The Portable Nietzsche

by Friedrich Nietzsche

  “Nor are you beautiful and wellborn enough for me. I need clean, smooth mirrors for my doctrines; on your surface even my own image is distorted. Many a burden, many a reminiscence press on your shoulders; many a wicked dwarf crouches in your nooks. There is hidden mob in you too. And even though you may be high and of a higher kind, much in you is crooked and misshapen. There is no smith in the world who could hammer you right and straight for me.

  “You are mere bridges: may men higher than you stride over you. You signify steps: therefore do not be angry with him who climbs over you to his height. A genuine son and perfect heir may yet grow from your seed, even for me: but that is distant. You yourselves are not those to whom my heritage and name belong.

  “It is not for you that I wait in these mountains; it is not with you that I am to go down for the last time. Only as signs have you come to me, that those higher than you are even now on their way to me: not the men of great longing, of great nausea, of great disgust, and that which you called the remnant of God; no, no, three times no! It is for others that I wait here in these mountains, and I will not lift my feet from here without them; it is for those who are higher, stronger, more triumphant, and more cheerful, such as are built perpendicular in body and soul: laughing lions must come!

  “O my strange guests! Have you not yet heard anything of my children? And that they are on their way to me? Speak to me of my gardens, of my blessed isles, of my new beauty—why do you not speak to me of that? This present I beseech from your love, that you speak to me of my children. For this I am rich, for this I grew poor; what did I not give, what would I not give to have one thing: these children, this living plantation, these life-trees of my will and my highest hope!”

  Thus spoke Zarathustra, and suddenly he stopped in his speech, for a longing came over him, and he closed his eyes and mouth as his heart was moved. And all his guests too fell silent and stood still in dismay; only the old soothsayer made signs and gestures with his hands.

  THE LAST SUPPER

  For it was at this point that the soothsayer interrupted the welcome, pushed forward like one who has no time to lose, seized Zarathustra’s hand, and shouted: “But Zarathustra! One thing is more necessary than another: thus you say yourself. Well then, one thing is more necessary to me now than anything else. A word at the right time: did you not invite me to supper? And here are many who have come a long way. Surely, you would not feed us speeches alone? Also, all of you have thought far too much, for my taste, of freezing, drowning, suffocating, and other physical distress; but nobody has thought of my distress, namely, starving—”

  (Thus spoke the soothsayer; but when Zarathustra’s animals heard these words they ran away in fright. For they saw that whatever they had brought home during the day would not be enough to fill this one soothsayer.)

  “Including dying of thirst,” continued the soothsayer. “And although I hear water splashing nearby like speeches of wisdom—that is, abundantly and tirelessly —I want wine. Not everybody is a born water drinker like Zarathustra. Nor is water fit for the weary and wilted: we deserve wine. That alone gives sudden convalescence and immediate health.”

  On this occasion, as the soothsayer asked for wine, it happened that the king at the left, the taciturn one, got a word in too, for once. “For wine,” he said, “we have taken care—I together with my brother, the king at the right; we have wine enough—a whole ass-load. So nothing is lacking but bread.”

  “Bread?” countered Zarathustra, and he laughed. “Bread is the one thing hermits do not have. But man does not live by bread alone, but also of the meat of good lambs, of which I have two. These should be slaughtered quickly and prepared tastily with sage: I love it that way. Nor is there a lack of roots and fruit, good enough even for gourmets and gourmands, nor of nuts and other riddles to be cracked. Thus we shall have a good meal in a short while. But whoever would join in the eating must also help in the preparation, even the kings. For at Zarathustra’s even a king may be cook.”

  This suggestion appealed to the hearts of all; only the voluntary beggar objected to meat and wine and spices. “Now listen to this glutton Zarathustra!” he said jokingly; “is that why one goes into caves and high mountain ranges, to prepare such meals? Now indeed I understand what he once taught us: ‘Praised be a little poverty!’ And why he wants to abolish beggars.”

  “Be of good cheer,” Zarathustra answered him, “as I am. Stick to your custom, my excellent friend, crush your grains, drink your water, praise your fare; as long as it makes you gay!

  “I am a law only for my kind, I am no law for all. But whoever belongs with me must have strong bones and light feet, be eager for war and festivals, not gloomy, no dreamer, as ready for what is most difficult as for his festival, healthy and wholesome. The best belongs to my kind and to me; and when one docs not give it to us, we take it: the best food, the purest sky, the strongest thoughts, the most beautiful women.”

  Thus spoke Zarathustra; but the king at the right retorted: “Strange! Has one ever heard such clever things out of the mouth of a sage? And verily, he is the strangest sage who is also clever and no ass.”

  Thus spoke the king at the right, and he was amazed; but the ass commented on his speech with evil intent: Yeah-Yuh. But this was the beginning of that long-drawn-out meal which the chronicles call “the last supper.” And in the course of it, nothing else was discussed but the higher man.

