You have served the people and the people’s superstitions, all you famous philosophers! – you have not served truth! And it is precisely for that reason that they paid you reverence….
And your heart always said to itself: “I came from the people: God’s voice, too, came to me from them.”
You have always been obstinate and cunning, like the ass, as the people’s advocate….
Ah, for me to learn to believe in your “genuineness,” you would first have to break your will to venerate.
Genuine – that is what I call him who goes into god-forsaken deserts and has broken his venerating heart….
…But in the towns dwell the well-fed famous philosophers – the draught animals.
For they always, as asses, pull – the people’s cart!…
You are still of the people even in your virtue, of the people with their purblind eyes – of the people who do not know what spirit is!
Spirit is the life that itself strikes into life: through its own torment it increases its own knowledge – did you know that before?
And this is the spirit’s happiness: to be anointed and by tears consecrated as a sacrificial beast – did you know that before?
And the blindness of the blind man and his seeking and groping shall yet bear witness to the power of the sun into which he gazed – did you know that before?
And the enlightened man shall learn to build with mountains! It is a small thing for the spirit to move mountains – did you know that before?
You know only the sparks of the spirit: but you do not see the anvil which the spirit is, nor the ferocity of its hammer!
In truth, you do not know the spirit’s pride! But even less could you endure the spirit’s modesty, if it should ever deign to speak!…
You are no eagles: so neither do you know the spirit’s joy in terror. And he who is not a bird shall not make his home above abysses.
You are tepid: but all deep knowledge flows cold. The innermost wells of the spirit are ice-cold: a refreshment to hot hands and handlers.
You stand there respectable and stiff and with a straight back, you famous philosophers! – no strong wind or will propels you.
Have you never seen a sail faring over the sea, rounded and swelling and shuddering before the impetuosity of the wind?
Like a sail, shuddering before the impetuosity of the spirit, my wisdom fares over the sea – my untamed wisdom!
But you servants of the people, you famous philosophers – how could you fare with me?

…Thus spake Zarathustra.

Zarathustra is not a philosopher. Philosophy to him is sheer wastage of time – not only of yours but of others’ too – because philosophy is nothing but a mind game. It is not the way to find the truth, it is not the way to find love, it is not the way to find beauty; it only goes on making systems of empty words.

But they have deceived millions. And they have prevented millions from going in search to find the key to the mysteries of life. Philosophy has never transformed anyone. It gives people swollen heads, but it does not bring a revolution in their life; no metamorphosis happens through it. It is the greatest deception that man has been giving to himself and to others. It has given beautiful words for people to play with. It has treated people like children; and those who have remained playing with those words have remained children, retarded.

For example, the world of philosophy has given you their most famous word, god, which is perhaps the most meaningless word in human language. It has not been a discovery for you, it has not been your creation; on the contrary, the philosophers, the theologians, the priests have convinced you that you are the creation of God.

This is the most significant point at which to begin a pilgrimage with Zarathustra. In the past God has been accepted as the creator of all, but that very idea reduces man into a thing. Only things can be created. If man is created by God, man has no pride, no dignity of his own – he is just a puppet. Any moment God can change his mind and destroy humanity, and we stand absolutely helpless. Neither have we any part in our creation, nor will we have any part in our destruction.

If this is true, life loses all meaning. It becomes a tragedy, an imprisonment, a long drawn-out slavery. And Zarathustra is not alone in pointing out the fact that the concept of God is against the evolution of man: Mahavira agrees with him; Gautam Buddha agrees with him.

All these three great geniuses are in absolute agreement on one point: God cannot be allowed as a creator of man and his consciousness. To allow him that is to destroy all meaning, significance, freedom, love, creativity – all that gives joy and ecstasy to man is destroyed. Without God, man is free. He has not been created, he has been evolving. You have to understand this point, that the idea of creation and the idea of evolution are contradictory. You can’t have both – creation means no evolution.