Friedrich Nietzsche, The Gay Science, edited by Bernard Williams
translated by Josefine Nauckhoff and Adrian Del Caro, 119-120
(Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2001)
Book Three
infer from his words that he places science above art - strange as this
may be for such a friend of the arts - in the end it is nothing but
politeness when he does not speak of what he, too, places high above all
science: 'revealed truth' and the 'eternal salvation of the soul'. Com
pared to that, what are ornaments, pride, entertainment, and the
security of life to him ! 'Science is something second-class; nothing
ultimate, unconditional; not an object of passion' - this judgement was
held back in Leo's soul: the truly Christian judgement about science! In
antiquity the dignity and recognition of science were diminished by the
fact that even among her most zealous disciples the striving for virtue
took first place, and that one thought one had given knowledge one's
highest praise when one celebrated it as the best means to virtue. It is
something new in history that knowledge wants to be more than a
means.
1 24
In the horizon of the infinite. We have forsaken the land and gone to
-
sea! We have destroyed the bridge behind us - more so, we have
demolished the land behind us! Now, little ship, look out! Beside you is
the ocean; it is true, it does not always roar, and at times it lies there like
silk and gold and dreams of goodness. But there will be hours when you
realize that it is infinite and that there is nothing more awesome than
infinity. Oh, the poor bird that has felt free and now strikes against the
walls of this cage! Woe, when homesickness for the land overcomes you,
as if there had been more freedom there - and there is no more 'land'!
125
The madman. - Haven't you heard of that madman who in the bright
morning lit a lantern and ran around the marketplace crying incessantly,
'I'm looking for God! I'm looking for God! ' Since many of those who
did not believe in God were standing around together j ust then, he
caused great laughter. Has he been lost, then? asked one. Did he lose his
way like a child? asked another. Or is he hiding? Is he afraid of us? Has
he gone to sea? Emigrated? - Thus they shouted and laughed, one
interrupting the other. The madman jumped into their midst and
pierced them with his eyes. 'Where is God?' he cried; 'I'll tell you! We
I I9
The Gay Science
have killed him - you and I! We are all his murderers. But how did we do
this? How were we able to drink up the sea? Who gave us the sponge to
wipe away the entire horizon? What were we doing when we unchained
this earth from its sun? Where is it moving to now? Where are we
moving to? Away from all suns? Are we not continually falling? And
backwards, sidewards, forwards, in all directions? Is there still an up and
a down? Aren't we straying as though through an infinite nothing? Isn't
empty space breathing at us? Hasn't it got colder? Isn't night and more
night coming again and again? Don't lanterns have to be lit in the
morning? Do we still hear nothing of the noise of the grave-diggers who
are burying God? Do we still smell nothing of the divine decomposi
tion? - Gods, too, decompose! God is dead! God remains dead! And we
have killed him! How can we console ourselves, the murderers of all
murderers! The holiest and the mightiest thing the world has ever
possessed has bled to death under our knives: who will wipe this blood
from us? With what water could we clean ourselves? What festivals of
atonement, what holy games will we have to invent for ourselves? Is the
magnitude of this deed not too great for us? Do we not ourselves have to
become gods merely to appear worthy of it? There was never a greater
deed - and whoever is born after us will on account of this deed belong
to a higher history than all history up to now! ' Here the madman fell
silent and looked again at his listeners; they too were silent and looked
at him disconcertedly. Finally he threw his lantern on the ground so
that it broke into pieces and went out. 'I come too early', he then said;
'my time is not yet. This tremendous event is still on its way, wandering;
it has not yet reached the ears of men. Lightning and thunder need
time; the light of the stars needs time; deeds need time, even after they
are done, in order to be seen and heard . This deed is still more remote
to them than the remotest stars - and yet they have done it themselves!' It
is still recounted how on the same day the madman forced his way into
several churches and there started singing his requiem aeternam deo. lO
Led out and called to account, he is said always to have replied nothing
but, 'What then are these churches now if not the tombs and sepulchres
of God?'
10 'Grant God eternal rest.' A transformation o f that part o f the service for the dead which reads
'Requiem aeternam dona eis [scilicet, mortuis], Domine' ('Lord, grant them [the dead] eternal
rest')
1 20
