Loving Your Neighbor

Ye crowd around your neighbour, and have fine words for it. But I say unto you: your neighbour-love is your bad love of yourselves.

You crowd around your neighbor and have fine words for what you do. But I tell you: your love of your neighbor is your bad love of yourselves.

Ye flee unto your neighbour from yourselves, and would fain make a virtue thereof: but I fathom your “unselfishness.”

You flee from yourselves to your neighbor, and you would like to call that a virtue. But I see through your “unselfishness.”

The THOU is older than the I; the THOU hath been consecrated, but not yet the I: so man presseth nigh unto his neighbour.

The THOU is older than the I. The THOU has been made sacred, but not yet the I. So man draws close to his neighbor.

Do I advise you to neighbour-love? Rather do I advise you to neighbour-flight and to furthest love!

Do I advise you to love your neighbor? Rather, I advise you to flee your neighbor and love those farthest away!

Higher than love to your neighbour is love to the furthest and future ones; higher still than love to men, is love to things and phantoms.

Love for those farthest away and those yet to come is higher than love for your neighbor. Higher still than love for people is love for things and phantoms.

The phantom that runneth on before thee, my brother, is fairer than thou; why dost thou not give unto it thy flesh and thy bones? But thou fearest, and runnest unto thy neighbour.

My brother, the phantom running ahead of you is more beautiful than you. Why don't you give it your flesh and bones? But you are afraid, and you run to your neighbor.

Ye cannot endure it with yourselves, and do not love yourselves sufficiently: so ye seek to mislead your neighbour into love, and would fain gild yourselves with his error.

You cannot stand being alone with yourselves, and you do not love yourselves enough. So you try to mislead your neighbor into loving you, hoping to adorn yourselves with that mistaken love.

Would that ye could not endure it with any kind of near ones, or their neighbours; then would ye have to create your friend and his overflowing heart out of yourselves.

If only you could not bear to be with those close to you or their neighbors. Then you would have to create your friend and his overflowing heart out of yourselves.

Ye call in a witness when ye want to speak well of yourselves; and when ye have misled him to think well of you, ye also think well of yourselves.

You call in a witness when you want to speak well of yourselves. And when you have misled the witness into thinking well of you, you also think well of yourselves.

Not only doth he lie, who speaketh contrary to his knowledge, but more so, he who speaketh contrary to his ignorance. And thus speak ye of yourselves in your intercourse, and belie your neighbour with yourselves.

A person lies not only by speaking against what they know, but even more by speaking as if they knew what they do not. And that is how you speak of yourselves when you talk to one another, misrepresenting your neighbor as well as yourselves.

Thus saith the fool: “Association with men spoileth the character, especially when one hath none.”

The fool says: “Keeping company with people spoils your character, especially if you have none.”

The one goeth to his neighbour because he seeketh himself, and the other because he would fain lose himself. Your bad love to yourselves maketh solitude a prison to you.

One person goes to a neighbor because he is looking for himself. Another goes because he wants to lose himself. Your poor love for yourselves makes solitude a prison for you.

The furthest ones are they who pay for your love to the near ones; and when there are but five of you together, a sixth must always die.

Those farthest away pay for your love of those close to you. And when only five of you are together, a sixth must always die.

I love not your festivals either: too many actors found I there, and even the spectators often behaved like actors.

I don't love your festivals either. I found too many actors there, and even the spectators often acted like actors.

Not the neighbour do I teach you, but the friend. Let the friend be the festival of the earth to you, and a foretaste of the Superman.

I teach you not about the neighbor, but about the friend. Let your friend be a festival of the earth for you, and a foretaste of the Superman.

I teach you the friend and his overflowing heart. But one must know how to be a sponge, if one would be loved by overflowing hearts.

I teach you about the friend and his overflowing heart. But you must know how to be a sponge if you want to be loved by overflowing hearts.

I teach you the friend in whom the world standeth complete, a capsule of the good,—the creating friend, who hath always a complete world to bestow.

I teach you about the friend in whom the world is complete, a capsule of goodness. This creating friend always has a complete world to give.

And as the world unrolled itself for him, so rolleth it together again for him in rings, as the growth of good through evil, as the growth of purpose out of chance.

Just as the world unfolded for him, it folds back together for him in rings. It is like good growing through evil, like purpose growing out of chance.

Let the future and the furthest be the motive of thy to-day; in thy friend shalt thou love the Superman as thy motive.

Let the future and what is most distant guide you today. In your friend, love the Superman as your guide.

My brethren, I advise you not to neighbour-love—I advise you to furthest love!—

My brothers, I advise you not to love your neighbor. I advise you to love those furthest from you!

Thus spake Zarathustra.

This is what Zarathustra said.