"Man is a rope, tied
between beast and overman--a rope over an abyss...
What is great in man is that he is a bridge and not an end: what can be
loved in man is that he is an overture and a going under...
"I say unto you: one
must still have chaos in oneself to be able to give birth to a dancing
star. I say unto you: you still have chaos in yourselves.
Alas, the time is coming when man will no
longer give birth to a star. Alas, the time of the most despicable man
is coming, he that is no longer able to despise himself. Behold, I show
you the last man.
'What is love? What is creation? What is
longing? What is a star?' thus asks the last man, and blinks.
The earth has become small, and on it hops
the last man, who makes everything small. His race is as ineradicable as
the flea; the last man lives longest.
'We have invented happiness,'say the last
men, and they blink. They have left the regions where it was hard to live,
for one needs warmth. One still loves one's neighbor and rubs against him,
for one needs warmth...
One still works, for work is a form of entertainment.
But one is careful lest the entertainment be too harrowing. One no longer
becomes poor or rich: both require too much exertion. Who still wants to
rule? Who obey? Both require too much exertion.
No shepherd and one herd! Everybody wants
the same, everybody is the same: whoever feels different goes voluntarily
into a madhouse.
'Formerly, all the world was mad,' say the
most refined, and they blink...
One has one's little pleasure for the day
and one's little pleasure for the night: but one has a regard for health.
'We have invented happiness,' say the last
men, and they blink."
from Nietzsche's Thus spoke Zarathustra, p.3,4,5,
Walter Kaufmann transl.
ON THE THREE METAMORPHOSES OF THE SPIRIT
Of the three metamorphoses
of the spirit I tell you: how the spirit becomes a camel; and the camel,
a lion; and the lion, finally, a child.
There is much that is difficult for the spirit,
the strong, reverent spirit that would bear much: but the difficult and
the most difficult are what its strength demands.
What is difficult? asks the spirit that would
bear much, and kneels down like a camel wanting to be well loaded. What
is most difficult, O heroes, asks the spirit that would bear much, that
I may take it upon myself and exult in my strength? Is it not humbling
oneself to wound one's haughtiness? Letting one's folly shine to mock one's
wisdom?...
Or is it this: stepping into filthy waters
when they are the waters of truth, and not repulsing cold frogs and hot
toads?
Or is it this: loving those that despise
us and offering a hand to the ghost that would frighten us?
All these most difficult things the spirit
that would bear much takes upon itself: like the camel that, burdened,
speeds into the desert, thus the spirit speeds into its desert.
In the loneliest desert, however, the second
metamorphosis occurs: here the spirit becomes a lion who would conquer
his freedom and be master in his own desert. Here he seeks out his last
master: he wants to fight him and his last god; for ultimate victory he
wants to fight with the great dragon.
Who is the great dragon whom the spirit will
no longer call lord and god? "Thou shalt" is the name of the
great dragon. But the spirit of the lion says, "I will." "Thou
shalt" lies in his way, sparkling like gold, an animal covered with
scales; and on every scale shines a golden "thou shalt."
Values, thousands of years old, shine on
these scales; and thus speaks the mightiest of all dragons: "All value
has long been created, and I am all created value. Verily, there shall
be no more 'I will.'" Thus speaks the dragon.
My brothers, why is there a need in the spirit
for the lion? Why is not the beast of burden, which renounces and is reverent,
enough?
To create new values -- that even the lion
cannot do; but the creation of freedom for oneself and a sacred "No"
even to duty -- for that, my brothers, the lion is needed. To assume the
right to new values -- that is the most terrifying assumption for a reverent
spirit that would bear much. Verily, to him it is preying, and a matter
for a beast of prey. He once loved "thou shalt" as most sacred:
now he must find illusion and caprice even in the most sacred, that freedom
from his love may become his prey: the lion is needed for such prey.
But say, my brothers, what can the child
do that even the lion could not do? Why must the preying lion still become
a child? The child is innocence and forgetting, a new beginning, a game,
a self-propelled wheel, a first movement, a sacred "Yes." For
the game of creation, my brothers, a sacred "Yes" is needed:
the spirit now wills his own will, and he who had been lost to the world
now conquers the world.
from Nietzsche's Thus spoke Zarathustra, part I, Walter Kaufmann transl.