Here do I sit and wait, old broken tables around me and also new half-written tables. When cometh mine hour? —The hour of my descent, of my down-going: for once more will I go unto men. For that hour do I now wait: for…
Zarathustra sits among old broken tables and new half-written ones, waiting for the sign of his hour. Meanwhile he tells himself his own story.
Read in the book →When I came unto men, then found I them resting on an old infatuation: all of them thought they had long known what was good and bad for men. An old wearisome business seemed to them all discourse about virtue; and he…
Zarathustra recalls how he disturbed men's sleepy certainty about good and bad and bade them laugh at their moralists. He recounts his longing flight to a future of dancing gods, where the heavy things are danced over.
Read in the book →It is he, however, who createth man’s goal, and giveth to the earth its meaning and its future: he only EFFECTETH it THAT aught is good or bad.
Zarathustra says that only the creating one knows good and bad.
Read in the book →There was it also where I picked up from the path the word “Superman,” and that man is something that must be surpassed. —That man is a bridge and not a goal—rejoicing over his noontides and evenings, as advances to new…
Zarathustra summarises his teaching of the Superman and the great noontide, and calls redemption the creating of the future out of what hath been. He awaits his own redemption and compares his coming down-going to the sunset.
Read in the book →The past of man to redeem, and every “It was” to transform, until the Will saith: “But so did I will it! So shall I will it—”
Zarathustra defines redemption as transforming the past until the Will affirms it.
Read in the book →Behold, here is a new table; but where are my brethren who will carry it with me to the valley and into hearts of flesh?— Thus demandeth my great love to the remotest ones: BE NOT CONSIDERATE OF THY NEIGHBOUR! Man is…
A new table calls on his brethren to surpass themselves, even in their neighbour. The noble keep their promises to life and seek guilt and pain more than enjoyment.
Read in the book →O my brethren, he who is a firstling is ever sacrificed. Now, however, are we firstlings! We all bleed on secret sacrificial altars, we all burn and broil in honour of ancient idols. Our best is still young: this…
He calls his brethren firstlings who bleed on the altars of ancient idols, and he loves the down-going.
Read in the book →To be true—that CAN few be! And he who can, will not! Least of all, however, can the good be true. Oh, those good ones! GOOD MEN NEVER SPEAK THE TRUTH. For the spirit, thus to be good, is a malady. They yield, those…
The good obey and so do not listen to themselves, and cannot be true. Truth is born of daring, distrust, cruel Nay and cutting-into-the-quick.
Read in the book →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.” But even the simpletons contradict him. “What?” say the simpletons, “all in flux?…
In a parable, planks over a stream make people deny that all is in flux, until the thawing wind breaks the ice and the gangways. Zarathustra tells his brethren to preach this through all the streets.
Read in the book →There is an old illusion—it is called good and evil. Around soothsayers and astrologers hath hitherto revolved the orbit of this illusion. Once did one BELIEVE in soothsayers and astrologers; and THEREFORE did one…
The belief in fate and then in freedom both rested on illusion about the stars and the future. The holy 'Thou shalt not rob, slay' is itself called a robber and slayer of truth.
Read in the book →It is my sympathy with all the past that I see it is abandoned,— —Abandoned to the favour, the spirit and the madness of every generation that cometh, and reinterpreteth all that hath been as its bridge! A great…
Zarathustra pities the past that each generation reinterprets as its bridge, and calls for many noble ones. He consecrates his brethren as a nobility that looks outward to the children's land, not back to ancestors or courts.
Read in the book →“Why should one live? All is vain! To live—that is to thrash straw; to live—that is to burn oneself and yet not get warm.”— Such ancient babbling still passeth for “wisdom”; because it is old, however, and smelleth…
Zarathustra mocks the old wisdom that says life is vain. He says that to eat and drink well is no vain art.
Read in the book →“To the clean are all things clean”—thus say the people. I, however, say unto you: To the swine all things become swinish! Therefore preach the visionaries and bowed-heads (whose hearts are also bowed down): “The world…
Zarathustra says that to the swine all things become swinish. He rejects the pious backworldsmen's advice to leave the world as it is and to stifle one's reason.
Read in the book →“He who learneth much unlearneth all violent cravings”—that do people now whisper to one another in all the dark lanes. “Wisdom wearieth, nothing is worth while; thou shalt not crave!”—this new table found I hanging…
Zarathustra attacks the table that says wisdom wearies and craving should cease, and blames a ruined stomach for it. He offers his fresh wind to the way-weary: willing frees, and creating is its purpose.
