Key Arguments

• The blessed selfishness wells from a powerful soul to which a 'lofty body' belongs—beautiful, victorious, restorative—around which all becomes a mirror.
• The body is supple, persuasive, a dancer; the soul is self-enjoying, and this self-enjoyment names itself 'virtue.'
• This virtue screens itself with words of good and bad like 'sacred groves,' banishing cowardly, sighing, complaining, advantage-gleaning types.
• It despises 'grief-burdened wisdom,' 'nightshade-wisdom' that sighs 'All is vain!'—a critique of nihilistic, life-denying wisdom.
• It rejects timid mistrustfulness, oath-seeking instead of trust, and all-too-mistrustful wisdom as marks of cowardly souls.
• It deems more paltry the eager-to-please, humble, dog-like piety; and hates the all-too-tolerant, all-suffering, all-temperate servility.
• It spits upon all that is servile—whether before gods’ kicks or humans’ opinions—marking a pathos of distance.
• It calls 'Bad' all that is dejected, niggardly-servile, with unfree blinking eyes and falsely yielding kisses.
• It denounces 'pseudo-wisdom'—especially priests’ over-clever folly and the jokes of servants, old men, and the weary.
• It unmasks a long priestly trick: calling virtue the playing of wicked tricks on selfishness and praising 'selfless' as an ideal of world-weary cowards and 'cross-spiders.'

Source Quotes

‘Bestowing virtue’– thus did Zarathustra once name the unnameable. And at that time it happened also– and verily, it happened for the first time!– that his word hallowed , the wholesome, healthy selfishness that wells up from a powerful soul:– – from a powerful soul, to which the lofty body belongs, one that is beautiful, victorious, restorative, around which each and every thing becomes a mirror: – the supple and persuasive body, the dancer, whose allegory and epitome is the self-enjoying soul. Such bodies’ and souls’ self-enjoyment calls itself: ‘virtue.’

‘Bestowing virtue’– thus did Zarathustra once name the unnameable. And at that time it happened also– and verily, it happened for the first time!– that his word hallowed , the wholesome, healthy selfishness that wells up from a powerful soul:– – from a powerful soul, to which the lofty body belongs, one that is beautiful, victorious, restorative, around which each and every thing becomes a mirror: – the supple and persuasive body, the dancer, whose allegory and epitome is the self-enjoying soul. Such bodies’ and souls’ self-enjoyment calls itself: ‘virtue.’ With its words of good and bad such self-enjoyment screens itself as if with sacred groves; with the names of its happiness it banishes all that is despicable.

Such bodies’ and souls’ self-enjoyment calls itself: ‘virtue.’ With its words of good and bad such self-enjoyment screens itself as if with sacred groves; with the names of its happiness it banishes all that is despicable. Away from itself it banishes all that is cowardly; it speaks: Bad– cowardly!

With its words of good and bad such self-enjoyment screens itself as if with sacred groves; with the names of its happiness it banishes all that is despicable. Away from itself it banishes all that is cowardly; it speaks: Bad– cowardly! Despicable it deems those who are always worrying, sighing, complaining, and whoever is concerned to glean even the smallest advantages.

Despicable it deems those who are always worrying, sighing, complaining, and whoever is concerned to glean even the smallest advantages. It also despises all grief-burdened wisdom; for verily, there is also wisdom that blooms in the dark, a nightshade-wisdom, which is always sighing: ‘All is vain!’ Timid mistrustfulness it regards as paltry, and anyone who would have oaths instead of looks and hands: also all wisdom that is all-toomistrustful– for such is the way of cowardly souls.

It regards as altogether hateful and disgusting whoever never wants to defend himself, who swallows down poisonous spittle and evil looks, who is all-too-tolerant, all-suffering, all-temperate: for that is the way of the servile. Whether one be servile before Gods and Godlike kicks, or before humans and stupid humans’ opinions: upon that is servile it spits, this blessèd selfishness! Bad: that is what it calls all that is dejected and niggardly-servile, unfree blinking eyes, oppressed hearts, and that falsely yielding kind that kisses with thick and cowardly lips.

The pseudo-wise, however, all the priests, the world-weary, and those whose souls are of the womanish and servile kind– oh what wicked tricks have they played for so long on selfishness! And precisely this was considered virtue and called virtue: one should play wicked tricks on selfishness! And ‘selfless’– that is what those world-weary cowards and cross-spiders with good reason wished to be! But for all these the day is now at hand, the transformation, the sword of judgement, : then shall much be revealed!

Timid mistrustfulness it regards as paltry, and anyone who would have oaths instead of looks and hands: also all wisdom that is all-toomistrustful– for such is the way of cowardly souls. More paltry still does it deem whoever is eager to please, who is like a dog that immediately lies on its back, and who is humble; for there is also wisdom that is humble and dog-like and pious and eager to please. It regards as altogether hateful and disgusting whoever never wants to defend himself, who swallows down poisonous spittle and evil looks, who is all-too-tolerant, all-suffering, all-temperate: for that is the way of the servile.

Key Concepts

• And at that time it happened also– and verily, it happened for the first time!– that his word hallowed , the wholesome, healthy selfishness that wells up from a powerful soul:–
• – from a powerful soul, to which the lofty body belongs, one that is beautiful, victorious, restorative, around which each and every thing becomes a mirror:
• – the supple and persuasive body, the dancer, whose allegory and epitome is the self-enjoying soul. Such bodies’ and souls’ self-enjoyment calls itself: ‘virtue.’
• With its words of good and bad such self-enjoyment screens itself as if with sacred groves; with the names of its happiness it banishes all that is despicable.
• Away from itself it banishes all that is cowardly; it speaks: Bad– cowardly!
• It also despises all grief-burdened wisdom; for verily, there is also wisdom that blooms in the dark, a nightshade-wisdom, which is always sighing: ‘All is vain!’
• Whether one be servile before Gods and Godlike kicks, or before humans and stupid humans’ opinions: upon that is servile it spits, this blessèd selfishness!
• And precisely this was considered virtue and called virtue: one should play wicked tricks on selfishness! And ‘selfless’– that is what those world-weary cowards and cross-spiders with good reason wished to be!
• More paltry still does it deem whoever is eager to please, who is like a dog that immediately lies on its back, and who is humble; for there is also wisdom that is humble and dog-like and pious and eager to please.

Context

Pivot from revaluating 'lust to rule' to declaring a new virtue: Zarathustra sanctifies healthy selfishness and defines virtue as self-enjoyment of powerful souls, instituting a new table of values against servility and nihilistic wisdom.

Perspectives

Nietzsche

This is a core transvaluation: against Christian–priestly morality that demonizes self-love, Nietzsche affirms a noble egoism rooted in physiological strength and overflowing self-enjoyment; virtue is the style of such strength.

Zarathustra

I consecrate blessed selfishness and call virtue the self-enjoyment of the powerful; with my sacred groves of 'good' and 'bad' I banish cowardice, servility, and nightshade wisdom.