--- title: "Thus Spake Zarathustra" author: "Friedrich Nietzsche" translator: "Thomas Common" languages: [en] shelf: "Philosophy" section: 62 of 95 url: https://scriptura.si/works/nietzsche-zarathustra/62/ cite: "Friedrich Nietzsche, tr. Thomas Common, Thus Spake Zarathustra, section 62. Scriptura (scriptura.si), https://scriptura.si/works/nietzsche-zarathustra/62/" --- # Thus Spake Zarathustra *Friedrich Nietzsche, tr. Thomas Common* A prophet comes down from his mountain to teach the overman, in sermons and songs. ## 62. LVI. Old and New Tables · 2 of 6 Source: https://scriptura.si/works/nietzsche-zarathustra/62/ · cite a paragraph as https://scriptura.si/works/nietzsche-zarathustra/62/#p-N [¶0] Thus wisheth the type of noble souls: they desire to have nothing GRATUITOUSLY, least of all, life. [¶1] He who is of the populace wisheth to live gratuitously; we others, however, to whom life hath given itself—we are ever considering WHAT we can best give IN RETURN! [¶2] And verily, it is a noble dictum which saith: “What life promiseth US, that promise will WE keep—to life!” [¶3] One should not wish to enjoy where one doth not contribute to the enjoyment. And one should not WISH to enjoy! [¶4] For enjoyment and innocence are the most bashful things. Neither like to be sought for. One should HAVE them,—but one should rather SEEK for guilt and pain!— ### 6 [¶6] O my brethren, he who is a firstling is ever sacrificed. Now, however, are we firstlings! [¶7] We all bleed on secret sacrificial altars, we all burn and broil in honour of ancient idols. [¶8] Our best is still young: this exciteth old palates. Our flesh is tender, our skin is only lambs’ skin:—how could we not excite old idol-priests! [¶9] IN OURSELVES dwelleth he still, the old idol-priest, who broileth our best for his banquet. Ah, my brethren, how could firstlings fail to be sacrifices! [¶10] But so wisheth our type; and I love those who do not wish to preserve themselves, the down-going ones do I love with mine entire love: for they go beyond.— ### 7 [¶12] To be true—that CAN few be! And he who can, will not! Least of all, however, can the good be true. [¶13] Oh, those good ones! GOOD MEN NEVER SPEAK THE TRUTH. For the spirit, thus to be good, is a malady. [¶14] They yield, those good ones, they submit themselves; their heart repeateth, their soul obeyeth: HE, however, who obeyeth, DOTH NOT LISTEN TO HIMSELF! [¶15] All that is called evil by the good, must come together in order that one truth may be born. O my brethren, are ye also evil enough for THIS truth? [¶16] The daring venture, the prolonged distrust, the cruel Nay, the tedium, the cutting-into-the-quick—how seldom do THESE come together! Out of such seed, however—is truth produced! [¶17] BESIDE the bad conscience hath hitherto grown all KNOWLEDGE! Break up, break up, ye discerning ones, the old tables! ### 8 [¶19] When the water hath planks, when gangways and railings o’erspan the stream, verily, he is not believed who then saith: “All is in flux.” [¶20] But even the simpletons contradict him. “What?” say the simpletons, “all in flux? Planks and railings are still OVER the stream! [¶21] “OVER the stream all is stable, all the values of things, the bridges and bearings, all ‘good’ and ‘evil’: these are all STABLE!”— [¶22] Cometh, however, the hard winter, the stream-tamer, then learn even the wittiest distrust, and verily, not only the simpletons then say: “Should not everything—STAND STILL?” [¶23] “Fundamentally standeth everything still”—that is an appropriate winter doctrine, good cheer for an unproductive period, a great comfort for winter-sleepers and fireside-loungers. [¶24] “Fundamentally standeth everything still”—: but CONTRARY thereto, preacheth the thawing wind! [¶25] The thawing wind, a bullock, which is no ploughing bullock—a furious bullock, a destroyer, which with angry horns breaketh the ice! The ice however—BREAKETH GANGWAYS! [¶26] O my brethren, is not everything AT PRESENT IN FLUX? Have not all railings and gangways fallen into the water? Who would still HOLD ON to “good” and “evil”? [¶27] “Woe to us! Hail to us! The thawing wind bloweth!”—Thus preach, my brethren, through all the streets! ### 9 [¶29] There is an old illusion—it is called good and evil. Around soothsayers and astrologers hath hitherto revolved the orbit of this illusion. [¶30] Once did one BELIEVE in soothsayers and astrologers; and THEREFORE did one believe, “Everything is fate: thou shalt, for thou must!” [¶31] Then again did one distrust all soothsayers and astrologers; and THEREFORE did one believe, “Everything is freedom: thou canst, for thou willest!” [¶32] 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! ### 10 [¶34] “Thou shalt not rob! Thou shalt not slay!”—such precepts were once called holy; before them did one bow the knee and the head, and take off one’s shoes. [¶35] But I ask you: Where have there ever been better robbers and slayers in the world than such holy precepts? [¶36] Is there not even in all life—robbing and slaying? And for such precepts to be called holy, was not TRUTH itself thereby—slain? [¶37] —Or was it a sermon of death that called holy what contradicted and dissuaded from life?—O my brethren, break up, break up for me the old tables! ### 11 [¶39] It is my sympathy with all the past that I see it is abandoned,— [¶40] —Abandoned to the favour, the spirit and the madness of every generation that cometh, and reinterpreteth all that hath been as its bridge! [¶41] 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 cock-crowing. [¶42] This however is the other danger, and mine other sympathy:—he who is of the populace, his thoughts go back to his grandfather,—with his grandfather, however, doth time cease. [¶43] Thus is all the past abandoned: for it might some day happen for the populace to become master, and drown all time in shallow waters. [¶44] Therefore, O my brethren, a NEW NOBILITY is needed, which shall be the adversary of all populace and potentate rule, and shall inscribe anew the word “noble” on new tables.