Man is something that shall be overcome.
Friedrich Nietzsche Thus Spoke Zarathustra, Prologue, §3 (1883) Translated by R. J. Hollingdale
Source checked by an editor
When and why it was written
- When
- Published in 1883, in Zarathustra's first speech.
- Why
- Nietzsche is introducing the Übermensch and needs to state what it stands in relation to.
What it means
The grammar carries the argument. Man is named as a stage, something to be got past, not a condition to be improved within.
In the same speech Nietzsche calls man a rope stretched between animal and Übermensch. The overcoming is not self-improvement; it is being superseded.
Our reading of the passage cited above, not a quotation from a commentary.
Read the source
Thus Spoke Zarathustra, 1883
Your turn
What does this bring up for you?
Saved to this device only. Nothing is sent to a server.
Continue transfers only this reflection. Review your account before saving. Your original browser copy stays here.
Read next
You must have chaos within you to give birth to a dancing star.
Thus Spoke Zarathustra, Prologue, §5 (1883)
He who would learn to fly one day must first learn to stand and walk and run and climb and dance; one cannot fly into flying.
Thus Spoke Zarathustra, 'Of the Spirit of Gravity' (1883)
Whoever fights monsters should see to it that in the process he does not become a monster.
Beyond Good and Evil, §146 (1886)