  ON THE HIGHER MAN

  1

  The first time I came to men I committed the folly of hermits, the great folly: I stood in the market place. And as I spoke to all, I spoke to none. But in the evening, tightrope walkers and corpses were my companions; and I myself was almost a corpse. But with the new morning a new truth came to me: I learned to say, “Of what concern to me are market and mob and mob noise and long mob ears?”

  You higher men, learn this from me: in the market place nobody believes in higher men. And if you want to speak there, very well! But the mob blinks: “We are all equal.”

  “You higher men”—thus blinks the mob—“there are no higher men, we are all equal, man is man; before God we are all equal.”

  Before God! But now this god has died. And before the mob we do not want to be equal. You higher men, go away from the market place!

  2

  Before God! But now this god has died. You higher men, this god was your greatest danger. It is only since he lies in his tomb that you have been resurrected. Only now the great noon comes; only now the higher man becomes—lord.

  Have you understood this word, O my brothers? You are startled? Do your hearts become giddy? Does the abyss yawn before you? Does the hellhound howl at you? Well then, you higher men! Only now is the mountain of man’s future in labor. God died: now we want the overman to live.

  3

  The most concerned ask today: “How is man to be preserved?” But Zarathustra is the first and only one to ask: “How is man to be overcome?”

  I have the overman at heart, that is my first and only concern—and not man: not the neighbor, not the poorest, not the most ailing, not the best.

  O my brothers, what I can love in man is that he is an overture and a going under. And in you too there is much that lets me love and hope. That you despise, you higher men, that lets me hope. For the great despisers are the great reverers. That you have despaired, in that there is much to revere. For you did not learn how to surrender, you did not learn petty prudences. For today the little people lord it: they all preach surrender and resignation and prudence and industry and consideration and the long etcetera of the small virtues.

  What is womanish, what derives from the servile, and especially the mob hodgepodge: that would now become master of all human destiny. O nausea! Nausea! Nausea! That asks and asks and never grows weary: “How is man to be preserved best, longest, most agreeably?” With that—they are the masters of today.

  Overcome these masters of today, O my brothers—these small people, they are the overman’s gre
atest danger.

  You higher men, overcome the small virtues, the small prudences, the grain-of-sand consideration, the ants’ riffraff, the wretched contentment, the “happiness of the greatest number”! And rather despair than surrender. And verily, I love you for not knowing how to live today, you higher men! For thus you live best.

  4

  Do you have courage, O my brothers? Are you brave? Not courage before witnesses but the courage of hermits and eagles, which is no longer watched even by a god.

  Cold souls, mules, the blind, and the drunken I do not call brave. Brave is he who knows fear but conquers fear, who sees the abyss, but with pride.

  Who sees the abyss but with the eyes of an eagle; who grasps the abyss with the talons of an eagle—that man has courage.

  5

  “Man is evil”—thus said all the wisest to comfort me. Alas, if only it were still true today! For evil is man’s best strength.

  “Man must become better and more evil”—thus I teach. The greatest evil is necessary for the overman’s best. It may have been good for that preacher of the little people that he suffered and tried to bear man’s sin. But I rejoice over great sin as my great consolation.

  But this is not said for long ears. Not every word belongs in every mouth. These are delicate distant matters: they should not be reached for by sheeps’ hoofs.

  6

  You higher men, do you suppose I have come to set right what you have set wrong? Or that I have come to you that suffer to bed you more comfortably? Or to you that are restless, have gone astray or climbed astray, to show you new and easier paths?

  No! No! Three times no! Ever more, ever better ones of your kind shall perish—for it shall be ever worse and harder for you. Thus alone—thus alone, man grows to the height where lightning strikes and breaks him: lofty enough for lightning.

  My mind and my longing are directed toward the few, the long, the distant; what are your many small short miseries to me? You do not yet suffer enough to suit me! For you suffer from yourselves, you have not yet suffered from man. You would lie if you claimed otherwise! You all do not suffer from what I have suffered.

  7

  It is not enough for me that lightning no longer does any harm. I do not wish to conduct it away: it shall learn to work for me.

  My wisdom has long gathered like a cloud; it is becoming stiller and darker. Thus does every wisdom that is yet to give birth to lightning bolts.

  For these men of today I do not wish to be light, or to be called light. These I wish to blind. Lightning of my wisdom! put out their eyes!

  8

  Will nothing beyond your capacity: there is a wicked falseness among those who will beyond their capacity. Especially if they will great things! For they arouse mistrust against great things, these subtle counterfeiters and actors—until finally they are false before themselves, squinters, whited worm-eaten decay, cloaked with strong words, with display-virtues, with splendid false deeds.

  Take good care there, you higher men! For nothing today is more precious to me and rarer than honesty.

  Is this today not the mob’s? But the mob does not know what is great, what is small, what is straight and honest: it is innocently crooked, it always lies.

  9

  Have a good mistrust today, you higher men, you stouthearted ones, you openhearted ones! And keep your reasons secret! For this today is the mob’s.

  What the mob once learned to believe without reasons —who could overthrow that with reasons?

