This, this is MY declivity and my danger, that my gaze shooteth towards the summit, and my hand would fain clutch and lean—on the depth!
Zarathustra names his own danger: the summit draws his gaze, while his hand holds to the depth.
- The Superman (Übermensch)States in one line the tension between the summit he aims at and the depth of man that he leans on.
Commentary on this chapter
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.
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.