Quotes from "Thus Spake Zarathustra" by Nietzsche

[MEGALITHdotORG]

I'm writing from Germany and want to add, that "Über" indeed translates as "over" not "super" and "mensch" translates into "human" not "man". So, the direct translation of Übermensch would be overhuman in the sense of "a human being who has risen to something beyond the existing human condition".

[Samgurney88]

I think if you still read Nietzsche for 'favourite quotes', for his apt turn of phrase and clever aphorisms, you are reading... dare I say... 'mere shadows' from him. Ironically, you quote his talking of the need of 'long legs' to walk from summit to summit, in which, indeed, he is talking of his stylistic density, but he is making reference to many different interconnected, metaphysical ideas also. Perhaps I would do a disservice to him to reveal him...

[tubberputty]

Well done on getting Nietzche on an universally accessible medium such as youtube. I had to search for a while before I found this. Are you planning on doin g anymore readings from him. I may post some myself if not. The copyright should have long been expired. Many thanks for posting. It's a nice change being read to out loud.

[tafxkz]

wow

[AlemanJuan]

isn't taking a moral stance on hitler something nietzsche would avoid? hitler is a factual historical entity...?

[BlueWaveOfLight]

As a person with a large, expanding crush on Hitler the great one, I would like to personally thank der ubermensch neecha for having maded the philosofy that helped him make the world cooler. ! I'm kidding actually

[MaestroMan999]

nice video

[RevJohn]

Sung to the tune of "Old Time Religion":

Let us worship Zarathustra,. Just the way we used ta. I'm a Zarathustra boosta and that's good enough for me!

[MrSKINFLICK]

You can read everything else by Nietzsche with greatest enjoyment - but "Zarathustra" was derided even by most of his own friends - it´s too pathetic and SO quite the contrary of of his other very reflective stuff. His older friend Jakob Burckhardt, a professor of historical sciences in Basel - wrote him very amused after reading "Zarathustra" "if Nietzsche had ever thought of attempting the drama", which means nothing else in German than:Stop being a philosopher and start writing"silly poetry"!

[Moiez101]

OMG haha, you look like Vinnie Paz from jedi mind tricks.

[Thresholds]

What's a "spake"? It's "Spoke," for fuck's sake.

Ubermensch is a shitty trope. That's why Nietzsche doesn't use it anywhere else in his writing apart from in Z part I.

[refuckulate420]

Spake is certainly acceptable in the english language. You are quite a moron.

[Thresholds]

Nobody uses archaic, pretentious words like "spake" anymore. We use "spoke." The only reason anyone would use such a word is if they are (1) completely unfamiliar with all post 1920 translations of Zarathustra; (2) think that "spake" actually sounds cool, while It actually just makes Zarathustra sound pretentious and stupid, and that's the last thing Nietzsche needed. Not to mention that it doesn't do justice to the original German.

[refuckulate420]

Yea way to get your panties all twisted up over something so trivial. You are a joke.

[Thresholds]

It's not really about the title, it's about the entire translation.

If I'm a joke for being concerned with trivial things, like the translation of the title of a book, then I guess you are too, since you've also tried to defend a position on the exact same "trivial" thing? Although the real reason you made that comment was not because you care about the title, but because you wanted to prove me wrong. That makes you a bigger joke. You need to find some better ways to boost your ego, loser.

[refuckulate420]

Just trollin ya a bit really, relax.

[Thresholds]

Yeah, no shit.

[OnyonKnight]

@Thresholds Spake is a fancy-looking spoke made of wood.

[robertdegiro]

what would your happiness be had you not those for whom you shine?i think that the sun is much more than an inteligent lamp,and certainly the sun has much more impact on man than man on the sun,man is not necessary, he has no natural relevance,the sun is our creator, teacher and ruler,we just have to think about it.mans possibilities are limited. niestze was a flippant egocentric.Zarathustra could never said that.

[brianmoran1973]

To be prickely to something small seems to me wisdom for hedgehogs

[robertdegiro]

@brianmoran1973 to be prickely to the sun the most evident manifestation of god seems to me no wise at all.

[clay70]

I love he who has murdered god, and despite the mess still feels good for it.

