FIRST PART. ZARATHUSTRA'S PROLOGUE. ZARATHUSTRA'S DISCOURSES.
12. XII. THE FLIES IN THE MARKET-PLACE. (continued)
They buzz around thee also with their praise: obtrusiveness, is their
praise. They want to be close to thy skin and thy blood.
They flatter thee, as one flattereth a God or devil; they whimper before
thee, as before a God or devil. What doth it come to! Flatterers are
they, and whimperers, and nothing more.
Often, also, do they show themselves to thee as amiable ones. But that
hath ever been the prudence of the cowardly. Yea! the cowardly are wise!
They think much about thee with their circumscribed souls--thou art always
suspected by them! Whatever is much thought about is at last thought
suspicious.
They punish thee for all thy virtues. They pardon thee in their inmost
hearts only--for thine errors.
Because thou art gentle and of upright character, thou sayest: "Blameless
are they for their small existence." But their circumscribed souls think:
"Blamable is all great existence."
Even when thou art gentle towards them, they still feel themselves despised
by thee; and they repay thy beneficence with secret maleficence.
Thy silent pride is always counter to their taste; they rejoice if once
thou be humble enough to be frivolous.
What we recognise in a man, we also irritate in him. Therefore be on your
guard against the small ones!
In thy presence they feel themselves small, and their baseness gleameth and
gloweth against thee in invisible vengeance.
Sawest thou not how often they became dumb when thou approachedst them, and
how their energy left them like the smoke of an extinguishing fire?
Yea, my friend, the bad conscience art thou of thy neighbours; for they are
unworthy of thee. Therefore they hate thee, and would fain suck thy blood.
Thy neighbours will always be poisonous flies; what is great in thee--that
itself must make them more poisonous, and always more fly-like.
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