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Thus Spake ZarathustraIdeasLibrary
First Part · XVIII. Old and Young Women

He wills, she obeys: surface and depth

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Whom hateth woman most?—Thus spake the iron to the loadstone: “I hate thee most, because thou attractest, but art too weak to draw unto thee.”

The happiness of man is, “I will.” The happiness of woman is, “He will.”

“Lo! now hath the world become perfect!”—thus thinketh every woman when she obeyeth with all her love.

Obey, must the woman, and find a depth for her surface. Surface, is woman’s soul, a mobile, stormy film on shallow water.

Man’s soul, however, is deep, its current gusheth in subterranean caverns: woman surmiseth its force, but comprehendeth it not.—

Woman hates most the one she cannot draw to herself. Man's happiness is 'I will' and woman's is 'He will'. Her soul is a shallow film and his a deep current she cannot grasp.

Commentary on this chapter

What the critics said

Defence of Nietzsche's views on womenAnthony M. Ludovici · Notes on Thus Spake Zarathustra, 1909judgement

Ludovici argues that hostility to Nietzsche's views on women is a misunderstanding: his doctrine is that the sexes are fundamentally antagonistic and should be kept so, against the democratic levelling that would masculinise women and feminise men, a view Ludovici judges right and just; he adds that the discourse's notorious last line was suggested by a woman.