The Hammer Speaks

 

‘Why so hard?’ the charcoal once said to the diamond; ‘for are we not close relations?’

      Why so soft? O my brothers, thus I ask them: for are you not – my brothers?

      Why so soft, unresisting and yielding?  Why is there so much denial and abnegation in your hearts?  So little fate in your glances?

      And if you will not be fates, if you will not be inexorable: how can you – conquer with me?

      And if your hardness will not flash and cut and cut to pieces: how can you one day – create with me?

      For all creators are hard.  And it must seem bliss to you to press your hand upon millennia as upon wax,

      Bliss to write upon the will of millennia as upon metal – harder than metal, nobler than metal.  Only the noblest is perfectly hard.

      This new law-table do I put over you, O my brothers: Become hard! [From Thus Spoke Zarathustra,, Part III, 'Of Old and New Law-Tables', with minor variants.]

 

 

 

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