But disguised do I want to see YOU, ye neighbours and fellowmen, and well-attired and vain and estimable, as “the good and just;”—
And disguised will I myself sit amongst you—that I may MISTAKE you and myself: for that is my last manly prudence.—
He wants to see his neighbours disguised as the good and just, and to sit disguised among them. In this way he may mistake them and himself.
- SolitudeHe keeps his own nature masked among men, hiding his knowledge.
Commentary on this passage
Commentary on this chapter
Nietzsche elsewhere
Nietzsche says that Zarathustra, as the first psychologist of the good, is the friend of the evil man, since where the herd animal is virtuous the exceptional man is branded evil; the good and just would call his Superman the devil, and the Superman is the man strong enough to see reality as it is and to be that reality himself.
What the critics said
Ludovici says 'Manly Prudence' explains the injunction that the superior man must wear a mask: the truly profound individual feels his difference so keenly that he conforms outwardly and avoids display, unlike those who show individuality through eccentricity.