Only where there is life, is there also will: not, however, Will to Life, but—so teach I thee—Will to Power!
Life rejects the formula 'will to existence', since what is cannot strive to be. Life values many things above itself, and in that valuing the will to power speaks.
- Will to powerThe 'will to existence' is rejected as a contradiction; where there is life there is will to power.
Commentary on this chapter
What the critics said
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.
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.
Nietzsche elsewhere
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.