Quotes from Thus Spoke Zarathustra

Quotations follow the Walter Kaufmann translation (Penguin Classics, 1978) — our recommended edition.

1. 2

   I teach you the Superman. Man is something that is to be surpassed.

2. 3

   Man is a rope stretched between the animal and the Superman—a rope over an abyss.

3. 4

   One must still have chaos in oneself to be able to give birth to a dancing star.

4. 5

   He who has a why to live for can bear almost any how.

5. 6

   Three metamorphoses of the spirit do I designate to you: how the spirit becometh a camel, the camel a lion, and the lion at last a child.

6. 7

   I tell you: one must still have chaos in one, to give birth to a dancing star.

7. 8

   What is great in man is that he is a bridge and not a goal.

8. 9

   Thou goest to women? Do not forget thy whip!

9. 10

   I would only believe in a god who could dance.

10. 11

    What is love? What is creation? What is longing? What is a star?—so asketh the last man and blinketh.

11. 12

    This old saint in the forest hath not yet heard of it, that God is dead!

12. 13

    Of all that is written, I love only what a person hath written with his blood.

13. 14

    State is the name of the coldest of all cold monsters.

14. 15

    I come again eternally to this identical and selfsame life, in its greatest and its smallest, to teach again the eternal return of all things.

15. 16

    He who writeth in blood and proverbs doth not want to be read, but learnt by heart.

16. 17

    O man! Take heed! What saith deep midnight's voice indeed?

17. 18

    Now do I bid you lose me and find yourselves; and only when ye have all denied me, will I return unto you.

18. 19

    It is the stillest words which bring the storm. Thoughts that come with doves' footsteps guide the world.

19. 20

    One requiteth a teacher badly if one remain always a scholar only.

20. 21

    Die at the right time: so teacheth Zarathustra.

21. 22

    Joys all want eternity—Want deep, profound eternity!