"I am in no sense higher than you; you are in no sense inferior to me.'

"This is a strange way of looking at things. But certainly Zarathustra has a point to be remembered. The point basically is that all so-called holy men are egoists, even in their humbleness, in their humility. They have nothing but contempt for human beings. Deep down they know you are all sinners; you are not even worthy of their anger – they don't value you in any way equal to themselves.

"Zarathustra is very human and he does not want to fulfill your so-called spiritual egoism. Ninety-nine percent of your saints are saints, so that they can call you sinners; their whole joy is not in being a saint, but in being able to call you all sinners, to reduce everybody – to destroy everybody's dignity is their innermost joy.

"Zarathustra's eyes certainly go deeper than anyone's into every human relationship. He says:

When you have an enemy, do not requite him good for evil: for that would make him ashamed.

"Something evil has been done to you; you have an enemy – do not do good in response to his evil. That's what all the religions have been teaching you. And superficially, their teaching looks very profound: you are doing good even when the other person is doing evil to you.

"But why are you doing good? What is the psychology behind it? Deep in your unconscious are you not enjoying the fact that you have made the other person embarrassed? And can this in any sense be called spiritual? Embarrassing the otherit would have been far better that you had done the same as had been done to you. That would not have embarrassed him and that would not have given you a nourishment to your ego.

But prove that he has done something good to you.

"Rather than answering his evil with good, Zarathustra advises, 'Accept his evil and prove that he has done something good to you.' This is a totally different approach to life; certainly far more profound than any religion has ever reached.

"If you can prove to the person that he has done something good to you, you have not only avoided doing evil to him, you have avoided him feeling embarrassed because you have done something good to him."