Thus Spoke Zarathustra

Thus Spoke Zarathustra: A Book for All and None is a work of philosophical fiction by the German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche, published in four parts between 1883 and 1885. It follows the prophet Zarathustra, styled after the historical Zoroaster, as he delivers discourses on subjects ranging from metaphysics and war to the amorality of nature, most of them ending with the refrain thus spoke Zarathustra. The book introduced or elaborated several of Nietzsche's central ideas, including the overman, the death of God, the will to power, and eternal recurrence. Its style is deliberately analogical and figurative rather than systematic, which has produced widely differing readings of what Zarathustra's speeches actually mean even though there is broad agreement about their subject matter. The character first appeared briefly in Nietzsche's earlier book The Gay Science before becoming the center of this later work.