Second Part · XXXIV. Self-Surpassing

The creator must first destroy values

Verily, I say unto you: good and evil which would be everlasting—it doth not exist! Of its own accord must it ever surpass itself anew.

With your values and formulae of good and evil, ye exercise power, ye valuing ones: and that is your secret love, and the sparkling, trembling, and overflowing of your souls.

But a stronger power groweth out of your values, and a new surpassing: by it breaketh egg and egg-shell.

And he who hath to be a creator in good and evil—verily, he hath first to be a destroyer, and break values in pieces.

Thus doth the greatest evil pertain to the greatest good: that, however, is the creating good.—

Zarathustra applies the lesson of Life to morality. Valuing is a way of exercising power, and a stronger power grows from every set of values and breaks it, so the creator must be a destroyer.

Revaluation of values (old and new tables)Good and evil cannot be everlasting; they must surpass themselves, and the creator in good and evil must first break values.
Creation and the creatorThe greatest evil belongs to the greatest good, which is the creating good.
Self-overcomingEvery table of values gives way to a stronger power growing out of it, as a chick breaks the egg-shell.

Commentary on this passage

Nietzsche elsewhere

The creator in good and evil must destroyFriedrich Nietzsche · Ecce Homo, 1888Nietzsche

Nietzsche says that the formula for his destiny is found in Zarathustra's words that whoever would create in good and evil must first be a destroyer and break values, and that his Dionysian nature cannot separate the negative deed from saying Yea; as the first immoralist he is essentially the annihilator.

What the critics said

Anthony M. Ludovici, Notes on Thus Spake Zarathustra (1909)

Will to power; destruction out of reverence for lawAnthony M. Ludovici · Notes on Thus Spake Zarathustra, 1909interpretation

Ludovici calls 'Self-Surpassing' the best exposition of the will to power in the book, and argues that Nietzsche was no iconoclast by choice: the saying that the creator in good and evil must first be a destroyer shows his esteem for law and self-discipline.

Commentary on this chapter

What the critics said

H. L. Mencken, The Philosophy of Friedrich Nietzsche (1908)

Contest, victory and the transvaluationH. L. Mencken · The Philosophy of Friedrich Nietzsche, 1908interpretation

Mencken argues that for Nietzsche instinct and experiment reveal one's power, that happiness lies in unrestrained yielding to the will to power through constant contest, citing Zarathustra's 'not to peace, but to victory' and casting dice with death, and that this means a crusade against ethics of self-sacrifice for inferiors and a transvaluation that frees the will to power from infamy.