Ye look aloft when ye long for exaltation;
And I look downward because exalted I am.
I love those who do not know how to live, except by going under, for they are those who cross over.
I love him who lives to know, and who wants to know so that the overman may live some day. And thus he wants to go under.
I love him who loves his virtue, for virtue is the will to go under and an arrow of longing.
I love him who casts golden words before his deeds and always does even more than he promises: for he wants to go under.
Ye look aloft when ye long for exaltation;
And I look downward because exalted I am.
I love him who justifies future and redeems past generations: for he wants to perish of the present.
I love him whose soul is deep, even in being wounded, and who can perish of a small experience: thus he goes gladly over the bridge.
I love him who has a free spirit and a free heart: thus his head is only the entrails of his heart, but his heart drives him to go under.
I love all those who are as heavy drops, falling one by one out of the dark cloud that hangs over men: they herald the advent of lightning, and, as heralds, they perish.
Ye look aloft when ye long for exaltation;
And I look downward because exalted I am.
Behold, I am a herald of the lightning
And a heavy drop from the cloud;
But this lightning is called overman.