiled at his animals. "How well

That I have to sing once moreTHAT consolation did I devise for myself, and THIS convalescence: would

"Do not talk further," answered his animals once more; "rather, thou convalescent, prepare for thyself first

Sing and bubble over, O Zarathustra, heal thy soul with new lays: that thou mayest bear thy great fate, which

For thine animals know it well, O Zarathustra, who thou art and must become: behold, THOU ART THE

That thou must be the first to teach this teachinghow could this great fate not be thy greatest danger and

Behold, we know what thou teachest: that all things eternally return, and ourselves with them, and that we

Thou teachest that there is a great year of Becoming, a prodigy of a great year; it must, like a sandglass, ever

So that all those years are like one another in the greatest and also in the smallest, so that we ourselves, in

And if thou wouldst now die, O Zarathustra, behold, we know also how thou wouldst then speak to

Thou wouldst speak, and without trembling, buoyant rather with bliss, for a great weight and worry would be

'Now do I die and disappear,' wouldst thou say, 'and in a moment I am nothing. Souls are as mortal as bodies.

But the plexus of causes returneth in which I am intertwined,it will again create me! I myself pertain to the

I come again with this sun, with this earth, with this eagle, with this serpentNOT to a new life, or a better

I come again eternally to this identical and selfsame life, in its greatest and its smallest, to teach again the

To speak again the word of the great noontide of earth and man, to announce again to man the Superman.

I have spoken my word. I break down by my word: so willeth mine eternal fateas announcer do I succumb!

The hour hath now come for the downgoer to bless himself. ThusENDETH Zarathustra's

When the animals had spoken these words they were silent and waited, so that Zarathustra might say

something to them: but Zarathustra did not hear that they were silent. On the contrary, he lay quietly with

closed eyes like a person sleeping, although he did not sleep; for he communed just then with his soul. The

serpent, however, and the eagle, when they found him silent in such wise, respected the great stillness around

O my soul, I have taught thee to say "today" as "once on a time" and "formerly," and to dance thy measure

O my soul, I delivered thee from all byplaces, I brushed down from thee dust and spiders and twilight.

O my soul, I washed the petty shame and the byplace virtue from thee, and persuaded thee to stand naked

With the storm that is called "spirit" did I blow over thy surging sea; all clouds did I blow away from it; I

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

O my soul, I restored to thee liberty over the created and the uncreated; and who knoweth, as thou knowest,

O my soul, I taught thee the contempt which doth not come like wormeating, the great, the loving contempt,

O my soul, I taught thee so to persuade that thou persuadest even the grounds themselves to thee: like the sun,

O my soul, I have taken from thee all obeying and kneebending and homagepaying; I have myself given

O my soul, I have given thee new names and gaycoloured playthings, I have called thee "Fate" and "the

O my soul, to thy domain gave I all wisdom to drink, all new wines, and also all immemorially old strong

O my soul, every sun shed I upon thee, and every night and every silence and every longing:then grewest

O my soul, exuberant and heavy dost thou now stand forth, a vine with swelling udders and full clusters of

Filled and weighted by thy happiness, waiting from superabundance, and yet ashamed of thy waiting.

O my soul, there is nowhere a soul which could be more loving and more comprehensive and more extensive!

O my soul, I have given thee everything, and all my hands have become empty by thee:and now! Now

Doth the giver not owe thanks because the receiver received? Is bestowing not a necessity? Is receiving

O my soul, I understand the smiling of thy melancholy: thine overabundance itself now stretcheth out longing

Thy fulness looketh forth over raging seas, and seeketh and waiteth: the longing of overfulness looketh forth

And verily, O my soul! Who could see thy smiling and not melt into tears? The angels themselves melt into

Thy graciousness and overgraciousness, is it which will not complain and weep: and yet, O my soul, longeth

"Is not all weeping complaining? And all complaining, accusing?" Thus speakest thou to thyself; and

Than in gushing tears pour forth all thy grief concerning thy fulness, and concerning the craving of the

But wilt thou not weep, wilt thou not weep forth thy purple melancholy, then wilt thou have to SING, O my

Thou wilt have to sing with passionate song, until all seas turn calm to hearken unto thy longing,

Until over calm longing seas the bark glideth, the golden marvel, around the gold of which all good, bad,

Also many large and small animals, and everything that hath light marvellous feet, so that it can run on

Towards the golden marvel, the spontaneous bark, and its master: he, however, is the vintager who waiteth

Thy great deliverer, O my soul, the nameless onefor whom future songs only will find names! And

Already glowest thou and dreamest, already drinkest thou thirstily at all deep echoing wells of consolation,

O my soul, now have I given thee all, and even my last possession, and all my hands have become empty by

That I bade thee sing,say now, say: WHICH of us nowoweth thanks? Better still, however: sing unto

"Into thine eyes gazed I lately, O Life: gold saw I gleam in thy nighteyes, my heart stood still with delight:

A golden bark saw I gleam on darkened waters, a sinking, drinking, reblinking, golden swingbark!