  And in the market place one convinces with gestures. But reasons make the mob mistrustful.

  And if truth was victorious for once, then ask yourself with good mistrust: “What strong error fought for it?”

  Beware of the scholars! They hate you, for they are sterile. They have cold, dried-up eyes; before them every bird lies unplumed.

  Such men boast that they do not lie: but the inability to lie is far from the love of truth. Beware!

  Freedom from fever is not yet knowledge by any means! I do not believe chilled spirits. Whoever is unable to lie does not know what truth is.

  10

  If you would go high, use your own legs. Do not let yourselves be carried up; do not sit on the backs and heads of others. But you mounted a horse? You are now riding quickly up to your goal? All right, my friend! But your lame foot is sitting on the horse too. When you reach your goal, when you jump off your horse—on your very height, you higher man, you will stumble.

  11

  You creators, you higher men! One is pregnant only with one’s own child. Do not let yourselves be gulled and beguiled! Who, after all, is your neighbor? And even if you act “for the neighbor”—you still do not create for him.

  Unlearn this “for,” you creators! Your very virtue wants that you do nothing “for” and “in order” and “because.” You shall plug up your ears against these false little words. “For the neighbor” is only the virtue of the little people: there one says “birds of a feather” and “one hand washes the other.” They have neither the right nor the strength for your egoism. In your egoism, you creators, is the caution and providence of the pregnant. What no one has yet laid eyes on, the fruit: that your whole love shelters and saves and nourishes. Where your whole love is, with your child, there is also your whole virtue. Your work, your will, that is your “neighbor”: do not let yourselves be gulled with false values!

  12

  You creators, you higher men! Whoever has to give birth is sick; but whoever has given birth is unclean. Ask women: one does not give birth because it is fun. Pain makes hens and poets cackle.

  You creators, there is much that is unclean in you. That is because you had to be mothers.

  A new child: oh, how much new filth has also come into the world! Go aside! And whoever has given birth should wash his soul clean.

  13

  Do not be virtuous beyond your strength! And do not desire anything of yourselves against probability.

  Walk in the footprints where your fathers’ virtue walked before you. How would you climb high if your fathers’ will does not climb with you?

  But whoever would be a firstling should beware lest he also become a lastling. And wherever the vices of your fathers are, there you should not want to represent saints. If your fathers consorted with women, strong wines, and wild boars, what would it be if you wanted chastity of yourself? It would be folly! Verily, it seems much to me if such a man is the husband of one or two or three women. And if he founded monasteries and wrote over the door, “The way to sainthood,” I should yet say, What for? It is another folly. He founded a reformatory and refuge for himself: may it do him good! But I do not believe in it.

  In solitude, whatever one has brought into it grows—also the inner beast. Therefore solitude is inadvisable for many. Has there been anything filthier on earth so far than desert saints? Around them not only was the devil loose, but also the swine.

  14

  Shy, ashamed, awkward, like a tiger whose leap has failed: thus I have often seen you slink aside, you higher men. A throw had failed you. But, you dicethrowers, what does it matter? You have not learned to gamble and jest as one must gamble and jest. Do we not always sit at a big jesting-and-gaming table? And if something great has failed you, does it follow that you yourselves are failures? And if you yourselves are failures, does it follow that man is a failure? But if man is a failure—well then!

  15

  The higher its type, the more rarely a thing succeeds. You higher men here, have you not all failed?

  Be of good cheer, what does it matter? How much is still possible! Learn to laugh at yourselves as one must laugh!

  Is it any wonder that you failed and only half succeeded, being half broken? Is not something thronging and pushing in you—man’s future? Man’s greatest distance and depth and what in him is lofty to the stars, his tremendous strength—are not all these frothing against each other in your pot? Is it any wonder that many a pot breaks? Learn to laugh at yourselv
es as one must laugh! You higher men, how much is still possible!

  And verily, how much has already succeeded! How rich is the earth in little good perfect things, in what has turned out well!

  Place little good perfect things around you, O higher men! Their golden ripeness heals the heart. What is perfect teaches hope.

  16

  What has so far been the greatest sin here on earth? Was it not the word of him who said, “Woe unto those who laugh here”? Did he himself find no reasons on earth for laughing? Then he searched very badly. Even a child could find reasons here. He did not love enough: else he would also have loved us who laugh. But he hated and mocked us: howling and gnashing of teeth he promised us.

  Does one have to curse right away, where one does not love? That seems bad taste to me. But thus he acted, being unconditional. He came from the mob. And he himself simply did not love enough: else he would not have been so wroth that one did not love him. All great love does not want love: it wants more.

  Avoid all such unconditional people! They are a poor sick sort, a sort of mob: they look sourly at this life, they have the evil eye for this earth. Avoid all such unconditional people! They have heavy feet and sultry hearts: they do not know how to dance. How should the earth be light for them?

  17

  All good things approach their goal crookedly. Like cats, they arch their backs, they purr inwardly over their approaching happiness: all good things laugh.