And this secret spake Life herself unto me. “Behold,” said she, “I am that WHICH MUST EVER SURPASS ITSELF.
Life tells Zarathustra her secret. She is struggle, becoming and purpose, she turns against whatever she creates, and the knower is only a footstep of her will.
- Self-overcomingLife herself names her secret: she must always overcome herself, and so turns against what she creates and loves.
- Will to powerLife says her will to power walks even on the feet of the seeker's will to truth.
Commentary on this chapter
What the critics said
Contest, victory and the transvaluationH. L. Mencken · The Philosophy of Friedrich Nietzsche, 1908interpretation
Mencken argues that for Nietzsche instinct and experiment reveal one's power, that happiness lies in unrestrained yielding to the will to power through constant contest, citing Zarathustra's 'not to peace, but to victory' and casting dice with death, and that this means a crusade against ethics of self-sacrifice for inferiors and a transvaluation that frees the will to power from infamy.
Will to power; destruction out of reverence for lawAnthony M. Ludovici · Notes on Thus Spake Zarathustra, 1909interpretation
Ludovici calls 'Self-Surpassing' the best exposition of the will to power in the book, and argues that Nietzsche was no iconoclast by choice: the saying that the creator in good and evil must first be a destroyer shows his esteem for law and self-discipline.
Nietzsche elsewhere
Nietzsche says that the formula for his destiny is found in Zarathustra's words that whoever would create in good and evil must first be a destroyer and break values, and that his Dionysian nature cannot separate the negative deed from saying Yea; as the first immoralist he is essentially the annihilator.