LXXIII. The Higher Man

When I came unto men for the first time, then did I commit the anchorite folly, the great folly: I appeared on the market-place. And when I spake unto all, I spake unto none. In the evening, however, rope-dancers were…

Zarathustra recalls his first coming to men, when speaking to all meant speaking to none. He tells the higher men that the populace blinks 'we are all equal', and that they must go away from the market-place.

God hath died: now do WE desire—the Superman to live.

Zarathustra tells the higher men that God was their greatest danger and that only since his burial have they risen again. He asks whether they are frightened by the abyss, then bids them take heart.

The most careful ask to-day: “How is man to be maintained?” Zarathustra however asketh, as the first and only one: “How is man to be SURPASSED?” The Superman, I have at heart; THAT is the first and only thing to me—and…

Zarathustra says he cares about the Superman, not man, and loves man as an over-going and a down-going. He loves the higher men for despising and despairing, and calls on them to surpass the petty virtues of the present masters.

He hath heart who knoweth fear, but VANQUISHETH it; who seeth the abyss, but with PRIDE.

Zarathustra asks the higher men whether they have anchorite and eagle courage, not courage before witnesses. He says that courage means grasping the abyss with an eagle's talons.

“Man is evil”—so said to me for consolation, all the wisest ones. Ah, if only it be still true to-day! For the evil is man’s best force. “Man must become better and eviler”—so do _I_ teach. The evilest is necessary for…

Zarathustra reverses the wise ones' consolation that man is evil, teaching that man must become better and eviler. He takes great sin as his consolation and warns that such words are not for long ears.

Ye higher men, think ye that I am here to put right what ye have put wrong? Or that I wished henceforth to make snugger couches for you sufferers? Or show you restless, miswandering, misclimbing ones, new and easier…

Zarathustra denies he is here to put right what they put wrong or to offer easier footpaths. He says they suffer from themselves, not from man, and that his wisdom, gathered like a cloud, will bear lightning that blinds the men of today.

Do not will anything beyond your power: there is a bad falseness in those who will beyond their power. Especially when they will great things! For they awaken distrust in great things, these subtle false-coiners and…

Zarathustra tells the higher men not to will beyond their power, and prizes honesty above all. He advises distrust of the populace and its truths, and of the learned who boast they cannot lie.

If ye would go up high, then use your own legs! Do not get yourselves CARRIED aloft; do not seat yourselves on other people’s backs and heads! Thou hast mounted, however, on horseback? Thou now ridest briskly up to thy…

Zarathustra warns against being carried aloft or riding on others' backs. The rider's lame foot goes with him, and he will stumble at his height.

Ye creating ones, ye higher men! One is only pregnant with one’s own child. Do not let yourselves be imposed upon or put upon! Who then is YOUR neighbour? Even if ye act “for your neighbour”—ye still do not create for…

Zarathustra tells the creating ones to drop the 'for' of neighbour-virtue, since their love belongs to their own child. He adds that whoever gives birth is sick and unclean, and must wash his soul.

Be not virtuous beyond your powers! And seek nothing from yourselves opposed to probability! Walk in the footsteps in which your fathers’ virtue hath already walked! How would ye rise high, if your fathers’ will should…

Zarathustra advises the higher men to walk where their fathers' virtue walked and not to set up as saints where their fathers had vices. He mocks monasteries and says solitude is unsuitable for many.

Learn to laugh at yourselves, as ye ought to laugh!

Zarathustra compares the higher men to a tiger whose spring has failed, and to dice-players whose cast failed. He says the higher the type the seldomer it succeeds, and urges them to laugh and to set small perfect things around them.

What hath hitherto been the greatest sin here on earth? Was it not the word of him who said: “Woe unto them that laugh now!” Did he himself find no cause for laughter on the earth? Then he sought badly. A child even…

Zarathustra calls the word 'Woe unto them that laugh now!' the greatest sin on earth and says its speaker loved too little and sprang from the populace. He bids the higher men avoid such absolute ones, who cannot dance.

He, however, who cometh nigh to his goal, danceth.

Zarathustra says good things come to their goal tortuously and laugh. He loves fast racing, says light feet run across mud, and bids his hearers lift up their hearts and legs.

This crown of the laughter, this rose-garland crown: I myself have put on this crown, I myself have consecrated my laughter. No one else have I found to-day potent enough for this. Zarathustra the dancer, Zarathustra…

Zarathustra says he has put on the rose-garland crown of laughter and consecrated his own laughter. He calls himself the dancer, ready for flight, no impatient or absolute one.

Better, however, to be foolish with happiness than foolish with misfortune, better to dance awkwardly than walk lamely.

Zarathustra repeats his call to lift up hearts and legs, noting that even heavy animals can be happy, like an elephant trying to stand on its head. He urges the higher men to unlearn sorrow-sighing.

Do like unto the wind when it rusheth forth from its mountain-caves: unto its own piping will it dance; the seas tremble and leap under its footsteps. That which giveth wings to asses, that which milketh the lionesses:—…

Zarathustra praises the wild spirit of the storm that dances upon fens and blows dust into the eyes of the melancholic. He ends by casting the crown of laughter to the higher men and bidding them learn to laugh.