--- title: "Thus Spake Zarathustra" author: "Friedrich Nietzsche" translator: "Thomas Common" languages: [en] shelf: "Philosophy" section: 65 of 95 url: https://scriptura.si/works/nietzsche-zarathustra/65/ cite: "Friedrich Nietzsche, tr. Thomas Common, Thus Spake Zarathustra, section 65. Scriptura (scriptura.si), https://scriptura.si/works/nietzsche-zarathustra/65/" --- # Thus Spake Zarathustra *Friedrich Nietzsche, tr. Thomas Common* A prophet comes down from his mountain to teach the overman, in sermons and songs. ## 65. LVI. Old and New Tables · 5 of 6 Source: https://scriptura.si/works/nietzsche-zarathustra/65/ · cite a paragraph as https://scriptura.si/works/nietzsche-zarathustra/65/#p-N [¶0] And often is it greater bravery to keep quiet and pass by, that THEREBY one may reserve oneself for a worthier foe! [¶1] 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. [¶2] For the worthier foe, O my brethren, shall ye reserve yourselves: therefore must ye pass by many a one,— [¶3] —Especially many of the rabble, who din your ears with noise about people and peoples. [¶4] Keep your eye clear of their For and Against! There is there much right, much wrong: he who looketh on becometh wroth. [¶5] Therein viewing, therein hewing—they are the same thing: therefore depart into the forests and lay your sword to sleep! [¶6] Go YOUR ways! and let the people and peoples go theirs!—gloomy ways, verily, on which not a single hope glinteth any more! [¶7] 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. [¶8] See how these peoples themselves now do just like the traders: they pick up the smallest advantage out of all kinds of rubbish! [¶9] 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!” [¶10] For, my brethren, the best shall rule, the best also WILLETH to rule! And where the teaching is different, there—the best is LACKING. ### 22 [¶12] 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! [¶13] 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! [¶14] Better beasts of prey shall they thus become, subtler, cleverer, MORE MAN-LIKE: for man is the best beast of prey. [¶15] All the animals hath man already robbed of their virtues: that is why of all animals it hath been hardest for man. [¶16] Only the birds are still beyond him. And if man should yet learn to fly, alas! TO WHAT HEIGHT—would his rapacity fly! ### 23 [¶18] 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. [¶19] 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! ### 24 [¶21] Your marriage-arranging: see that it be not a bad ARRANGING! Ye have arranged too hastily: so there FOLLOWETH therefrom—marriage-breaking! [¶22] 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!” [¶23] The badly paired found I ever the most revengeful: they make every one suffer for it that they no longer run singly. [¶24] 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?” [¶25] —“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.” [¶26] 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! [¶27] Not only to propagate yourselves onwards but UPWARDS—thereto, O my brethren, may the garden of marriage help you! ### 25 [¶29] He who hath grown wise concerning old origins, lo, he will at last seek after the fountains of the future and new origins.— [¶30] O my brethren, not long will it be until NEW PEOPLES shall arise and new fountains shall rush down into new depths. [¶31] For the earthquake—it choketh up many wells, it causeth much languishing: but it bringeth also to light inner powers and secrets. [¶32] The earthquake discloseth new fountains. In the earthquake of old peoples new fountains burst forth. [¶33] 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. [¶34] Who can command, who must obey—THAT IS THERE ATTEMPTED! Ah, with what long seeking and solving and failing and learning and re-attempting! [¶35] Human society: it is an attempt—so I teach—a long seeking: it seeketh however the ruler!— [¶36] —An attempt, my brethren! And NO “contract”! Destroy, I pray you, destroy that word of the soft-hearted and half-and-half! ### 26 [¶38] O my brethren! With whom lieth the greatest danger to the whole human future? Is it not with the good and just?— [¶39] —As those who say and feel in their hearts: “We already know what is good and just, we possess it also; woe to those who still seek thereafter!” [¶40] And whatever harm the wicked may do, the harm of the good is the harmfulest harm! [¶41] And whatever harm the world-maligners may do, the harm of the good is the harmfulest harm! [¶42] O my brethren, into the hearts of the good and just looked some one once on a time, who said: “They are the Pharisees.” But people did not understand him. [¶43] The good and just themselves were not free to understand him; their spirit was imprisoned in their good conscience. The stupidity of the good is unfathomably wise. [¶44] It is the truth, however, that the good MUST be Pharisees—they have no choice!