Ye have made your way from the worm to man, and much within you is still worm. Once were ye apes, and even yet man is more of an ape than any of the apes. 7
I conjure you, my brethren, remain true to the earth. and believe not those who speak unto you of super-earthly hopes! Poisoners are they, whether they know it or not. 7
To blaspheme the earth is now the dreadfulest sin.... 7
Man is a rope stretched between the animal and the Superman—a rope over an abyss. 9
What is great in man is that he is a bridge and not a goal.... 9
I tell you: one must still have chaos in one, to give birth to a dancing star.... 12
Three metamorphoses of the spirit do I designate to you: how the spirit becometh a camel, the camel a lion, and the lion at last a child.
Many heavy things are there for the spirit, the strong load-bearing spirit in which reverence dwelleth: for the heavy and the heaviest longeth its strength.
What is heavy? so asketh the load-bearing spirit; then kneeleth it down like the camel, and wanteth to be well laden.