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The will to power is an inexhaustible, irrepressible creative will for more and more power. It is a characteristic of all creatures, and a fundamental human drive in particular. In other words, everyone has the will to power, but the will to power is (in Nietzsche’s view, as taught by Zarathustra) only fully manifested by those he calls Higher Men, the strong, or the new nobility. Such people exercise their will to power by destroying old values, creating new ones, and fully embracing life—not only in its current form, but in the Eternal Recurrence.
Will to Power Quotes in Thus Spoke Zarathustra
The Thus Spoke Zarathustra quotes below are all either spoken by Will to Power or refer to Will to Power. For each quote, you can also see the other terms and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
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Of Self-Overcoming
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That is your entire will, you wisest men; it is a will to power; and that is so even when you talk of good and evil and of the assessment of values.
You want to create the world before which you can kneel: this is your ultimate hope and intoxication. […]
[W]hat the people believe to be good and evil betrays to me an ancient will to power.
It was you, wisest men, who put such passengers in this boat and gave them splendour and proud names – you and your ruling will!
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Of the Vision and the Riddle
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'Spirit of Gravity!’ I said angrily, 'do not treat this too lightly! Or I shall leave you squatting where you are, Lamefoot—and I have carried you high!
‘Behold this moment!' I went on. 'From this gateway Moment a long, eternal lane runs back: an eternity lies behind us.
'Must not all things that can run have already run along this lane? Must not all things that can happen have already happened, been done, run past?’
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Of the Three Evil Things
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Whether one be servile before gods and divine kicks, or before men and the silly opinions of men: it spits at slaves of all kinds, this glorious selfishness!
Bad: that is what it calls all that is broken-down and niggardly-servile, unclear, blinking eyes, oppressed hearts, and that false, yielding type of man who kisses with broad, cowardly lips. […]
And he who declares the Ego healthy and holy and selfishness glorious – truly he, a prophet, declares too what he knows: 'Behold, it comes, it is near, the great noontide!'
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The Convalescent
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Man is the cruellest animal towards himself; and […] all who call themselves "sinners" and “bearers of the Cross" and "penitents" […]
Ah, my animals, this alone have I learned, that the wickedest in man is necessary for the best in him,
that all that is most wicked in him is his best strength and the hardest stone for the highest creator; and that man must grow better and wickeder: […]
[I cried] ‘Alas, that his wickedest is so very small! Alas, that his best is so very small!’
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The Seven Seals (or: The Song of Yes and Amen)
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If ever my anger broke graves open, moved boundary-stones, and rolled old shattered law-tables into deep chasms:
[…]
for I love even churches and the graves of gods, if only heaven is looking, pure-eyed, through their shattered roofs; I like to sit like grass and red poppies on shattered churches:
Oh how should I not lust for eternity and for the wedding ring of rings—the Ring of Recurrence!
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Retired from Service
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When he was young, this god from the orient, he was hard and revengeful and built himself a Hell for the delight of his favourites.
But at length he grew old and soft and mellow and compassionate, more like a grandfather than a father, most like a tottery old grandmother.
Then he sat, shrivelled, in his chimney corner, fretting over his weak legs, world-weary, weary of willing, and one day suffocated through his excessive pity.'
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Get the entire Thus Spoke Zarathustra LitChart as a printable PDF.
Will to Power Term Timeline in Thus Spoke Zarathustra
The timeline below shows where the term Will to Power appears in Thus Spoke Zarathustra. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Of the Thousand and One Goals
...to another. “A table of values hangs over every people […] the voice of its will to power .” Each table praises what it finds difficult, and it deems “holy” what relieves people’s...
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The Funeral Song
...The only reason Zarathustra has overcome this youthful pain is that, deep within him, his will to power remains invulnerable. His will destroys all graves, and only among graves are there resurrections.
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Of Self-Overcoming
...desire for all being to “bend and accommodate itself to you.” This is called the will to power —a will that wants to create a world worth submitting to. The masses are like...
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Every living creature possesses will to power ; even a servant wills to be master. Every weaker person’s will persuades them to...
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Of Redemption
...says to the past, “I willed it thus,” thereby unlearning the spirit of revenge. The will to power must learn to will backwards. At this point in the discourse, Zarathustra is terrified, and...
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