ON THE PREACHERS OF DEATH

ON THE PREACHERS OF DEATH

THERE ARE PREACHERS OF death: and the earth is full of those to whom one must preach renunciation of life.

The earth is full of the superfluous; life is marred by the all-too-many. May they be lured out of this life by the “eternal life”!

The preachers of death wear yellow or black. But I want to show them to you in other colors as well.

There are the terrible ones who carry about in themselves the beast of prey and have no choice except lust or self-laceration. And even their lust is still self-laceration.

They have not yet become men, those terrible ones: let them preach renunciation from life and pass away themselves!

There are those with consumption of the soul: hardly are they born when they begin to die and to long for teachings of weariness and renunciation.

They would like to be dead and we should welcome their wish! Let us beware of waking those dead ones and of disturbing those living coffins!

They meet a sick man or an old man or a corpse-and immediately they say: “Life is refuted!”

But only they themselves are refuted, and their eyes, which see only one aspect of existence.

Shrouded in thick melancholy and eager for the little accidents that bring death: thus they wait and grind their teeth.

Or else they reach for sweets while laughing at their own childishness : they clutch at the straws of their lives and make fun of their still clutching straws.

Their wisdom speaks thus: “Only a fool remains alive, but such fools are we! And that is surely the most foolish thing about life!”

“Life is only suffering”—so say others, and do not lie: see to it then that you cease! See to it then that the life which is only suffering ceases!

And let this be the teaching of your virtue: “Thou shalt kill yourself! Thou shalt steal away from thyself!”—

“Lust is sin”—so say some who preach death—“let us go apart and beget no children!”

“Giving birth is troublesome”—say others—“why still give birth? One bears only unfortunates!” And they too are preachers of death.

“Pity is necessary,”—so says a third group. “Take what I have! Take what I am! So much less does life bind me!”

Were they consistently pitiful then they would make their neighbors sick of life. To be evil-that would be their genuine goodness.

But they want to be rid of life: what do they care if they bind others still more tightly with their chains and gifts!—

And you too, for whom life is furious work and unrest: are you not very weary of life? Are you not very ripe for the preaching of death?

All of you to whom furious work is dear, and the rapid, new, and strange—you tolerate yourselves badly; your diligence is flight and the will to forget yourselves.

If you believed more in life, then you would devote yourselves less to the momentary. But you do not have contents enough in yourselves for waiting—nor even for idleness!

Everywhere the voice of those who preach death resounds; and the earth is full of those to whom death must be preached.

Or “eternal life”: it is all the same to me—if only they pass away quickly!—

Thus spoke Zarathustra.