Thus Spoke Zarathustra by Friedrich Nietzsche, R. J. Hollingdale Page B

hardly an aim beyond the day.
    ‘Spirit is also sensual pleasure’ – thus they spoke. Then the wings of their spirit broke: now it creeps around and it makes dirty what it feeds on.
    Once they thought of becoming heroes: now they are sensualists. The hero is to them an affliction and a terror.
    But, by my love and hope I entreat you: do not reject the hero in your soul! Keep holy your highest hope!
    Thus spoke Zarathustra.

Of the Preachers of Death
    T HERE are preachers of death: and the earth is full of those to whom departure from life must be preached.
    The earth is full of the superfluous, life has been corrupted by the many-too-many. Let them be lured by ‘eternal life’ out of this life!
    Yellow men or black men: that is what the preachers of death are called. But I want to show them to you in other colours.
    There are the dreadful creatures who carry a beast of prey around within them, and have no choice except lusts or self-mortification. And even their lusts are self-mortification.
    They have not yet even become men, these dreadful creatures. Let them preach departure from life and depart themselves!
    There are the consumptives of the soul: they are hardly born before they begin to die and to long for doctrines of weariness and renunciation.
    They would like to be dead, and we should approve their wish! Let us guard against awakening these dead men and damaging these living coffins.
    They encounter an invalid or an old man or a corpse; and straightway they say ‘Life is refuted!’
    But only they are refuted, they and their eye that sees only one aspect of existence.
    Muffled in deep depression, and longing for the little accidents that bring about death: thus they wait and clench their teeth.
    Or: they snatch at sweets and in doing so mock their childishness: they cling to their straw of life and mock that they are still clinging to a straw.
    Their wisdom runs: ‘He who goes on living is a fool, but we are such fools! And precisely that is the most foolish thing in life!’
    ‘Life is only suffering’ – thus others of them speak, and they do not lie: so see to it that you ’ cease to live! So see to it that the life which is only suffering ceases!
    And let the teaching of your virtue be: ‘You shall kill yourself! You shall steal away from yourself!’
    ‘Lust is sin’ – thus say some who preach death – ‘let us go aside and beget no children!’
    ‘Giving birth is laborious’ – say others – ‘why go on giving birth? One gives birth only to unhappy children!’ And they too are preachers of death.
    ‘Men are to be pitied’ – thus say others again. ‘Take what I have! Take what I am! By so much less am I bound to life!’
    If they were compassionate from the very heart they would seek to make their neighbours disgusted with life. To be evil -that would be their true good.
    But they want to escape from life: what is it to them that, with their chains and gifts, they bind others still more firmly to it?
    And you too, you to whom life is unrestrained labour and anxiety: are you not very weary of life? Are you not very ripe for the sermon of death?
    All of you, to whom unrestrained labour, and the swift, the new, the strange, are dear, you endure yourselves ill, your industry is flight and will to forget yourselves.
    If you believed more in life, you would devote yourselves less to the moment. But you have insufficient capacity for waiting – or even for laziness!
    Everywhere resound the voices of those who preach death: and the earth is full of those to whom death must be preached.
    Or ‘eternal life’: it is all the same to me – provided they pass away quickly!
    Thus spoke Zarathustra.

Of War and Warriors
    W E do not wish to be spared by our best enemies, nor by those whom we love from the very heart. So let me tell you the truth!
    My brothers in war! I love you from the very heart, I am and have always been of your kind. And I am also your best enemy. So let me tell you the