At my dancefrantic foot, dost thou cast a glance, a laughing, questioning, melting, thrown glance:

Twice only movedst thou thy rattle with thy little handsthen did my feet swing with dancefury.

My heels reared aloft, my toes they hearkened,thee they would know: hath not the dancer his earin his

Unto thee did I spring: then fledst thou back from my bound; and towards me waved thy fleeing, flying

Away from thee did I spring, and from thy snaky tresses: then stoodst thou there halfturned, and in thine eye

With crooked glancesdost thou teach me crooked courses; on crooked courses learn my feetcrafty

I fear thee near, I love thee far; thy flight allureth me, thy seeking secureth me:I suffer, but for thee, what

For thee, whose coldness inflameth, whose hatred misleadeth, whose flight enchaineth, whose

Who would not hate thee, thou great bindress, inwindress, temptress, seekress, findress! Who would not

Whither pullest thou me now, thou paragon and tomboy? And now foolest thou me fleeing; thou sweet romp

I dance after thee, I follow even faint traces lonely. Where art thou? Give me thy hand! Or thy finger only!

Here are caves and thickets: we shall go astray!Halt! Stand still! Seest thou not owls and bats in fluttering

Thou bat! Thou owl! Thou wouldst play me foul? Where are we? From the dogs hast thou learned thus to

Thou gnashest on me sweetly with little white teeth; thine evil eyes shoot out upon me, thy curly little mane

This is a dance over stock and stone: I am the hunter,wilt thou be my hound, or my chamois anon?

Now beside me! And quickly, wickedly springing! Now up! And over!Alas! I have fallen myself

Oh, see me lying, thou arrogant one, and imploring grace! Gladly would I walk with theein some lovelier

In the paths of love, through bushes variegated, quiet, trim! Or there along the lake, where goldfishes

Thou art now aweary? There above are sheep and sunset stripes: is it not sweet to sleepthe shepherd

Thou art so very weary? I carry thee thither; let just thine arm sink! And art thou thirstyI should have

Oh, that cursed, nimble, supple serpent and lurkingwitch! Where art thou gone? But in my face do I feel

I am verily weary of it, ever thy sheepish shepherd to be. Thou witch, if I have hitherto sung unto thee, now

To the rhythm of my whip shalt thou dance and cry! I forget not my whip? Not I!"

"O Zarathustra! Crack not so terribly with thy whip! Thou knowest surely that noise killeth thought,and

We are both of us genuine ne'erdowells and ne'erdoills. Beyond good and evil found we our island and

And even should we not love each other from the bottom of our hearts,must we then have a grudge against

And that I am friendly to thee, and often too friendly, that knowest thou: and the reason is that I am envious

If thy Wisdom should one day run away from thee, ah! then would also my love run away from thee

Thereupon did Life look thoughtfully behind and around, and said softly: "O Zarathustra, thou art not faithful

Thou lovest me not nearly so much as thou sayest; I know thou thinkest of soon leaving me.

When thou hearest this clock strike the hours at midnight, then thinkest thou between one and twelve

"Yea," answered I, hesitatingly, "but thou knowest it also"And I said something into her ear, in amongst

And we gazed at each other, and looked at the green meadow o'er which the cool evening was just passing,

and we wept together.Then, however, was Life dearer unto me than all my Wisdom had ever been.

If I be a diviner and full of the divining spirit which wandereth on high mountainridges, 'twixt two seas,

Wandereth 'twixt the past and the future as a heavy cloudhostile to sultry plains, and to all that is weary

Ready for lightning in its dark bosom, and for the redeeming flash of light, charged with lightnings which say

Blessed, however, is he who is thus charged! And verily, long must he hang like a heavy tempest on the

Oh, how could I not be ardent for Eternity and for the marriagering of ringsthe ring of the return?