Thus Spoke Zarathustra: A Book for All and None

Zarathustra travels to a foreign harbor to find a crew headed towards the blessed isles. He reminisces on the many mountains he has climbed and his time spent in isolation. He says to himself, “I am a wanderer and a mountain climber…I do not like the plains and it seems I cannot sit still for long” (121). He knows that what is to come will involve wandering and mountain climbing. Zarathustra reaffirms to himself that, since one can only experience oneself, all that will befall him is already his own. He states that this next hike will be the hardest and the loneliness. The mountain climber must learn to “look away from oneself in order to see much” (122). Zarathustra says that he must continue climbing upwards so that even the stars are beneath him. He says to himself, “Yes, look down on myself and even on my stars: only that would I call my peak, that remains to me as my ultimate peak!” (122). He looks down on the sea and proclaims that now he must descend to the sea. As this is the highest peak he has ever climbed, so must he descend deeper.