I love the forest. It is bad to live in cities: there, there are too many of the lustful. Is it not better to fall into the hands of a murderer, than into the dreams of a lustful woman? And just look at these men: their…
Zarathustra says he loves the forest and finds cities full of the lustful. He counsels innocence in the instincts, not their slaughter.
Read in the book →Do I counsel you to slay your instincts? I counsel you to innocence in your instincts.
Zarathustra answers his own question: he does not ask for the instincts to be killed.
Read in the book →Do I counsel you to chastity? Chastity is a virtue with some, but with many almost a vice. These are continent, to be sure: but doggish lust looketh enviously out of all that they do. Even into the heights of their…
The continent are still followed by doggish lust, which begs for a piece of spirit when denied flesh. It disguises itself as love of tragedy and fellow-suffering. Those for whom chastity is hard should be dissuaded from it, lest it lead to filth of soul.
Read in the book →And also this parable give I unto you: Not a few who meant to cast out their devil, went thereby into the swine themselves.
Zarathustra gives a parable of men who try to cast out their devil and end up entering the swine themselves.
Read in the book →Do I speak of filthy things? That is not the worst thing for me to do. Not when the truth is filthy, but when it is shallow, doth the discerning one go unwillingly into its waters. Verily, there are chaste ones from…
Zarathustra says that speaking of filth is not the worst thing; shallow truth is worse. He ends with those chaste by nature, who laugh and call chastity a folly that came to them as a guest.
Read in the book →This is an experiment in interactive reading, and in using AI to help you grow. Thus Spake Zarathustra is notoriously difficult for a modern reader; yet taken as a set of mental exercises, it is guaranteed to transform your thinking by the time you reach the end. Along the way you will have help from the companion, who is always beside the book.
Do you accept the challenge?
What the critics said
Ludovici argues that in weighing voluptuousness, lust of power and selfishness Nietzsche sought to give healthy men back innocence and a clean conscience in their desires, not to license the vulgar or the weak, and that his teaching is esoteric, meant to save higher men from compromising their genius with traditional values.