[LEGENDARYNESS100]

I prefer the "overman" rather then the superman. Over man is much simpler, it imples that one is over mankind. Super can imply that one is "good". Yet one of the main points of the book is that there is no "good" or "evil", just what we come up with.

[ViktorW19]

Übermensch should be translated as overman, it represents the sense of the prior better then superman. Also in Russian it is translated as Сверхчеловек, Натчовек in Macedonian, it should be overman in English, superman reminds me to the superhero, plus is not accurate.

[xARMINIUSx]

@ViktorW19 indeed OVERman

[sugarcubist]

'Superman' would be an interpretation. Nietzsche was trying to give people the will to be a god unto themselves, and to turn their backs on religion, "I do not have to be pushed in order to move. Now I am nimble, now I fly, now I see myself under myself, now a god dances within me".

[Whyisthat101]

I believe "ubermensch" is a term referring to a person as a master of his own destiny.

[wipeout84]

This is food to a starving man! Thankyou!

[nietzsche71]

your welcome

[5233andy]

Any suggestions as to what Ubermensch is metaphoric of?

[chessgmvid]

idiot. ubermensch isn't a methaphore.

[5233andy]

Sorry, you're the idiot - an idiot for being so narrow-minded and not open to interpretations.

[graygryph]

lol ...yes ubermensch is what is is...for those the great sun has risen...we are now nearing that age of which Nietzsche was speaking of....That great hour of the Overman!!!

[elendiel]

Ubermensch is actually a very good concept. Hitler only misused and misinterpreted it terribly! It says that the human evolution didn't stop by us growing opposed thumbs and learning how to make a fire. We are constantly evolving and we should learn and progress. But it doesn't mean killing the ones who are less knowledgeable or so, it just means we should work for our betterment. Right now, we are incomplete, somewhere between an animal and Ubermesch. We have to move forward - my opinion

[snylekkie]

For the fight with your weakness. The will to decide. To craft fate and morality. In essence, to be free.

[fuglyno1]

''whence arise the highest mountains? I once asked... then i learned they arise from the sea... this testimony is written into their stones and into the sides of their summits... the highest must arise to its height from the deepest....''

[Morgena1]

The prophet will never be heard in this own country but listened well on every strange place in the world ;)

Oh happy live being a stranger to the rest of the world!

[dirtyratmiller]

There is no such thing as a "Christian" nation-read the Bible, it tells you...

[CptWang]

You really overcame the spirit of gravity here...

[zarath00stra]

yogumy, u cant respect deep meaning, or anything powerful, or of a higher level of thinking

[robertdegiro]

yogumy you are brilliant!!!how can someone consider his self wise asking such stupid questions to the sun god.the ancients that were much  wiser than us used to worship the sun for what it represents.i agree absolutely with you.

[ababastingababa]

that was very nice.

[yogumy]

kurono you are pathetic thats why you cant see, and i dont know why you write to me in english when you are a supermexican.

[yogumy]

and the sun answered:you egocentric poor man what would it be if you couldnt see me,look at my size dont try to look stright to me ,even im too far and high from your little body dont lose respect. im here to rule your existence. PLEASE STOP WANKERS

[kurono1999]

that's the most pathetic comment I've ever see

[Frowned]

You sound like a pastor qouting the bible and pausing occasionally to interpret it to your flock.

[Aximeblaster]

Can you put all your quotes in text,they are so beautiful

[mensuur]

My favourite chapter among many candidates is "Before Sunrise" because it is a heartfelt tribute to something truly beautiful and the Superman, unlike so many people today, will evidently see the greatness in the sky.

[jduran9123]

he didnt get the title wrong.......dummy

[joman2299]

how could he get the title wrong

[Ninyae1]

God is subject to the same delusions about our condition, as the rest of us. His doctrine to the Noble Ones in the Noble planes of existence, that he is the creator, and that he is all that is and all that will be, comes from his delusion that he suffers as a result of the length of his existence but he is subject to the same laws of impermanence as all of us are, and is just as capable of falling to the lower realms, just as we are.

(Page 79 from the Manuals of Dhamma by the Ledi Sayadaw).