Read in the book →There standeth the boat—thither goeth it over, perhaps into vast nothingness—but who willeth to enter into this “Perhaps”? None of you want to enter into the death-boat! How should ye then be WORLD-WEARY ones!…
Those who call themselves world-weary will not enter the death-boat and still cling to earthly bliss. Zarathustra says they should be beaten into sprightliness or pass away.
Read in the book →O my brethren, there are tables which weariness framed, and tables which slothfulness framed, corrupt slothfulness: although they speak similarly, they want to be heard differently.— See this languishing one! Only a…
Zarathustra distinguishes tables made by weariness from those made by sloth. He says to let the exhausted hero lie and sleep, but to drive off the vermin of the 'cultured' that feast on his sweat.
Read in the book →I form circles around me and holy boundaries; ever fewer ascend with me ever higher mountains: I build a mountain-range out of ever holier mountains.— But wherever ye would ascend with me, O my brethren, take care lest…
Zarathustra warns that a parasite will nest in the sore places of the climbing and the great. He describes the loftiest soul at length.
Read in the book →And him whom ye do not teach to fly, teach I pray you—TO FALL FASTER!—
Zarathustra admits he is cruel and wishes to push what falls. He calls himself a prelude to better players.
Read in the book →I love the brave: but it is not enough to be a swordsman,—one must also know WHEREON to use swordsmanship! And often is it greater bravery to keep quiet and pass by, that THEREBY one may reserve oneself for a worthier…
Zarathustra tells the brave to pass over the rabble and keep their swords for worthier opponents. He mocks the peoples who now behave like traders, and says man is the best beast of prey.
Read in the book →And false be every truth which hath not had laughter along with it!
Man and woman should be fit for war and for maternity, and both for dancing.
Read in the book →Your marriage-arranging: see that it be not a bad ARRANGING! Ye have arranged too hastily: so there FOLLOWETH therefrom—marriage-breaking! And better marriage-breaking than marriage-bending, marriage-lying!—Thus spake a…
Zarathustra criticises hasty marriage-arranging and the revenge of the badly paired. He counsels honest ones to test their love with a term, so as to propagate upwards.
Read in the book →He who hath grown wise concerning old origins, lo, he will at last seek after the fountains of the future and new origins.— O my brethren, not long will it be until NEW PEOPLES shall arise and new fountains shall rush…
Zarathustra foretells new peoples and calls human society an attempt in who commands and who obeys. He bids his brethren destroy the word 'contract'.
Read in the book →O my brethren! With whom lieth the greatest danger to the whole human future? Is it not with the good and just?— —As those who say and feel in their hearts: “We already know what is good and just, we possess it also;…
Zarathustra says the greatest danger to the human future lies with the good and just, the Pharisees. He bids his brethren break them up.
Read in the book →The good MUST crucify him who deviseth his own virtue! That IS the truth!
Zarathustra states that the good must crucify the one who devises his own virtue.
Read in the book →Ye flee from me? Ye are frightened? Ye tremble at this word? O my brethren, when I enjoined you to break up the good, and the tables of the good, then only did I embark man on his high seas. And now only cometh unto him…
The brethren flee at his word, but Zarathustra says that only now has man been embarked on his high seas. He calls them to be brave sailors who steer for the children's land.
Read in the book →This new table, O my brethren, put I up over you: BECOME HARD!—Read in the book →
Brandes says that Zarathustra's greatest danger among men lay in forbearance and pity, which taught him to lie among the good, and that he returns to the free mountain air to sit among broken and half-written tables awaiting the hour when the lion comes with the doves.
Brandes paraphrases maxims of Zarathustra's new tables: spare not thy neighbour, there is no requital, beware of the good who never speak the truth, a new nobility that loves its children's land and so redeems the past, trial marriages, push what is falling, reserve oneself for worthier foes, and the creators are hard.
Brandes paraphrases maxims of Zarathustra's new tables: spare not thy neighbour, there is no requital, beware of the good who never speak the truth, a new nobility that loves its children's land and so redeems the past, trial marriages, push what is falling, reserve oneself for worthier foes, and the creators are hard.
Brandes paraphrases maxims of Zarathustra's new tables: spare not thy neighbour, there is no requital, beware of the good who never speak the truth, a new nobility that loves its children's land and so redeems the past, trial marriages, push what is falling, reserve oneself for worthier foes, and the creators are hard.
