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Thus Spake ZarathustraIdeasLibrary
Third Part · LI. On Passing-by

Contempt and warning only out of love

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Out of love alone shall my contempt and my warning bird take wing; but not out of the swamp!—

Zarathustra distinguishes his own contempt, born of love, from the fool's, born of the swamp.

Commentary on this chapter

What the critics said

Petty virtue, apostates and the great cityGeorg Brandes · Aristocratic Radicalism, 1889exposition

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.

Zarathustra's ape: love versus resentmentAnthony M. Ludovici · Notes on Thus Spake Zarathustra, 1909interpretation

Ludovici argues that the fool of 'On Passing-by' is Nietzsche's extreme opposite and his imitator, the iconoclast who destroys out of resentment and revenge, with whom the public confuses Nietzsche, who destroys out of love; Zarathustra's rebuke of him should warn readers against associating Nietzsche with noisy revolutionists.

Zarathustra's ape: love versus resentmentAnthony M. Ludovici · Notes on Thus Spake Zarathustra, 1909interpretation

Ludovici argues that the fool of 'On Passing-by' is Nietzsche's extreme opposite and his imitator, the iconoclast who destroys out of resentment and revenge, with whom the public confuses Nietzsche, who destroys out of love; Zarathustra's rebuke of him should warn readers against associating Nietzsche with noisy revolutionists.