[lygophile]

"über" typically means not 'over' in the sense of 'above' or 'better then', but rather means something like 'beyond' or 'excessive'.

[ratrat48]

i could see this argued when used in philosophy, but in general german it is usually just over.

[lygophile]

there's no such thing as "just over". a word doesn't have only one set use. the most literal translation of "over" is "oben", not "über".

[lygophile]

well, no i said that wrong. "oben" actually means above. but often when in english you use "over", in german you'd use "oben".

[mensuur]

I feel that a better translation of the term "Ubermensch" is "Superman", rather than "Overman", because "super" is more commonly associated with "excessive" and "beyond" than "over" is.

[lygophile]

yes and it initially wàs transalated as 'superman', but it was dropped when it became associated with he comic hero.

but superman would be the correct one, we should use that one.

[furgy62]

Nietzsche's philosophy had nothing to do with Hitler, ubermensch is meant like to overcome

[unfad1ng]

@furgy62

The ubermensch is what everyone can become if they can overcome their usffering and grow from it.

You have to become an untermensch to become an ubermensch.

so yes you are right it has nothing to do with hitler, its as far from hitler as possible

[Samgurney88]

@furgy62 The attitude that Nietzsche had *nothing* to do with national socialism itself a reaction against the Christian reaction against Nietzsche, both reactions being incorrect. Nietzsche wanted to be misunderstood by 'the weak' and he knew he would be. In many ways, his apathy regarding the clarification of his meaning can be said to be responsible for giving the impression that he advocates evil and it is simple historical fact that Nietzsche was employed by the nazis for the purposes...

[Samgurney88]

@furgy62 of Propaganda, but perhaps also such a view is a little simplistic, in so far as his views genuinley were admired by many nazi intellectuals and did influence their thinking, even if not Hitler's. But even so, to say that Hitler was 'bad' is a judgement made through morality and although Nietzsche certainly would not have thought much of Hitler, his antisemitism and nationalism and probably would not been too fond of it's institutionalism, he would have prefered it's contempt for...

[Samgurney88]

@furgy62 the herd, over democracy, it still remains that the point is not so much to defend Nietzsche from judgements of immorality, since he really cannot be defended. He was an amoralist and although not synonymously, he was in many ways an im-moralist. Hitler seems so irrelevant to Nietzsche's thought, to me, that I'd rather not have all books about him tainted by either accusations of supporting nazism or defence from such accustions- I consider it more important to look at what he said.

[vrotter05]

Oh Ihr armen Angelsachsen, wie verhüllt die Schönheit der Sprache durch den Mißklang des Englischen verunstaltet wird.

[02sayep]

It would be more appropraite for Nietzsche's philosophy to be advocated by someone with more Ubermenschian qualities.

[Youshless]

why does this guy read like a primary school student? I think this is possibly the worst reading i have ever heard. Boring and without passion. He keeps saying "...or somthing..." as if he either doesnt understand or doesnt care too!

[ares1815]

Nietzsche has nothing to do with hitler! hitler tried to connect his philosophy about the jews with Nietzsche's "Übermensch" and created the "Untermensch"

[L4s4gn3]

Nietzsche sounds bad in english :D

[ares1815]

yeah its true it really does sound bad in english

[danimation777]

i really hate how so many dummies percieve hitler as living out nietsche's philosophies..nothing could be farther from the truth its selective reading at its worst

[Erren1234]

Nietzsche the immoralist! the best immoralist ever!

[OrthodoxWarrior]

So Right like Hitler..People can't understand him..WAR 4 EVER!!!

[OrthodoxWarrior]

He was a genius like Hitler..TSo RIGHThe strong doesn't care for weak and must trade the weak..

[ajgillett]

hitler was an ascetic priest

nietzsche would of seen him as worm ridden

yes he had the will to power but only in order to lead the weak. if you think hitler was the ubermensch then you need to reread and actually pay attention. nietzsche compared anti-semites and fascists to people with parkinson's disease and hated them, really utterlt hated them for the fact that they misunderstand him

[TOFMTJ476]

i don't think he had any opinions about facism suprisingly,Unless he was truly prophetic.He however disliked anti semitism and disliked wagner's jew baiting.

