"Looking at the future, you can feel only a deep awe, a wonder, a surprise. In each nook and corner, so many treasures are hidden that unless you come to them, there is no way to say anything about them.

"Gautam Buddha is simple, so is Jesus, so is Mahavira – they are all conclusions of the past.

"Zarathustra is a prophecy for the future.

"This should be remembered: that he is the most unpredictable mystic in the whole history of man.

When Zarathustra arrived at the nearest of the towns lying against the forest, he found in that very place many people assembled in the market square: for it had been announced that a tight-rope walker would be appearing.

"Man is so miserable, that he wants to forget his misery in any kind of entertainment, howsoever stupid it may look to those who have a little intelligence. All our games are childish, but millions of people are so interested in them, as if they are going to give them a new life, a transformed being, as if they are going to take away their misery, their dark night of the soul.

"If it is announced that a tightrope walker is appearing, thousands of people will assemble, just to see somebody walking on a tightrope – as if these people don't have anything significant to do in their lives; as if they don't know what to do with the time that existence has given them.

"Zarathustra found this assembly. Certainly, these were not the people who deserve a Zarathustra and his message, but these are the only kind of people all over the earth – there is no other kind. Hence, 'Zarathustra spoke thus to the people' without bothering whether they deserved it, whether they would even be able to comprehend what he is saying.

"He is like a raincloud, so burdened with wisdom that he wants to rain anywhere. He wants to empty himself. The riches of his joy, his silence, his blissfulness have become so heavy that he needs anybody to share them. The question is not whether they deserve it or not. Certainly, this was not the assembly to hear him; but a raincloud even rains on stones, rocks, on infertile land."