First Part · XXI. Voluntary Death

The consummating death and the voluntary death

The consummating death I show unto you, which becometh a stimulus and promise to the living.

His death, dieth the consummating one triumphantly, surrounded by hoping and promising ones.

Thus should one learn to die; and there should be no festival at which such a dying one doth not consecrate the oaths of the living!

Thus to die is best; the next best, however, is to die in battle, and sacrifice a great soul.

But to the fighter equally hateful as to the victor, is your grinning death which stealeth nigh like a thief,—and yet cometh as master.

My death, praise I unto you, the voluntary death, which cometh unto me because _I_ want it.

And when shall I want it?—He that hath a goal and an heir, wanteth death at the right time for the goal and the heir.

And out of reverence for the goal and the heir, he will hang up no more withered wreaths in the sanctuary of life.

The ideal death is triumphant, surrounded by hoping ones; next best is death in battle. Both are contrasted with the grinning death that steals in like a thief. He who has a goal and an heir wants death at the right time.

Voluntary deathDescribes the consummating death as a stimulus and promise to the living, and the voluntary death chosen for the sake of a goal and an heir.
The bestowing virtueThe dying man gives his death to the living as a consecration of their oaths.

Commentary on this chapter

What the critics said

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

Voluntary death, not suicideAnthony M. Ludovici · Notes on Thus Spake Zarathustra, 1909interpretation

Ludovici says that Nietzsche disliked the word 'suicide' for its suggestion of evil and renamed the act Voluntary Death to raise it to the dignity it held in classical antiquity.