Nietzsche for Creative Spirits
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The Overman
..."I teach you the overman. Man is something that shall be overcome. What have you done to overcome him?...What is the ape to man? A laughing-stock or a painful embarrassment. And man shall be just that for the overman: a laughingstock or a painful embarrassment.
...The word "overman," as the designation of a type of supreme achievement, as opposed to "modern" men, to "good" men, to Christians and other nihilists - a word that in the mouth of a Zarathustra, the annihilator of morality, becomes a very pensive word - has been understood almost everywhere with the utmost innocence in the sense of those very values whose opposite Zarathustra was meant to represent - that is, as an "idealistic" type of a higher kind of man, half "saint," half "genius."
...Bitterness lies in the cup of even the best love: thus it arouses longing for the overman; thus it arouses your thirst, creator. Thirst for the creator, an arrow and longing for the overman
...Once one said God when one looked upon distant seas; but now I have taught you to say: overman....Could you create a god? Then do not speak to me of any gods. But you could well create the overman. Perhaps not you yourselves, my brothers. But into fathers and forefathers of the overman you could re-create yourselves: and let this be your best creation
...Never yet has there been an overman. Naked I saw both the greatest and the smallest man: they are still all-too-similar to each other.
...you who are wise and knowing, you would flee from the burning sun of that wisdom in which the overman joyously bathes his nakedness. You highest men ... this is...my secret laughter: I guess that you would call my overman - devil.
from Nietzsche's Zarathustra, (trans. W. Kaufmann), pr3"I teach you the overman. Man is something that shall be overcome. What have you done to overcome him? "All beings so far have created something beyond themselves; and do you want to be the ebb of this great flood and even go back to the beasts rather than overcome man? What is the ape to man? A laughing-stock or a painful embarrassment. And man shall be just that for the overman: a laughingstock or a painful embarrassment. You have made your way from worm to man, and much in you is still worm. Once you were apes, and even now, too, man is more ape than any ape. "Whoever is the wisest among you is also a mere conflict and cross between plant and ghost. But do I bid you become ghosts or plants?
"Behold, I teach you the overman. The overman is the meaning of the earth. Let your will say: the over-man shall be the meaning of the earth! I beseech you, my brothers, remain faithful to the earth, and do not believe those who speak to you of otherworldly hopes! Poison-mixers are they, whether they know it or not. Despisers of life are they, decaying and poisoned them-selves, of whom the earth is weary: so let them go.
"Once the sin against God was the greatest sin; but God died, and these sinners died with him. To sin against the earth is now the most dreadful thing, and to esteem the entrails of the unknowable higher than the meaning of the earth.
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from Nietzsche's Ecce Homo, (trans. W. Kaufmann), p3 s1Whoever thought he had understood something of me, had made up something out of me after his own image - not uncommonly an antithesis to me; for example, an "idealist" - and whoever had understood nothing of me, denied that I need be considered at all.The word "overman," as the designation of a type of supreme achievement, as opposed to "modern" men, to "good" men, to Christians and other nihilists - a word that in the mouth of a Zarathustra, the annihilator of morality, becomes a very pensive word - has been understood almost everywhere with the utmost innocence in the sense of those very values whose opposite Zarathustra was meant to represent - that is, as an "idealistic" type of a higher kind of man, half "saint," half "genius."Other scholarly oxen have suspected me of Darwinism on that account. Even the "hero worship" of that unconscious and involuntary conterfeiter, Carlyle, which I have repudiated so maliciously, has been read into it. Those to whom I said in confidence that they should sooner look even for a Cesare Borgia than for a Parsifal, did not believe their own ears.
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from Nietzsche's Zarathustra, (trans. W. Kaufmann), p1 s20
ON CHILD AND MARRIAGEMany brief follies-that is what you call love. And your marriage concludes many brief follies, as a long stupidity. Your love of woman, and woman's love of man-oh, that it were compassion for suffering and shrouded gods! But, for the most part, two beasts find each other. But even your best love is merely an ecstatic parable and a painful ardor. It is a torch that should light up higher paths for you. Over and beyond yourselves you shall love one day. Thus learn first to love. And for that you had to drain the bitter cup of your love. Bitterness lies in the cup of even the best love: thus it arouses longing for the overman; thus it arouses your thirst, creator. Thirst for the creator, an arrow and longing for the overman: tell me, my brother, is this your will to marriage? Holy I call such a will and such a mar-riage.
Thus spoke Zarathustra.
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from Nietzsche's Zarathustra, (trans. W. Kaufmann), p2 s2
ON THE BLESSED ISLESThe figs are falling from the trees; they are good and sweet; and, as they fall, their red skin bursts. I am a north wind to ripe figs. Thus, like figs, these teachings fall to you, my friends; now consume their juice and their sweet meat. It is autumn about us, and pure sky and afternoon. Behold what fullness there is about us! And out of such overflow it is beautiful to look out upon distant seas. Once one said God when one looked upon distant seas; but now I have taught you to say: overman. God is a conjecture; but I desire that your conjectures should not reach beyond your creative will. Could you create a god? Then do not speak to me of any gods. But you could well create the overman. Perhaps not you yourselves, my brothers. But into fathers and forefathers of the overman you could re-create yourselves: and let this be your best creation.
God is a conjecture; but I desire that your conjec-tures should be limited by what is thinkable. Could you think a god? But this is what the will to truth should mean to you: that everything be changed into what is thinkable for man, visible for man, feelable by man. You should think through your own senses to their consequences.
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from Nietzsche's Zarathustra, (trans. W. Kaufmann), p2 s4
ON PRIESTSA sultry heart and a cold head: where these two meet there arises the roaring wind, the "Redeemer." There have been greater ones, verily, and more highborn than those whom the people call redeemers, those roaring winds which carry away. And you, my brothers, must be redeemed from still greater ones than all the redeem-ers if you would find the way to freedom. Never yet has there been an overman. Naked I saw both the greatest and the smallest man: they are still all-too-similar to each other. Verily, even the greatest I found all-too-human.
Thus spoke Zarathustra.
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from Nietzsche's Zarathustra, (trans. W. Kaufmann), p2 s21
ON HUMAN PRUDENCEVerily, you who are good and just, there is much about you that is laughable, and especially your fear of that which has hitherto been called devil. What is great is so alien to your souls that the overman would be awesome to you in his kindness. And you who are wise and knowing, you would flee from the burning sun of that wisdom in which the overman joyously bathes his nakedness. You highest men whom my eyes have seen, this is my doubt concerning you and my secret laughter: I guess that you would call my overman - devil. Alas, I have wearied of these highest and best men: from their "height" I longed to get up, out, and away to the overman. A shudder came over me when I saw these best ones naked; then I grew wings to soar off into distant futures. Into more distant futures, into more southern souths than any artist ever dreamed of—where gods are ashamed of all clothes. But I want to see you disguised, my neighbors and fellow men, and well decked out, and vain, and dignified, as "the good and the just." And I myself want to sit among you disguised - misjudging you and myself: for that is the final instance of my human prudence. Thus spoke Zarathustra.
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