Of the Famous Philosophers
You have served the people and the people's superstitions, all you famous philosophers! -- you have
not served truth! And it is precisely for that reason that they paid you reverence.
And for that reason too they endured your disbelief, because it was a joke and a
bypath for the people. Thus the lord indulges his slaves and even enjoys their insolence.
But he who is hated by the people as a wolf is by the dogs: he is the free spirit,
the enemy of fetters, the non-worshipper, the dweller in forests.
To hunt him from his hiding-place -- the people always called that "having a sence of
right": they have always set their sharpest-toothed dogs upon him.
"For where the people are, truth is! Woe to him who seeks!" That is how it has been
from the beginning.
You sought to make the people justified in their reverence: that you called
"will to truth", you famous philosophers!
And your heart always said to itself: "I came from the people: God's voice, too, came to me
from them."
You have always been obstinate and cunning, like the ass, as the people's advocate.
And many a man of power who wanted to fare well with the people harnessed in front of his
horses -- a little ass, a famous philosopher.
And now I should like you to throw off the lion-skin right off yourselves, you famous
philosophers!
The spotted skin of the beast of prey and the matted hair of the inquirer, the seeker,
the overcomer!
Ah, for me to learn to believe in your "genuineness" you would first have to break your
will to venerate.
Genuine -- that is what I call him who goes into god-forsaken deserts and has broken his
venerating heart.
In the yellow sand and burned by the sun, perhaps he blinks thirstily at the islands filled
with springs where living creatures rest beneath shady trees.
But his thirst does not persuade him to become like these comfortable creatures: for where
there are oases there are also idols.
Hungered, violent, solitary, godless: that is how the lion-will wants to be.
Free from the happiness of serfs, redeemed from gods and worship, fearless and fearful,
great and solitary: that is how the will of the genuine man is.
The genuine men, the free spirits, have always dwelt in the desert, as the lords of the desert;
but in the towns dwell the well-fed famous philosophers -- the draught animals.
For they always, as assess, pull -- the people's cart!
Not that I am wroth with them for that: however, they are still servants and beasts in
harness, even when they glitter with golden gear.
And they have often been good and praiseworthy servants. For thus speaks virtue: "If you must
be a servant, then seek him whom you can serve best!
"The spirit and the virtue of your lord should thrive because you are his servant: thus
you yourself will thrive with your lord's spirit and virtue!"
And in truth, you famous philosophers, you servants of the people, you yourselves have thrived
with the spirit and virtue of the people -- and the people have thrived through you! It is to your honour I say
this!
But you are still of the people even in your virtue, of the people with their purblind eyes
-- of the people who do not know what spirit is!
Spirit is the life that itself strikes into life: through its own torment it increases its
own knowledge -- did you know that before?
And this is the spirit's happiness: to be anointed and by tears consecrated as a sacrificial
beast -- did you know that before?
And the blindness of the blind man and his seeking and groping shall yet bear witness to the
power of the sun into which he gazed -- did you know that before?
And the enlightened man shall learn to build with mountains! It is a small thing for
spirit to move mountains -- did you know that before?
You know only the sparks of the spirit: but you do not see the anvil which the spirit is,
nor the ferocity of its hammer!
In truth, you do not know the spirit's pride! But even less could you endure the spirit's
modesty, if it should ever deign to speak!
And you have never yet dared to cast your spirit into a pit of snow: you are not hot enough
for that! Thus you do not know the rapture of its coldness, either.
But you behave in all things in too familiar a way with the spirit; and you have often
made of wisdom a poorhouse and hospital for bad poets.
You are no eagles: so neither do you know the spirit's joy in terror. And he who is not
a bird shall not make his home above abysses.
You are tepid: but all deep knowledge flows cold. The innermost wells of the spirit are
ice-cold: a refreshment to hot hands and handlers.
You stand there respectable and stiff and with a straight back, you famous philosophers! --
no strong wind or will propels you.
Have you never seen a sail faring over the sea, rounded and swelling and shuddering before
the impetuosity of the wind?
Like a sail, shuddering before the impetuosity of the spirit, my wisdom fares over the sea --
my untamed wisdom!
But you servants of the people, you famous philosophers -- how could you fare with me?
Thus spoke Zarathustra.