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And rather be angry than abash any one! And when ye are cursed, it pleaseth me not that ye should then desire to bless. Rather curse a little also! 73
Tell me: where find we justice, which is love with seeing eyes? 78
Thou art young, and desirest child and marriage. But I ask thee: Art thou a man entitled to desire a child? Art thou the victorious one, the self-conqueror, the[Pg 151] ruler of thy passions, the master of thy virtues? Thus do I ask thee.
Or doth the animal speak in thy wish, and necessity? Or isolation? Or discord in thee?
I would have thy victory and freedom long for a child. Living monuments shalt thou build to thy victory and emancipation.
Beyond thyself shalt thou build. But first of all must thou be built thyself, rectangular in body and soul. 79
Marriage: so call I the will of the twain to create the one that is more than those who created it. 80
That which the many-too-many call marriage, those superfluous ones—ah, what shall I call it?
Ah, the poverty of soul in the twain! Ah, the filth of soul in the twain! Ah, the pitiable self-complacency in the twain!
Marriage they call it all; and they say their marriages are made in heaven.
Well, I do not like it, that heaven of the superfluous; No, I do not like them, those animals tangled in the heavenly toils!
Far from me also be the God who limpeth thither to bless what he hath not matched!
Laugh not at such marriages! What child hath not had reason to weep over its parents? 80
Every one regardeth dying as a great matter: but as yet death is not a festival. Not yet have people learned to inaugurate the finest festivals. 82
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. 83
It is your thirst to become sacrifices and gifts yourselves: and therefore have ye the thirst to accumulate all riches in your soul.
Insatiably striveth your soul for treasures and jewels, because your virtue is insatiable in desiring to bestow.
Ye constrain all things to flow towards you and into you, so that they shall flow back again out of your fountain as the gifts of your love.
Verily, an appropriator of all values must such bestowing love become; but healthy and holy, call I this selfishness. 86
When ye are exalted above praise and blame, and your will would command all things, as a loving one's will: there is the origin of your virtue. 87
Remain true to the earth, my brethren, with the power of your virtue! Let your bestowing love and your knowledge be devoted to be the meaning of the earth! Thus do I pray and conjure you.
Let it not fly away from the earthly and beat against eternal walls with its wings! 88
The man of knowledge must be able not only to love his enemies, but also to hate his friends. 90
Once did people say God, when they looked out upon distant seas; now, however, have I taught you to say, Superman. 98
Could ye conceive a God?—But let this mean Will to Truth unto you, that everything be transformed into the humanly conceivable, the humanly visible, the humanly sensible! Your own discernment shall ye follow out to the end! 99
Creating—that is the great salvation from suffering, and life's alleviation. But for the creator to appear, suffering itself is needed, and much transformation. 100
What would there be to create if there were—? Gods! 101
Man himself is to the discerning one: the animal with red cheeks. 102
Verily, I like them not, the merciful ones, whose bliss is in their pity: too destitute are they of bashfulness.
If I must be pitiful, I dislike to be called so; and if I be so, it is preferably at a distance. 102
Since humanity came into being, man hath enjoyed himself too little: that alone, my brethren, is our original sin! 103
Great obligations do not make grateful, but revengeful; and when a small kindness is not forgotten, it becometh a gnawing worm. 103
The sting of conscience teacheth one to sting. 103
Ah, where in the world have there been greater follies than with the pitiful? And what in the world hath caused more suffering than the follies of the pitiful?
Woe unto all loving ones who have not an elevation which is above their pity!
Thus spake the devil unto me, once a time: "Even God hath his hell: it is his love for man." 105
All great love is above all its pity: for it seeketh—to create what is loved!
"Myself do I offer unto my love, and my neighbour as myself"—such is the language of all creators. 105
"Here are priests: but although they are mine enemies, pass them quietly and with sleeping swords!"
Even among them there are heroes; many of them have suffered too much:—so they want to make others suffer.
Bad enemies are they: nothing is more revengeful than their meekness. 106
When a person goeth through fire for his teaching—[Pg 154]what doth that prove! It is more, verily, when out of one's own burning cometh one's own teaching! 108
That your very Self be in your action, as the mother is in the child: let that be your formula of virtue! 112
Life is a well of delight; but where the rabble also drink, there all fountains are poisoned. 113
Ye who make the soul giddy, ye preachers of equality! Tarantulas are ye unto me, and secretly revengeful ones! 116
Ye preachers of equality, the tyrant-frenzy of impotence crieth thus in you for "equality": your most secret tyrant-longings disguise themselves thus in virtue-words!
Fretted conceit and suppressed envy—perhaps your fathers' conceit and envy: in you break they forth as flame and frenzy of vengeance. 117
Distrust all in whom the impulse to punish is powerful!
They are people of bad race and lineage; out of their countenances peer the hangman and the sleuth-hound.
Distrust all those who talk much of their justice! Verily, in their souls not only honey is lacking.
And when they call themselves "the good and just," forget not, that for them to be Pharisees, nothing is lacking but—power! 118
With these preachers of equality will I not be mixed up and confounded. For thus speaketh justice unto me: "Men are not equal."
