Thus Spake Zarathustra
Friedrich Nietzsche, 1883
A prophet comes down from the mountain to tell you your values were borrowed, your comfort is a cage, and you could become something else.
Friedrich Nietzsche
1844–1900
Nietzsche writes in short bursts that can feel like being argued with by someone very smart and slightly alarming. Thus Spake Zarathustra is the strangest of the three, a prophet's speeches full of images and riddles, while Beyond Good and Evil and The Genealogy of Morals are more direct: sharp, suspicious, and often funny about the ways people fool themselves. If you want to see your own assumptions about right and wrong pulled apart in plain, forceful prose, start with Beyond Good and Evil.
Feels like morality, unease and curiosity.
Start with Thus Spake Zarathustra.
Nietzsche self-published the early parts and had them printed in tiny runs; the book barely sold while he was sane, and fame arrived only after his collapse in 1889.
The hour when the world admits how deep it is.
O man! Take heed!What saith deep midnight’s voice indeed?“I slept my sleep—,“From deepest dream I’ve woke, and plead:—“The world is deep,“And deeper than the day could read.“Deep is its woe—,“Joy—deeper still than grief can be:“Woe saith: Hence! Go!“But joys all want eternity—,“—Want deep, profound eternity!” Books by Friedrich Nietzsche
Beyond Good and Evil
Friedrich Nietzsche, 1886
A sharp-tongued tour of the habits of mind we take for granted: why philosophers lie to themselves, what our morals hide, and what it takes to think without flattering yourself.
The Genealogy of Morals
Friedrich Nietzsche, 1887
Nietzsche's fiercest book asks where our ideas of good, guilt and duty actually came from, and finds debt, blood and self-torture underneath them.
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