[maidenbrigade]

Nietzsche hated anti semitism and nationalism..although he was against democracy I think that if he had lived in Nazi Germany he would have considered Nazis as demonstration of the HERD instinct.

[02sayep]

I don't doubt that to Nietzsche, there would be no greater example of slave morality and stagnating humanity than in Nazi Germany.

[wysjounommer]

This is a commonly expressed (fashionable even) view, please elaborate. I would be interested to read the damning evidence for this assertion.

[raddikkal]

@ajgillett That's not the only reason why Hitler is not an ubermensch. First of all, anyone that briefly studied Nietzsche knows that an ubermensch is most of all "nor master, nor slave". In my opinion, Hitlerfucktard fell perfectly into the "Master" category. Hitler is as far away from an ubermensch as a sheep of our society.

[tiakpark]

@raddikkal No, you've got it wrong. Hitler was a slave led by his own, petty slave morality. I'm not saying slave morality is thus bad, just that you give Hitler too much credited.

If you read Liberal Fascism you'll learn that Hitler was a resentment filled socialist bent on breaking everything superior to Germany through a monster of big government. He was charismatic mouth-piece and nothing more. He didn't mastermind Nazism the way Mousollini created Fascism, he was too stupid to do so.

[Taraborn]

Nietzsche was a genius. Too sad he died (mentally) so young.

[Conradhunte]

this is good.

[EEmperor444]

To think about himself or the universe or something?

Wisdom or whatever?

Right, I can see you know what you're talking about...

[usavsusavsusa]

learn to speak a bit of German you will be more convincing

[SultanBorat]

Followers of the real Persian religion today, Don't really take kind to Nietzsche usage of their "Prophet in this manner. But because Zarathustra was a rational type his followers will not likely threaten to behead you for reading this , As they are more pissed after the Japaneses Car manufacturer that named a shit box after their god.

[SultanBorat]

Zarathustran stories have him living as a hermit in a cave for six years.

[Pyramid0rz]

Thus Spake Zarathustra = greatest literature ever! Read Thomas Common translation (best translation of the book), rather than whatever translation it was you read in this video.

[BrianTheMusicMan]

You really think so? I think Kaufmann did the best rendition; he really captures the German puns and hidden metaphors.

[ULYSSESAMI]

sad really poor unfortunate yankie bastard, you don't get it do you.

[RedderApollo]

that guy below me is right...zarathustra was the prophet who brought the Zoroastrianism. And the persian empire grew with that religion.

[820909]

It's der Uebermensch(not das)... Very good quotes.

[Ceadem]

i like that. thanks

[GravityExNihilo]

What I find hilarious, is how so many Nietzsche readers look to Ayn Rand and Randists/Objectivists with absolute disgust and laughter.

Go read "On Truth and Lie," maybe you should read that in one of your videos.

[apoistler]

its true and "Zarathustra" is a kurdish jesus...

[laotsu7777]

or a german zoroaster...or greek...

[omgwtflolz111]

dude... wikipedia the shit. zarathusthra came from zoroaster who was the pre islamic iranian prophet.

[drj30026abanba]

im currently reading zarathustra now and im in part 3

some of your quotes are my favorite quotes so far too

i also think this is a good one from there

"The ostrich runs faster than the fastest horse, but even he buries his head gravely in the grave earth; even so, the man who has not yet learned to fly. Earth and life seem grave to him; and thus the spirit of gravity wants it. But whoever would become light and a bird must love himself: thus I teach."

[bpope123]

Nietzsche's existentialism was certainly not mutually exclusive. He speaks of the Overman what seems like "Mob mentality" whispering in Zarathustra's ear praising him. He may have thought of himself as an existentialist or Overman. The question is: would you teach your kin this? We'll, I've taught my nieces and I try not to pull any punches.

[Electroguy1]

Nietzsche is easily my favourite philosopher.

Really speaks to me and about our modern society.

Onwards and upwards you higher men. ^_^

[nicolatwo]

Hello Brandon, what is your passion? What do you truly want in life? What are you trying to teach on YouTube? I am confused about your messages. "Also sprach Zarathustra" by Friedrich Nietzsche is my favored book. Peace. Nicola

[cropperb]

My goal, passion, and purpose in life is to spread Objectivism and help create a rebirth of learning, a Second Renaissance. Because it will make me happy. My happiness is the actual, ultimate purpose of my actions.

