Thus Spake Zarathustra, Friedrich Nietzsche [top fiction books of all time .TXT] 📗

the longest ladder, and can go deepest down: how could there fail to be most parasites upon it?⁠—

—The most comprehensive soul, which can run and stray and rove furthest in itself; the most necessary soul, which out of joy flingeth itself into chance:⁠—

—The soul in Being, which plungeth into Becoming; the possessing soul, which seeketh to attain desire and longing:⁠—

—The soul fleeing from itself, which overtaketh itself in the widest circuit; the wisest soul, unto which folly speaketh most sweetly:⁠—

—The soul most self-loving, in which all things have their current and countercurrent, their ebb and their flow:⁠—oh, how could the loftiest soul fail to have the worst parasites?

XX

O my brethren, am I then cruel? But I say: What falleth, that shall one also push!

Everything of today⁠—it falleth, it decayeth; who would preserve it! But I⁠—I wish also to push it!

Know ye the delight which rolleth stones into precipitous depths?⁠—Those men of today, see just how they roll into my depths!

A prelude am I to better players, O my brethren! An example! Do according to mine example!

And him whom ye do not teach to fly, teach I pray you⁠—to fall faster!⁠—

XXI

I love the brave: but it is not enough to be a swordsman⁠—one must also know whereon to use swordsmanship!

And often is it greater bravery to keep quiet and pass by, that thereby one may reserve oneself for a worthier foe!

Ye shall only have foes to be hated; but not foes to be despised: ye must be proud of your foes. Thus have I already taught.

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 becometh wroth.

Therein viewing, therein hewing⁠—they are the same thing: therefore depart into the forests and lay your sword to sleep!

Go your ways! and let the people and peoples go theirs!⁠—gloomy ways, verily, on which not a single hope glinteth any more!

Let there the trader rule, where all that still glittereth is⁠—traders’ gold. It is the time of kings no longer: that which now calleth itself the people is unworthy of kings.

See how these peoples themselves now do just like the traders: they pick up the smallest advantage out of all kinds of rubbish!

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 be⁠—master over peoples!”

For, my brethren, the best shall rule, the best also willeth to rule! And where the teaching is different, there⁠—the best is lacking.

XXII

If they had⁠—bread for nothing, alas! for what would they cry! Their maintainment⁠—that is their true entertainment; and they shall have it hard!

Beasts of prey, are they: in their “working”⁠—there is even plundering, in their “earning”⁠—there is even overreaching! Therefore shall they have it hard!

Better beasts of prey shall they thus become, subtler, cleverer, more manlike: for man is the best beast of prey.

All the animals hath man already robbed of their virtues: that is why of all animals it hath been hardest for man.

Only the birds are still beyond him. And if man should yet learn to fly, alas! to what height⁠—would his rapacity fly!

XXIII

Thus would I have man and woman: fit for war, the one; fit for maternity, the other; both, however, fit for dancing with head and legs.

And lost be the day to us in which a measure hath not been danced. And false be every truth which hath not had laughter along with it!

XXIV

Your marriage-arranging: see that it be not a bad arranging! Ye have arranged too hastily: so there followeth therefrom⁠—marriage-breaking!

And better marriage-breaking than marriage-bending, marriage-lying!⁠—Thus spake a woman unto me: “Indeed, I broke the marriage, but first did the marriage break⁠—me!”

The badly paired found I ever the most revengeful: they make everyone suffer for it that they no longer run singly.

On that account want I the honest ones to say to one another: “We love each other: let us see to it that we maintain our love! Or shall our pledging be blundering?”

—“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 matter always to be twain.”

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 should counsel and speak otherwise!

Not only to propagate yourselves onwards but upwards⁠—thereto, O my brethren, may the garden of marriage help you!

XXV

He who hath grown wise concerning old origins, lo, he will at last seek after the fountains of the future and new origins.⁠—

O my brethren, not long will it be until new peoples shall arise and new fountains shall rush down into new depths.

For the earthquake⁠—it choketh up many wells, it causeth much languishing: but it bringeth also to light inner powers and secrets.

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 obey⁠—that is there attempted! Ah, with what long seeking and solving and failing and learning and re-attempting!

Human society: it is an attempt⁠—so I teach⁠—a long seeking: it seeketh however the ruler!⁠—

—An attempt, my brethren! And no “contract”! Destroy, I pray you, destroy that word of the softhearted and half-and-half!

XXVI

O my brethren! With whom lieth the greatest danger to the whole human future? Is it not with the good and just?⁠—

—As those who say and feel in their hearts: “We already know what