English wording
Translation
Thomas Common — Translator · German → English
The wording shown here follows the represented English edition or translation.
Why the edition matters
Translations and editions can differ in wording, punctuation and emphasis, so the source attached to each quotation matters when exact phrasing is important.
Source identified1
“I should only believe in a God that would know how to dance.”
The image favors a vision of spirit associated with vitality, movement, and affirmation rather than heaviness alone.
Source note: Thus Spake Zarathustra, “Reading and Writing,” Thomas Common translation.
Source identified2
“I tell you: one must still have chaos in one, to give birth to a dancing star.”
Creative transformation is pictured as emerging from unresolved inner complexity rather than from a perfectly ordered or comfortable condition.
Source note: Thus Spake Zarathustra, Prologue, Thomas Common translation.
Source identified3
“Of all that is written, I love only what a person hath written with his blood.”
Writing matters most here when it carries lived commitment and experience rather than remaining detached, ornamental, or merely second-hand.
Source note: Thus Spake Zarathustra, “Reading and Writing,” Thomas Common translation.
Source identified4
“He who climbeth on the highest mountains, laugheth at all tragic plays and tragic realities.”
Distance and a wider perspective can change the scale of what once seemed overwhelming, even when the underlying difficulty has not vanished.
Source note: Thus Spake Zarathustra, “Reading and Writing,” Thomas Common translation.