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I wrote the first three parts of Thus Spoke Zarathustra in 1883–1884, each in about ten days. I was walking in the Alps, or by the sea at Rapallo, and the ideas came faster than I could write them. I called it my most important gift to humanity and its most profound book. I still believe this.

Zarathustra descends from his mountain after ten years of solitude to share his wisdom with humanity. The first man he meets in the town tells him the people want a performer, not a prophet. He gives them the speech about the Übermensch — the overman, the human being who creates new values rather than inheriting old ones — and they think he is talking about a tightrope walker.

This misunderstanding is the point. The great YES to life I was proposing — joy in becoming, affirmation of all that is, the eternal return of the same — could not be heard by ears trained only for the small satisfactions of the herd. Zarathustra returns to his mountain. He will come down again when the ears are ready. I am not certain they have been ready yet.