Kalamdan

Friedrich Nietzsche

Thus Spoke Zarathustra

Philosophy and Wisdom

Cover of Thus Spoke Zarathustra

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Language
English
First published
1909
Reading time
390 minutes
Chapters
84 chapters
Translator
Thomas Common (1850–1919)

About this book

After ten years alone in the mountains, the prophet Zarathustra comes down to share his wisdom, only to find that the crowd in the market square would rather laugh at him.

In speeches, songs and parables he announces that God is dead and calls on people to create new values and to strive towards the overman. Nietzsche thought it his most important book, and its poetic, scripture-like style is unlike any other work of philosophy. This is Thomas Common's 1909 translation, which answers that style with the English of the King James Bible. Read it slowly, and aloud if you can.

Original work: Written in German, published in four parts, 1883–1885

When Zarathustra was thirty years old, he left his home and the lake of his home, and went into the mountains. There he enjoyed his spirit and solitude, and for ten years did not weary of it. But at last his heart changed,—and rising one morning with the rosy…

Zarathustra’s Prologue.

About this edition

  • Source

    Project Gutenberg (eBook #1998)

    Text version

    Thomas Common's translation (first published 1909 in The Complete Works of Friedrich Nietzsche), from Project Gutenberg eBook #1998 (updated 1 October 2026), downloaded 7 November 2026. Only Nietzsche's text was imported: the introduction by Elisabeth Förster-Nietzsche and the appendix of notes by Anthony M. Ludovici were left out completely, together with the title page and the contents list. The prologue, the 80 discourses and the mottoes that open parts two to four are unchanged.

  • License

    Public domain

    Copyright status last verified: 9 November 2026

  • Category

    Philosophy and Wisdom

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Chapters

84 chapters
  1. Zarathustra’s Prologue.21 min
  2. I. The Three Metamorphoses.3 min
  3. II. The Academic Chairs of Virtue.4 min
  4. III. Backworldsmen.5 min
  5. IV. The Despisers of the Body.3 min
  6. V. Joys and Passions.3 min
  7. VI. The Pale Criminal.4 min
  8. VII. Reading and Writing.3 min
  9. VIII. The Tree on the Hill.4 min
  10. IX. The Preachers of Death.3 min
  11. X. War and Warriors.3 min
  12. XI. The New Idol.4 min
  13. XII. The Flies in the Market-Place.5 min
  14. XIII. Chastity.2 min
  15. XIV. The Friend.3 min
  16. XV. The Thousand and One Goals.4 min
  17. XVI. Neighbour-Love.3 min
  18. XVII. The Way of the Creating One.4 min
  19. XVIII. Old and Young Women.3 min
  20. XIX. The Bite of the Adder.3 min
  21. XX. Child and Marriage.3 min
  22. XXI. Voluntary Death.4 min
  23. XXII. The Bestowing Virtue.7 min
  24. Second Part.1 min
  25. XXIII. The Child with the Mirror.4 min
  26. XXIV. In the Happy Isles.4 min
  27. XXV. The Pitiful.4 min
  28. XXVI. The Priests.4 min
  29. XXVII. The Virtuous.5 min
  30. XXVIII. The Rabble.4 min
  31. XXIX. The Tarantulas.5 min
  32. XXX. The Famous Wise Ones.4 min
  33. XXXI. The Night-Song.3 min
  34. XXXII. The Dance-Song.4 min
  35. XXXIII. The Grave-Song.5 min
  36. XXXIV. Self-Surpassing.5 min
  37. XXXV. The Sublime Ones.4 min
  38. XXXVI. The Land of Culture.4 min
  39. XXXVII. Immaculate Perception.4 min
  40. XXXVIII. Scholars.3 min
  41. XXXIX. Poets.5 min
  42. XL. Great Events.6 min
  43. XLI. The Soothsayer.6 min
  44. XLII. Redemption.7 min
  45. XLIII. Manly Prudence.4 min
  46. XLIV. The Stillest Hour.5 min
  47. Third Part.1 min
  48. XLV. The Wanderer.5 min
  49. XLVI. The Vision and the Enigma.7 min
  50. XLVII. Involuntary Bliss.5 min
  51. XLVIII. Before Sunrise.5 min
  52. XLIX. The Bedwarfing Virtue.8 min
  53. L. On the Olive-Mount.5 min
  54. LI. On Passing-By.4 min
  55. LII. The Apostates.6 min
  56. LIII. The Return Home.5 min
  57. LIV. The Three Evil Things.6 min
  58. LV. The Spirit of Gravity.6 min
  59. LVI. Old and New Tables.24 min
  60. LVII. The Convalescent.9 min
  61. LVIII. The Great Longing.4 min
  62. LIX. The Second Dance-Song.4 min
  63. LX. The Seven Seals.5 min
  64. Fourth and Last Part.1 min
  65. LXI. The Honey Sacrifice.6 min
  66. LXII. The Cry of Distress.5 min
  67. LXIII. Talk with the Kings.6 min
  68. LXIV. The Leech.5 min
  69. LXV. The Magician.7 min
  70. LXVI. Out of Service.7 min
  71. LXVII. The Ugliest Man.7 min
  72. LXVIII. The Voluntary Beggar.6 min
  73. LXIX. The Shadow.5 min
  74. LXX. Noontide.4 min
  75. LXXI. The Greeting.8 min
  76. LXXII. The Supper.3 min
  77. LXXIII. The Higher Man.13 min
  78. LXXIV. The Song of Melancholy.5 min
  79. LXXV. Science.5 min
  80. LXXVI. Among Daughters of the Desert.5 min
  81. LXXVII. The Awakening.5 min
  82. LXXVIII. The Ass-Festival.5 min
  83. LXXIX. The Drunken Song.10 min
  84. LXXX. The Sign.5 min

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