doctrine Free for what, not from what; the will as liberator; the creating will against the 'thou shalt' and against the weariness of will.
But in the loneliest wilderness happeneth the second metamorphosis: here the spirit becometh a lion; freedom will it capture, and lordship in its own wilderness. Its last Lord it here seeketh: hostile will it be to him,…
The lion wins freedom by setting its 'I will' against the dragon's 'Thou shalt'.
Read in the book →“Thou shalt,” is the great dragon called. But the spirit of the lion saith, “I will.”
The central opposition of duty and the creating will.
Read in the book →My brethren, wherefore is there need of the lion in the spirit? Why sufficeth not the beast of burden, which renounceth and is reverent? To create new values—that, even the lion cannot yet accomplish: but to create…
The lion creates freedom for new creating and gives a holy Nay even to duty.
Read in the book →And when they had walked a while together, Zarathustra began to speak thus: It rendeth my heart. Better than thy words express it, thine eyes tell me all thy danger. As yet thou art not free; thou still SEEKEST freedom.…
The youth still seeks freedom, and his bad impulses crave liberty too; the freed spirit must first purify himself.
Read in the book →Resistance—that is the distinction of the slave. Let your distinction be obedience. Let your commanding itself be obeying! To the good warrior soundeth “thou shalt” pleasanter than “I will.” And all that is dear unto…
The good warrior prefers 'thou shalt' to 'I will', which sits oddly beside the book's lion and 'I will'.
Read in the book →Art thou a new strength and a new authority? A first motion? A self-rolling wheel? Canst thou also compel stars to revolve around thee? Alas! there is so much lusting for loftiness! There are so many convulsions of the…
Freedom is measured by its purpose and by the ability to be one's own lawgiver, judge and avenger.
Read in the book →Free from what? What doth that matter to Zarathustra! Clearly, however, shall thine eye show unto me: free FOR WHAT?
The famous reversal: freedom from is nothing, freedom for a goal is everything.
Read in the book →Willing emancipateth: that is the true doctrine of will and emancipation—so teacheth you Zarathustra.
Feeling suffers in prison while willing comes as liberator and comforter, and weariness of will is what he fears most.
Read in the book →Sultry heart and cold head; where these meet, there ariseth the blusterer, the “Saviour.” Greater ones, verily, have there been, and higher-born ones, than those whom the people call Saviours, those rapturous…
Freedom requires being saved by greater ones than the Saviours.
Read in the book →And now, ye famous wise ones, I would have you finally throw off entirely the skin of the lion! The skin of the beast of prey, the speckled skin, and the dishevelled locks of the investigator, the searcher, and the…
The truly conscientious man breaks his venerating heart and wills himself hungry, lonesome and free, refusing the oases where idols dwell.
Read in the book →Respectable do ye there stand, and stiff, and with straight backs, ye famous wise ones!—no strong wind or will impelleth you. Have ye ne’er seen a sail crossing the sea, rounded and inflated, and trembling with the…
The wise ones are moved by no strong wind or will of their own, so they cannot go with Zarathustra.
Read in the book →How did I ever bear it? How did I survive and surmount such wounds? How did my soul rise again out of those sepulchres? Yea, something invulnerable, unburiable is with me, something that would rend rocks asunder: it is…
Something invulnerable and unburiable in him, his Will, survives every wound and bursts the shackles of the tomb.
Read in the book →Yea, thou art still for me the demolisher of all graves: Hail to thee, my Will! And only where there are graves are there resurrections.
The closing hail to the Will as that which overcomes death and loss.
Read in the book →But that ye may understand my gospel of good and evil, for that purpose will I tell you my gospel of life, and of the nature of all living things. The living thing did I follow; I walked in the broadest and narrowest…
Living things obey, and what cannot obey itself is commanded; commanding is harder and means risk and self-judgement.
Read in the book →To be sure, I love in him the shoulders of the ox: but now do I want to see also the eye of the angel. Also his hero-will hath he still to unlearn: an exalted one shall he be, and not only a sublime one:—the ether…
His hero-will must be unlearned; the ether should raise him, the will-less one.
Read in the book →Will—so is the emancipator and joy-bringer called: thus have I taught you, my friends! But now learn this likewise: the Will itself is still a prisoner. Willing emancipateth: but what is that called which still putteth…
Willing liberates, yet the will remains a prisoner because it cannot will backward.
Read in the book →Then was there again spoken unto me without voice: “What matter about their mockery! Thou art one who hast unlearned to obey: now shalt thou command! Knowest thou not who is most needed by all? He who commandeth great…
Having unlearned obedience, Zarathustra is told he must now command, and commanding great things is harder than doing them.
Read in the book →And when I call out: “Curse all the cowardly devils in you, that would fain whimper and fold the hands and adore”—then do they shout: “Zarathustra is godless.” And especially do their teachers of submission shout…
His equals are those who give themselves their own will and shed all submission.
Read in the book →Ah, that ye understood my word: “Do ever what ye will—but first be such as CAN WILL.
Doing what one wills first requires being capable of willing.
Read in the book →Love ever your neighbour as yourselves—but first be such as LOVE THEMSELVES— —Such as love with great love, such as love with great contempt!” Thus speaketh Zarathustra the godless.—
Paired with the call to be such as can will.
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…
Willing emancipates, for willing is creating.
Read in the book →O my soul, I have taught thee to say “to-day” as “once on a time” and “formerly,” and to dance thy measure over every Here and There and Yonder. O my soul, I delivered thee from all by-places, I brushed down from thee…
Zarathustra recounts freeing the soul from by-places, petty shame, sin and obedience, giving it liberty over the created and the uncreated.
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
Brandes argues that the young person who would become himself needs an educator who liberates rather than imposes dogma, contrasting this with Kierkegaard, whose call to become an individual still ended in a 'Thou shalt believe' and the return of the herd.
Freedom under a suspended 'Thou shalt' is only apparent freedom.
Brandes reads Nietzsche as an enthusiast who knew his own masterful bias and held that humanity has not outgrown commanding and obeying, yet who in ethics condemned modern morality for exalting obedience instead of the power to dictate one's own morality.
The highest ethical power is dictating to oneself one's own morality, not obeying.
Brandes sets out Nietzsche's genealogy: man's nobility lies in answering for himself, the sovereign man's conscience; memory for promises was burnt into him by frightful punishments; guilt originates as debt in the creditor–debtor relation, whose compensation was the pleasure of making the powerless suffer; and society stands to its members as creditor to debtor.
Responsibility and self-mastery give the sovereign man his conscience.
Brandes says that Nietzsche defines man as an animal that can make and keep promises.
The capacity to promise expresses mastery of oneself and a lasting will.
Mencken explains that Nietzsche rejected free will, holding that responsibility was invented to justify punishment and that Christianity is 'a hangman's metaphysic', and that denying God and responsibility restores the innocence of man's existence.
Shows Nietzsche's denial of metaphysical free will, a counterpoint to Zarathustra's creating 'I will'.
Mencken argues that Nietzsche fell into the trap of atheistic determinism: denying that the will is free while spending his life urging men, like a prophet, to change their ways.
Points to a tension between determinism and Nietzsche's exhortations to will otherwise.
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.
Freedom is valued only as freedom for something, for those able to will.