[nicolatwo]

Hello Brandon, Thank you for your reply. I think that's great. I see it the same way. Objectivism needs to be taught. Right now we are living in an era of Subjectivism because of the Evangelical Christian religon taking over like a disease.

[cropperb]

The Christians are taking over in America and the Muslims are taking over in Europe. Our only hope is to fight against religion as such, all religions at all times and places...

[nicolatwo]

Hello Brandon, I fully agree with you. Nicola

[jlasud]

@cropperb Fighting against anything is not wise.

[BrofistNation]

@nicolatwo I disagree. I think Nietzsche would vastly disagree with most things Ayn Rand says, because she celebrates basically economic superiority in one specific system (capitalistic) at one specific time. I disagree with all religion, and I think Nietzsche is actually one of my two favourite philosophers. However, I find Objectivism and all other capitalistic ("Right-wing" if you will) philosophies to be extremely dangerous.

[TheAmericanApologist]

@BrofistNation Extremely dangerous? Could you unpack that a little bit? I don't see anything troubling, let alone extremely dangerous, about buying a loaf of bread with my hard-earned dollars.

But, I'm aware that some people have a hard time separating voluntary economic exchanges with functions of the government, i.e., the military. Normally when I hear this notion asserted, the presenter acts unaware that introducing force and violence to obtain property is not a free market idea.

[christopherockman]

What do you mean when you speak of objectivism?Email me if you have to.Are you talking about some objective meaning to life that rejects existentialism?

I'm not so familiar with it.

[geroldkid]

I would really love to see a Second Renaissance. We need learning, not faith. Good video, Nietzsche rules!

[beyond87]

so you want the greatest thinkers of our time operate as a tool of religious government?. I think you need to study up on the renaissance if you think it was about "learning, not faith"...I can't even imagine what lead you to make such a claim...don't confuse stances against religious corruption with "anti-faith"(or 'learning' as you say)...the lived reality of the 'renaissance' is completely different than our view of it

[geroldkid]

I was thinking on modern terms. I never said anything on religious corruption or anti-faith, I want more reasoning than faith and I would like a second renaissance to do just that. Of course, that may not happen(Oh well... -__-).

[beyond87]

there will be another "rebirth", sadly we won't see it.. it will arise from the ashes of the disaster that is "globalization"

[8bobthebuilder]

@cropperb LOl.

[DaVinci85]

Nietzsche in english :)

[goozidi]

do you even know who zarathustra was...?

[utubesucks2003]

"uh I dont know to think about the universe or something"--for anyone unarrested and can discern truth this book is suppose to be a kindred experience speaking for muted feelings the reader already has, it's beyond this particular reader and it's clear

[MKFaizi]

I also prefer books that stand above one thousand books. Either that or trash.

[oooodaxteroooo]

This is so sad. I don't know if you can watch this in the US, but there is a programme called "Allzu Menschlich - Friedrich Nietzsche" which would be "All too human - F.N.". If any of you want Nietzsche explained, watch this.

This video has nothing of the text that's being read. In fact the book is more a song than anything else and who doesn't like the way music touches the soul?

[suergaz]

God dead for one, god dead for all. For none in gods omniscient non-existence. God, dear god, no more than a social fashion, a moral caprice, a refuge for the unwilling (to be as polite as humanly possible) --

O were it POSSIBLE to here speak ill of the dead! :D

To be hideously, obligingly factual, god is over.

The superhuman is not.

[oooodaxteroooo]

Well, when would it be? This seems to be indeed a nice program for life on planet earth. *ponders*

[suergaz]

When would what be?

[oooodaxteroooo]

The superman over. It's an infinite program. It's ANTIchrist.

[suergaz]

oooodaxteroooo: "The superman over. It's an infinite program. It's ANTIchrist."

I'm interested, can you elaborate a little for me? I'm almost 30 and my legs ain't getting any longer.

[MKFaizi]

What is the antiChrist? How could one have no belief in Christ but have faith in an antiChrist?

