Chapter 25 The first thousand and one purposes

Zarathustra has seen many lands and many peoples: he has found the good and the evil of many peoples.In the world Zarathustra found no greater power than good and evil. No nation can survive without judging value; if it is to survive on its own, it must judge by standards different from those of its neighbors. Many things that one nation calls good, another nation despises and despises: this is what I found.I also found that what is denounced here as evil is there clothed in the purple of honor. A man can never understand his neighbor: his soul is often amazed at the madness and wickedness of his neighbor.

A table of values ​​hangs over each nation.look!That's the record of its levy; behold!That was the cry of its will to power. All that it finds difficult to achieve is praiseworthy; that which is necessary and difficult is good; that which is rare and most laborious, that which saves great misfortune, is called holy. That which makes it reign, conquers and shines, excites the terror and envy of its neighbors: it regards this thing as the highest and first of all things, the measure and meaning of all things. Verily, my brother, if you have recognized the needs of a nation, the land, the sky, and the neighbourhood; you will guess the reason of its triumph, and why it reached its hope from that ladder.

"Should always be first, and above others: thy jealous soul should love no one but friends."--This stirs a Greek soul: So he embarked on the road to greatness. "Tell the truth and know how to use the bow and arrow." - this sentence is considered precious and difficult by the nation from which my name comes, - this name is also dear and burdensome to me. "Revere your parents and obey them to the deepest part of your soul." Don't let another nation hang on to this record of conquering and remain strong. "Keep the faithful; for the sake of the faithful, blood and honor will not be spared, through peril and evil." Another people, by this lesson, surpassed themselves, and thus gained great and infinite hope.

Truly, good and evil are self-made by man.Verily, good and evil are not taken, nor found, nor come down like a voice from heaven. Human beings give value to all things for their own survival. —they created the meaning of all things, the meaning of a human being.So they call themselves "people".In other words, the appraiser. To value is to create: you creators, listen up!Valuation is the jewel of all that is valued. Valuation, then valuable: Without valuation, the walnut of existence is just an empty shell.You creators, listen up! A change of value—that is the change of the Creator.The creator must always destroy.

The Creator is first the nation, and then the individual; indeed, the individual is only the first creation. Once upon a time, nations hung up the watch of goodness.Love to rule and love to obey create this form together. The happiness of the crowd precedes the happiness of "I": when justice still refers to the crowd, "I" can only be said to be against the law. Verily, the cunning, loveless "I" seeks the interest of the individual in the interest of the majority; it is not the origin of crowds, but the downfall of crowds. Lovers and creators, - they have created good and evil.Love and anger burn in all morality.

Zarathustra has seen many lands and many peoples: on earth he found no greater power than the work of the lovers: good and evil is the name of this work. Truly, this power of reputation is a monster.Tell me brothers, who'll get over it for me?Who put a chain around the beast's thousand necks? Until now, we have had a thousand purposes because there are a thousand peoples.But there is not yet a chain about a thousand necks and a single purpose; man has no purpose yet. But tell me, brothers: if man has no purpose, then there is no-man, right? —— Thus spake Zarathustra.