318 THUS SPAKE ZARATHUSTRA, III
the impudent one. ' Wait a little ; I have no time yet for thee.'
Man is the cruellest animal towards himself. And in all who call themselves 'sinners' and 'bearers of the cross ' and ' penitents,' ye shall not fail to hear the lust contained in that complaining and accusing !
And myself ? will I thereby be the accuser of man? Alas, mine animals, that alone I have learnt hitherto, that the wickedest in man is necessary for the best in him
That all that is wicked, is his best power and the hardest stone unto the highest creator ; and that man must become better and more wicked.
Not unto that stake of torture was I fixed, that I know : man is wicked. But I cried, as no one hath ever cried :
' Alas, that his wickedest is so very small ! Alas, that his best is so very small ! '
The great loathing of man, it choked me, it had crept into my throat ; and what the fortuneteller foretold : ' All is equal, nothing is worth while, know- ledge choketh.'
A long dawn limped in front of me, a sadness weary unto death, drunken from death, and speaking with a yawning mouth.
Eternally he recurreth, man, of whom thou weariest, the small man. Thus yawned my sadness and dragged its foot and could not fall asleep.
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