# The Thousand and One Goals explained — Thus Spoke Zarathustra

> Chapter companion for Thus Spoke Zarathustra by Friedrich Nietzsche.

## What happens

Zarathustra reflects on how different peoples create their own values of good and bad as expressions of their Will to Power, asserting that valuation is a creative act and that humanity lacks a single unifying goal, which means humanity itself is still lacking.

## Themes in this chapter

### Will to Power and Creation

Zarathustra identifies the 'table of excellencies' as the voice of the Will to Power, and declares that valuing is creating, a central creative force.

### Critique of Herd Morality

Zarathustra critiques herd morality by showing that each people's values are self-serving and that the individual is a late creation, with the herd's conscience opposing the ego.

## Character check-ins

### Zarathustra

Zarathustra observes and recounts the diverse value systems of many peoples, emphasizing that valuation is a creative act of the Will to Power.

## Key lines

> No greater power did Zarathustra find on earth than good and bad.

Zarathustra discovered that the most powerful force on earth is the human capacity to designate things as good or bad.

_Highlights the central theme of value creation as a fundamental power._

> Values did man only assign to things in order to maintain himself—he created only the significance of things, a human significance!

Humans assign values to things solely for self-preservation, inventing meaning that is entirely human in origin.

_Emphasizes the human, not divine, origin of values._

> A thousand goals have there been hitherto, for a thousand peoples have there been. Only the fetter for the thousand necks is still lacking; there is lacking the one goal. As yet humanity hath not a goal. But pray tell me, my brethren, if the goal of humanity be still lacking, is there not also still lacking—humanity itself?

There have been countless goals across different peoples, but no single unifying goal for all humanity; without such a goal, humanity itself is incomplete.

_Zarathustra calls for a transcendent goal to unite humanity, implying that humanity's essence is not yet realized._

## Links

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