To whom chastity is difficult, it is to be dissuaded: lest it become the road to hell—to filth and lust of soul.
Do I speak of filthy things? That is not the worst thing for me to do.
Not when the truth is filthy, but when it is shallow, does the discerning one go unwillingly into its waters.
Verily, there are chaste ones from their very nature; they are gentler of heart, and laugh better and oftener than you.
They laugh also at chastity, and ask: "What is chastity?
Is chastity not folly? But this folly came unto us, and not we unto it.
We offered that guest harbor and heart: now it dwelleth with us—let it stay as long as it will!"—
Thus spake Zarathustra.
14. The Friend
"One is always too many about me"—thinks the anchorite. "Always once one—that maketh two in the long run!"
I and me are always too deeply in conversation: how could it be endured, if there were not a friend?
The friend of the anchorite is always the third one: the third one is the cork which prevents the conversation of the two sinking into the depth.
Ah! there are too many depths for all anchorite. Therefore, do they long so much for a friend and for his elevation.
Our faith in others betrayeth that we would fain have faith in ourselves. Our longing for a friend is our betrayer.
