“But by my love and hope I beseech you: do not throw away the hero in your soul! Hold holy your highest hope!”
~ Friedrich Nietzsche from Thus Spoke Zarathustra
Be warned: The man, as they say, delivers his philosophy with a hammer. As Walter Kaufmann brilliantly articulates in the foreword, Nietzsche “is a dedicated enemy of all convention, intent on exposing the stupidity and arbitrariness of custom.”
In Thus Spoke Zarathustra, we meet the enlightened hero, Zarathustra, who has come down from the mountaintop to deliver a series of scathing rants on everything from his famous proclamation that “God is dead!” to admonitions to forget loving thy neighbor and instead learn to love the farthest. It’s written in a mock-Biblical style and features Nietzsche’s undying commitment to our potential.