[suergaz]

The antichrist is an idea. The opposing idea to all ideas that result in the farcical sacrifice of genius to a supposed greater good or selfless act. It is against religion in essence and so does not fail in name to recognize in christianity its most powerful opponent--pity.

[suergaz]

Hi MKFaizi! It's me! I'm pleased to be able to say hello to you, yes I am still banned from genius forum :D

O not all things can be said in plain language!

Cropperb, you will forgive me for laughing at your tragic seriousness :D

Good to see Zarathustra being read.

[MKFaizi]

Hi, dude. Good to hear from you. I am in more or less self exile from Genius. I have been off there for several months now. Just not into the ego thing there. More interested in disucussion. I was going to be banned. Don't be so hard on the Crop. At least, he is reading it.

[MKFaizi]

with and without God being dead. I do not believe in God. I have no need to believe in God. I know absolutely that God does not live in religion. If God was not dead, then mankind would find reason to kill him. If God is not dead, then, he should be dead. I say, pull out the stave and finish him off for all those who profess piety and belief in God are those filled with hate and malice.

[MKFaizi]

It seems good that you read these things on the internet. I am glad to see it. But I have have always loathed the Zarathustra stuff. Too poetic. A matter of taste, I reckon. Suspicious of hermits, indeed. Who is not a hermit?

[MKFaizi]

In a nutshell, I dislike parables; stories. Prefer truths put out in plain language. Stories are for children. I reckon, then, this is why Nietzsche chose the parable as his medium. He was writing for children.

[cropperb]

I'm not much for fiction myself - I prefer factual history. I rarely read novels or short stories. But Zarathustra is less story and more philosophy. Still, I prefer factual accounts...

[MKFaizi]

"Zarathustra" has always been my least favorite of Nietzsche's writings. He must have felt the need to dumb things down for people in the form of a parable --to try to get them to understand what he was writing. Kind of like Jesus. Yet, many people consider it to be his finest writing. If I am going to be handed truth, I want it unadorned. I loathe poetry for that reason.

[oooodaxteroooo]

I like to think in pictures, that's why I like Zarathustra so much. His other books are brilliant, but this one comes closest to what he wanted to say. Art as a way out of, through and above the human condition.

[suergaz]

Art as a stimulant to the human condition, not an escape or pretended elevation above it!

[oooodaxteroooo]

Take the US as an example. Do you think Nietzsche's philosophy is a stimulant to current circumstances or rather a way out or "over" it?

Art stimulates life/the artist, but its effect on the human condition is something else, right?

[MKFaizi]

I do not think the philosophy of Nietzsche has anything to do with current events either in the US or anywhere. Neither did his philosophy have anything to do with Nazism. Nietzsche was not political. His work has nothing to do with politics and cannot. If a politician understood Nietzsche, he would not continue in politics. Nothing in his writing relates to current situations in the US. It is politics as usual.

[MKFaizi]

I used to be a an artist -- painter. I think in visual terms often, too -- not as much now as when I was younger. But I prefer pictures more intricate than the cartoon story board. I do not mean to denigrate the value of the Zarathustra parable. I am certain that it has great value. I simply prefer his other writings.

[suergaz]

I love "Zarathustra", in it all insight goes unadorned-- O tragedy! The prosaic, that universally palatable spirit is bitten off and spat out-- divine comedy! It is the epigram, the dithyramb, the freedom from 'having' to make onself understood. Is clarity wanted? Then become clear! For all the crystalization of genius found in his other works, they pale beside Thus spake Zarathustra. His best ideas find their best voices.

[1legerdemain1]

Dumbed things down?  Kind of like Jesus?

Loathe poetry? Prefer perhaps stereo instructions or what?

Good luck with pure truth. Let me know how that pans out.

[oooodaxteroooo]

It is a good thing, if you enjoy factual reading. But as Nietzsche himself wrote in I think All too human - this sounds so strange in English - he prefers books that stand above 1000 other books. A sort of template if you want it that way. That's his books.