Brandes paraphrases maxims of Zarathustra's new tables: spare not thy neighbour, there is no requital, beware of the good who never speak the truth, a new nobility that loves its children's land and so redeems the past, trial marriages, push what is falling, reserve oneself for worthier foes, and the creators are hard.
Brandes paraphrases maxims of Zarathustra's new tables: spare not thy neighbour, there is no requital, beware of the good who never speak the truth, a new nobility that loves its children's land and so redeems the past, trial marriages, push what is falling, reserve oneself for worthier foes, and the creators are hard.
Förster-Nietzsche records that Part Three was written in Nice in winter 1883–84, 'Old and New Tables' composed on the climb to Eza amid bodily vigour and dancing, and that Part Four, written 1884–85 with interruptions, was meant 'only for my friends', printed in forty copies of which he gave away only seven, while he still planned a fifth and sixth part.
Mencken argues that the superman will be perfect in body and mind, delight in combat, say yes to life's pleasures and ills, be scornful, merciless and free of fear of gods and laws, owe nothing to his neighbours and sacrifice himself only for generations unborn; he will distinguish instinct from passion and renounce from expediency, as Zarathustra's sayings to the brethren and to the higher men are taken to show.
Mencken argues that the superman will be perfect in body and mind, delight in combat, say yes to life's pleasures and ills, be scornful, merciless and free of fear of gods and laws, owe nothing to his neighbours and sacrifice himself only for generations unborn; he will distinguish instinct from passion and renounce from expediency, as Zarathustra's sayings to the brethren and to the higher men are taken to show.
Mencken argues that Nietzsche made the improvement of the body the first step of progress, that the superman's freed will to live will be refined by natural selection into an accurate instinct, summed up in Zarathustra's 'Be hard!', and that unlike Schopenhauer, Comte and the humanitarians Nietzsche held man to be of the earth, rising only after casting off transcendental morality.
Ludovici argues that in 'Old and New Tables' freedom receives its death-blow as a general desideratum: Nietzsche held freedom dangerous in unworthy hands, asking 'free for what?' and requiring that one first be such as can will.
Ludovici restates Nietzsche's teaching that nothing is stable, not even good and evil: values stand like foot-bridges over the stream of life, seemingly firm in winter, until the thaw-wind sweeps them away, a state Nietzsche thinks has now been reached.
Ludovici presents paragraph 10 of 'Old and New Tables' as a protest against reading a moral order into life, citing Nietzsche that life is essentially immoral and is will to power, appropriation and conquest, while Spencer's adaptation is only a secondary re-activity.
Ludovici holds that paragraphs 11–12 of 'Old and New Tables' express Nietzsche's principle of rearing a select race, and endorses it by appeal to Gobineau on the evils of promiscuous marriages and Darwin on the degeneration of cultivated types through promiscuous breeding.
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?
Nietzsche elsewhere
Nietzsche says that 'The Night-Song' was composed in Rome above the Piazza Barberini, the second part in ten days at Sils, the third at Nice, with 'Old and New Tables' composed on the climb from the station to Eza, each part taking no more than ten days; his creative energy coincided with great bodily vigour, dancing, walking and laughter.
Nietzsche says that Zarathustra stands alone, born of superabundant strength, his concept 'Dionysian' become the highest deed; in it man is constantly overcome, the Superman becomes the greatest reality, all contradictions are bound into a new unity in this most yea-saying spirit, and Zarathustra defines the highest of all living things as the soul with the longest ladder.
Nietzsche says that for Zarathustra man is neither an object of love nor of pity but raw material, an ugly stone for the sculptor's chisel, quoting the passage where the creative will drives the hammer against the stone to free the Superman's image; a Dionysian task needs the hardness of the hammer and the joy even of destruction, 'all creators are hard'.
Nietzsche says that the command 'Harden yourselves!' and the conviction that all creators are hard are the distinctive sign of a Dionysian nature.
Nietzsche says that as immoralist he denies both the 'good' man and Christian morality; the good exist through falsehood, refusing to see reality and treating distress as an objection, and Zarathustra therefore calls them the last men and the beginning of the end, who crucify the writer of new values and are the most detrimental of men.
Nietzsche says that as immoralist he denies both the 'good' man and Christian morality; the good exist through falsehood, refusing to see reality and treating distress as an objection, and Zarathustra therefore calls them the last men and the beginning of the end, who crucify the writer of new values and are the most detrimental of men.