"You have served the people and the superstition of the people, all you famous wise men - and not truth. And that is precisely why you were accorded respect. And that is also why your lack of faith was tolerated: it was a joke and a circuitous route to the people. Thus the master lets his slaves have their way and is even amused by their pranks.
But the free spirit, the enemy of fetters, the non-adorer who dwells in the woods, is as hateful to the people as a wolf to dogs. To hound him out of his lair - that is what the people have ever called “a sense of decency”; and against him the people still set their fiercest dogs.
“Truth is there: after all, the people are there! Let those who speak beware!” - these words have echoed through the ages. You wanted to prove your people right in their reverence: that is what you called “will to truth,” you famous wise men. And your hearts ever said to themselves: "From among the people I came, and from there too the voice of God came to me. As the people’s advocates you have always been stiff-necked and clever like asses.
And many who were powerful and wanted to get along smoothly with the people harnessed in front of their horses a little ass, a famous wise man.
And now I should wish, you famous wise men, that you would at long last throw off the lion’s skin completely. The skin of the beast of prey, mottled, and the mane of those who search, seek and conquer.
Oh, to make me believe in your “truthfulness” you would first have to break your revering will.
Truthful I call him who goes into Godless deserts, having broken his revering heart. In the yellow sands, burned by the sun, he squints thirstily at the islands abounding in wells, where living things rest under dark trees. Yet his thirst does not persuade him to become like these, dwelling in comfort; for where there are oasis there are also idols.
Hungry, violent, lonely, godless: thus the lion will wants itself. Free from the happiness of slaves, redeemed from Gods and adorations, fearless and fear inspiring, great and lonely: such is the will of the truthful.
It was ever in the desert that the truthful have dwelt, the free spirits, as masters of the desert: but in cities well the well fed, famous wise men - the beasts of burden. For, as assess, they always pull the people’s cart. Not that I am angry with them for that: but for me they remain such as serve and work in a harness, even when they shine in harnesses of gold. And often they have been good servants, worthy of praise. For thus speaks virtue: “If you must be a servant, seek him who profits most from your service. The psirit and virtue of your master shall grow by your being his servant; Then you yourself will grow with his spirit and his virtue.” And verily you famous wise men, you servants of the people, the dumb-eyed people - the people, who do not know what spirit is.
Spirit is the life that itself cuts into life: with its own agony it increases its own knowledge. Did you know that?
And the happiness of the spirit is this: to be anointed and through tears to be consecrated as a sacrificial animal. Did you know that?
And the blindness of the blind and their seeking and groping shall bear witness to the power of the sun, into which they have looked. Did you know that?
And the lover of knowledge shall learn to build with mountains. It means little that the spirit moves mountains. Did you know that?
You only know the spark of the spirit, but you do not see the anvil it is, nor the cruelty of its hammer.
Verily, you do not know the pride of the spirit! But even less would you endure the modesty of the spirit, if ever it would speak.
And you have never yet been able to cast your spirit into a pit of snow: you are not hot enough for that. Hence you also do not know the ecstacies of its coldness.
In all things, however, you act too familiarly with the spirit, and you have often made wisdom into a poorhouse and a hospital for bad poets.
You are no eagles: hence you have never experienced the happiness that is in the terror of the spirit. And he who is not a bird shall not build his nest over abysses.
You are lukewarm to me, but all profound knowledge flows cold. Ice cold are the inmost wells of the spirit: refreshing for hot hands and men of action. You stand there honorable and stiff with straight backs, you famous wise men: no strong wind and will drives you.
Have you never seen a sail go over the sea, rounded and taut and trembling with the violence of the wind? Like the sail, trembling with the violence of the spirit, my wisdom goes over the sea - my wild wisdom.
But you servants of the people, you famous wise men - How could you go with me?
Thus spoke Zarathustra"
- Nietzsche, Thus Spoke Zarathustra, “On the Famous Wise Men”