[TakeAleft]

No no...THE voice... only 1 voice.. .there are no people praising him as you said... it is HIS ecco ... meaning the "I" is praising himself... It is Niezsche who characterizes the voice as disappointing not the I who wants to be told how good it is... hence the condencending tone towards the I/self/Ego/abyss

[TakeAleft]

Its many thing 1) Gods death since it supports darwin 2) that man is dionysos and apollonic (from kant and schopenhauers theory of "Maya"-shielding)... read Birth of tragedy..3) it is the killing of the corrupted Ego/self/abyss that destroys further advancement... in the other quote its represented as mans own praising voice (there no other people in that ecco-qoute)

[cropperb]

I believe your interpretation of the echo quote is erroneous. "The voice of disapointment: I listened for an echo and heard nothing but praise." Its so obvious in the grammar that I don't know what to say.

[wuthering09]

god is dead ,god remains dead for we have killed him

[cropperb]

That's what you think the rope over the abyss is? I digress.

[MKFaizi]

I think the social implications of the "God is dead" stuff is overblown. Pure crap, really. One cannot say that God is dead unless one has thoroughly investigated "God." I do not think that introspective thought has anything to do with decadence. As Marie Antoinette is credited with saying about the masses, "Let them eat cake." The present time is no more morally depleted than was the Eighteenth Century, long before Nietzshe was born;

[oooodaxteroooo]

So you're saying that God is alive. More people than ever live by His way. More and more people start to believe in the supernatural, somebody watching over life on planet Earth that is the center of the universe? *chuckle*

Oh, yes. Moral depletion and believe in God are two seperate things.

[suergaz]

Who said god is alive?!

[MKFaizi]

I did not say that God is alive. I said that the concept of God being dead has been overblown by the mindless and the ignorant and the religious. That concept has been used by religious moralists to cite the causes of so called social decay when social decay has always existed --

[suergaz]

I know you weren't, I was replying to oooodaxteroooos first comment. :D This comment function doesn't seem to work.

[MKFaizi]

And I was also addressing the OOOO person. The comment function works but takes about a day to get through.

[MKFaizi]

nor more depraved than the Romans. Zarathustra is the song of the man-god who lives mentally without the companionship of others; who exists within the realm of humankind but who is detached from it; is not subject to the whims and caprice of social fashion and morality; knows emotion but knows its fallacy -- the animal realm. The so called death of God is the letting go of the final delusion.

[TakeAleft]

"Man is a rope stretched between the animal and the Superman - a rope over an abyss" is from Zaratustra... still thinking about it??

[cropperb]

I give. What's the meaning of it?

[MKFaizi]

It is the tether between what is bound to the usual earthly pleasures and the life of the mind that knows no wife nor child nor title.

[oooodaxteroooo]

Don't you think it is rather unclear, whether Nietzsche prefers a life of the mind? Maybe this is reflected in his writings, but I believe he was a very sad person at the end of his life. He wanted both, Lou Salomé and his work! Do you think this would have made anything worse? Maybe if she had lived with him, his books would have changed so that the Nazis couldn't misinterpret him.

[MKFaizi]

I don't think he was sad. I think he had some unconfirmed issues. He became an invalid. In my experience, when a "love interest" did not work out, I later found the blessing of that "failure." I live alone and I like it immensely.

[MKFaizi]

Took a while to get to that point but I am very thankful that I did. It is unfortunate that his work was so descecrated by his sister but I don't think living with Salome would have necessarily prevented that from happening. Had he lived with Salome, he may have been simply an academic. Hard to say. But that was not meant to be. I don't think that sorrow over Lou beat him down terribly. He had other concerns. I do think that he came to love the life of the mind.

[suergaz]

"Oh how should I not lust for eternity and for the wedding ring of rings -- the Ring of Recurrence! Never yet did I find the woman by whom I wanted children, unless it be by this woman, whom I love: for I love you, O Eternity! --- For I love you, O Eternity!"

[1legerdemain1]

Nietzsche, 1844-1900, spoke in the context of Origin of Species, 1859. Coming from a monkey means we too will be improved upon in time. Evolution is not over. We are a means to something higher; as Copernicus kicked Earth out of the center, so did Darwin kick mankind.

We need not wait for evolution, however; what is human is religion, philosophy, and art: who lives in dearth of those pursuits goes 'under', is lower: human 'equality' is Christian myth, is slave morality.