Thus Spake Zarathustra: A Book for All and None

Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche · Composed 1881–1885 (main composition period), first published 1883–1885 primary

passage 162 of 198 · Chapter LVII.). For the present let it suffice for us to know that he accepted the “Development Hypothesis” as an explanation of the origin of species: but he did not halt where most naturalists have halted. He by no means regarded man as the highest possible being which evolution could arrive at; for though his physical development may have reached its limit, this is not the case with his mental or spiritual attributes.

↪ you wandered here via “Nietzsche modern hero” — the connecting lines are tinted below

The tarantulas are the Socialists and Democrats. This discourse offers us an analysis of their mental attitude. Nietzsche refuses to be confounded with those resentful and revengeful ones who condemn society FROM BELOW, and whose criticism is only suppressed envy. “There are those who preach my doctrine of life,” he says of the Nietzschean Socialists, “and are at the same time preachers of equality and tarantulas” (see Notes on Chapter XL. and Chapter LI.).

This refers to all those philosophers hitherto, who have run in the harness of established values and have not risked their reputation with the people in pursuit of truth. The philosopher, however, as Nietzsche understood him, is a man who creates new values, and thus leads mankind in a new direction.

← previous passage read in the full work → next passage →

Thus Spake Zarathustra: A Book for All and None · Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche · 1881–1885