Love ever your neighbour as yourselves—but first be such as LOVE THEMSELVES—
—Such as love with great love, such as love with great contempt!” Thus speaketh Zarathustra the godless.—
Third Part · XLIX. The Bedwarfing Virtue
Love yourselves with great love and contempt
Read in the book →He bids them love their neighbour as themselves, but first to be such as love themselves, with great love and great contempt.
- Friendship, neighbour-love and love of the farthestNeighbour-love is conditional on loving oneself, with great love and great contempt.
- Will, freedom and the 'I will'Paired with the call to be such as can will.
Commentary on this passage
Commentary on this chapter
What the critics said
Brandes summarises Zarathustra's disgust with the petty virtues that make men smaller, his being called godless, the apostasy of his former companions, and his loathing of the great city and of the State.
Brandes summarises Zarathustra's disgust with the petty virtues that make men smaller, his being called godless, the apostasy of his former companions, and his loathing of the great city and of the State.
Great noontide as humanity's coming of ageAnthony M. Ludovici · Notes on Thus Spake Zarathustra, 1909interpretation
Ludovici explains that by 'the great noontide' Nietzsche meant the present period as the noon of man's history: the childhood of mankind is over, we now know, and there is no longer any excuse for mistakes that botch the type man.
What the critics said
Ludovici argues that in 'Old and New Tables' freedom receives its death-blow as a general desideratum: Nietzsche held freedom dangerous in unworthy hands, asking 'free for what?' and requiring that one first be such as can will.