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On The Pitying

My friends, a gibe was related to your friend: "Look at Zarathustra! Does he not walk among us as if we were animals?"
But it were better said: He who has knowledge walks among men as animals."
To him who has knowledge, man himself is "the animal with red cheeks." How did this come about? Is it not because man has had to be ashamed too often?
O my friends! Thus speaks he who has knowledge: shame, shame, shame--that is the history of man. And that is why he who is noble bids himself not to shame: shame he imposes on himself before all who suffer.
Verily, I do not like them, the merciful who feel blessed in their pity: they are lacking too much in shame. If I must pity, at least i do not want it known; and if i do pity, it is preferable from a distance.
I should also like to shroud my face and flee before i am recognized; and thus i bid you do, my friends.
Would that my destiny led those like you, who do not suffer, accross my way, and those whom i may share hope and meal and honey. Verily, I may have done this and that for sufferers; but always I seemd to have done better when I learned to feel better joys. As long as there have been men, man has felt too little joy: that alone, my brothers, is our original sin. And learning better to feel joy, we learn best not to hurt others or to plan hurts for them.
Therefore I wash my hand when it has helped the sufferer; therefore I wipe even my soul. Having seen the sufferer suffer, I was ashamed for the sake of his shame; and when i helped him, I transgressed grievously against his pride.
Great indebttedness does not make men grateful, but vengeful; and if a little charity is not forgotten, it turns into a gnawing worm.
"Be reserved in accepting! Distinguish by accepting!"
Thus I advise those who have nothing to give.
But i am the giver of gifts: I like to give, as a friend to friends. Strangers however, and the poor may themselves pluck fruit from my tree: that will cause them less shame.
But beggars should be abolished entirely! Verily, it is annoying to give to them and it is annoying not to give to them.
And also sinners and bad consciences! Believe me, my friends: the bite of conscience teaches men to bite.
Worst of all, however, are petty thoughts. Verily, even evil deeds are better than petty thoughts.
To be sure you say: The pleasure in a lot of petty nastiness saves us from many a big evil deed." But here one should not wish to save.
An evil deed is like a boil: it itches and irritates and breaks open--it speaks honestly. "Behold, I am disease" -- Thus speaks the evil deed; that is its honesty.
But a petty thought is like a fungus: it creeps and stoops and does not want to be anywhere--until the whole body is rotten and withered with little fungi.
But to him who is possessed by the devil I whisper this word: "Better for you to rear up your devil! Even for you there is still a way to greatness!"
My brothers, one knows a little too much about everybody. And can even see through some men and yet we can by no means pass through them.
It is difficult to live with people because it is so difficult to be silent. And not against him who is repugnant to us are we most unfair, but against him who is no concern of ours.
But if you have a suffering friend, be a resting place for his suffering, but a hard bed as it were, a field cot: thus will you profit him best.
And if a friend does you evil, then say "I forgive you what you did to me; but that you have done it to yourself--how could i forgive that?" Thus speaks all great love: it overcomes even forgiveness and pity.
One ought to hold on to one's heart; for if one lets it go, one soon looses control of his head too. Alas, where in the world has there been more folly than among the pitying? Woe to all who love without having a height that is above their pity!
Thus spoke the devil to me once: "God too has his hell: that is his love of man." And most recently I heard him say this: "God is dead; God died of his pity for man."
Thus be warned of pity: from there a heavy cloud will yet come to man. Verily, I understand weather signs. But mark this too: all great love is even above all its pity; for it still wants to create the beloved.
"Myself I sacrifice to my love, and my neighbor as myself" --thus runs the speech of all creatos. But all creators are hard.
Thus spoke Zarathustra

Thus Spoke Zarathustra Part II
Friedrich Nietzsche