Key Arguments

• The people are likened to a river carrying a bark in which valuations sit solemn and disguised.
• What the people call good and evil betrays an ancient will to power.
• It was the wisest who placed the guests (values) in the bark and gave them grandeur and proud names.
• The river (becoming) simply carries the bark; it is not the true danger to values.

Source Quotes

You still want to create the world before which you can kneel: that is your ultimate hope and intoxication. The unwise, of course, the people–they are like a river on which a bark drifts along: and in the bark, solemn and disguised, sit the valuations. Your will and your values you have placed on the river of Becoming; what the people believe to be good and evil betrays to me an ancient will to power.

The unwise, of course, the people–they are like a river on which a bark drifts along: and in the bark, solemn and disguised, sit the valuations. Your will and your values you have placed on the river of Becoming; what the people believe to be good and evil betrays to me an ancient will to power. You it was, you who are wisest, who put such guests in this bark and gave them grandeur and proud names–you and your imperious will!

Your will and your values you have placed on the river of Becoming; what the people believe to be good and evil betrays to me an ancient will to power. You it was, you who are wisest, who put such guests in this bark and gave them grandeur and proud names–you and your imperious will! Now the river carries your bark farther: it carry it.

You it was, you who are wisest, who put such guests in this bark and gave them grandeur and proud names–you and your imperious will! Now the river carries your bark farther: it carry it. Little does it matter if the broken wave foams and angrily opposes the keel!

Key Concepts

• the people–they are like a river on which a bark drifts along: and in the bark, solemn and disguised, sit the valuations.
• what the people believe to be good and evil betrays to me an ancient will to power.
• You it was, you who are wisest, who put such guests in this bark and gave them grandeur and proud names–you and your imperious will!
• Now the river carries your bark farther: it carry it.

Context

Extended metaphor: values as passengers on Becoming, authored and launched by higher legislators but adopted by the people.

Perspectives

Nietzsche

Supports: values are created by strong types and then drift historically; the herd receives already‑legislated valuations without grasping their origin.

Zarathustra

Credits and blames the ‘wisest’ for populating the stream of life with their values; warns them of responsibility for what they set adrift.