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Thus Spake ZarathustraIdeasLibrary
First Part · XI. The New Idol

Flee the bad odour of idolatry

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My brethren, will ye suffocate in the fumes of their maws and appetites! Better break the windows and jump into the open air!

Do go out of the way of the bad odour! Withdraw from the idolatry of the superfluous!

Do go out of the way of the bad odour! Withdraw from the steam of these human sacrifices!

Open still remaineth the earth for great souls. Empty are still many sites for lone ones and twain ones, around which floateth the odour of tranquil seas.

Open still remaineth a free life for great souls. Verily, he who possesseth little is so much the less possessed: blessed be moderate poverty!

Zarathustra urges his brethren to break the windows, leave the fumes, and take the open earth. Moderate poverty frees one from being possessed.

Commentary on this chapter

What the critics said

The State, coldest of monstersGeorg Brandes · Aristocratic Radicalism, 1889exposition

Brandes restates Zarathustra's teaching that the State is the coldest of monsters whose lie is that it is the people, whereas creators made peoples; the State is for the many-too-many, and only where it ceases does the man who is a bridge to the Superman begin.

The State, coldest of monstersGeorg Brandes · Aristocratic Radicalism, 1889exposition

Brandes restates Zarathustra's teaching that the State is the coldest of monsters whose lie is that it is the people, whereas creators made peoples; the State is for the many-too-many, and only where it ceases does the man who is a bridge to the Superman begin.