--- title: "Thus Spake Zarathustra" author: "Friedrich Nietzsche" translator: "Thomas Common" languages: [en] shelf: "Philosophy" section: 21 of 95 url: https://scriptura.si/works/nietzsche-zarathustra/21/ cite: "Friedrich Nietzsche, tr. Thomas Common, Thus Spake Zarathustra, section 21. Scriptura (scriptura.si), https://scriptura.si/works/nietzsche-zarathustra/21/" --- # Thus Spake Zarathustra *Friedrich Nietzsche, tr. Thomas Common* A prophet comes down from his mountain to teach the overman, in sermons and songs. ## 21. XVII. The Way of the Creating One Source: https://scriptura.si/works/nietzsche-zarathustra/21/ · cite a paragraph as https://scriptura.si/works/nietzsche-zarathustra/21/#p-N [¶0] Wouldst thou go into isolation, my brother? Wouldst thou seek the way unto thyself? Tarry yet a little and hearken unto me. [¶1] “He who seeketh may easily get lost himself. All isolation is wrong”: so say the herd. And long didst thou belong to the herd. [¶2] The voice of the herd will still echo in thee. And when thou sayest, “I have no longer a conscience in common with you,” then will it be a plaint and a pain. [¶3] Lo, that pain itself did the same conscience produce; and the last gleam of that conscience still gloweth on thine affliction. [¶4] But thou wouldst go the way of thine affliction, which is the way unto thyself? Then show me thine authority and thy strength to do so! [¶5] Art thou a new strength and a new authority? A first motion? A self-rolling wheel? Canst thou also compel stars to revolve around thee? [¶6] Alas! there is so much lusting for loftiness! There are so many convulsions of the ambitions! Show me that thou art not a lusting and ambitious one! [¶7] Alas! there are so many great thoughts that do nothing more than the bellows: they inflate, and make emptier than ever. [¶8] Free, dost thou call thyself? Thy ruling thought would I hear of, and not that thou hast escaped from a yoke. [¶9] Art thou one ENTITLED to escape from a yoke? Many a one hath cast away his final worth when he hath cast away his servitude. [¶10] Free from what? What doth that matter to Zarathustra! Clearly, however, shall thine eye show unto me: free FOR WHAT? [¶11] Canst thou give unto thyself thy bad and thy good, and set up thy will as a law over thee? Canst thou be judge for thyself, and avenger of thy law? [¶12] Terrible is aloneness with the judge and avenger of one’s own law. Thus is a star projected into desert space, and into the icy breath of aloneness. [¶13] To-day sufferest thou still from the multitude, thou individual; to-day hast thou still thy courage unabated, and thy hopes. [¶14] But one day will the solitude weary thee; one day will thy pride yield, and thy courage quail. Thou wilt one day cry: “I am alone!” [¶15] One day wilt thou see no longer thy loftiness, and see too closely thy lowliness; thy sublimity itself will frighten thee as a phantom. Thou wilt one day cry: “All is false!” [¶16] There are feelings which seek to slay the lonesome one; if they do not succeed, then must they themselves die! But art thou capable of it—to be a murderer? [¶17] Hast thou ever known, my brother, the word “disdain”? And the anguish of thy justice in being just to those that disdain thee? [¶18] Thou forcest many to think differently about thee; that, charge they heavily to thine account. Thou camest nigh unto them, and yet wentest past: for that they never forgive thee. [¶19] Thou goest beyond them: but the higher thou risest, the smaller doth the eye of envy see thee. Most of all, however, is the flying one hated. [¶20] “How could ye be just unto me!”—must thou say—“I choose your injustice as my allotted portion.” [¶21] Injustice and filth cast they at the lonesome one: but, my brother, if thou wouldst be a star, thou must shine for them none the less on that account! [¶22] And be on thy guard against the good and just! They would fain crucify those who devise their own virtue—they hate the lonesome ones. [¶23] Be on thy guard, also, against holy simplicity! All is unholy to it that is not simple; fain, likewise, would it play with the fire—of the fagot and stake. [¶24] And be on thy guard, also, against the assaults of thy love! Too readily doth the recluse reach his hand to any one who meeteth him. [¶25] To many a one mayest thou not give thy hand, but only thy paw; and I wish thy paw also to have claws. [¶26] But the worst enemy thou canst meet, wilt thou thyself always be; thou waylayest thyself in caverns and forests. [¶27] Thou lonesome one, thou goest the way to thyself! And past thyself and thy seven devils leadeth thy way! [¶28] A heretic wilt thou be to thyself, and a wizard and a soothsayer, and a fool, and a doubter, and a reprobate, and a villain. [¶29] Ready must thou be to burn thyself in thine own flame; how couldst thou become new if thou have not first become ashes! [¶30] Thou lonesome one, thou goest the way of the creating one: a God wilt thou create for thyself out of thy seven devils! [¶31] Thou lonesome one, thou goest the way of the loving one: thou lovest thyself, and on that account despisest thou thyself, as only the loving ones despise. [¶32] To create, desireth the loving one, because he despiseth! What knoweth he of love who hath not been obliged to despise just what he loved! [¶33] With thy love, go into thine isolation, my brother, and with thy creating; and late only will justice limp after thee. [¶34] With my tears, go into thine isolation, my brother. I love him who seeketh to create beyond himself, and thus succumbeth.— [¶35] Thus spake Zarathustra.