You must have chaos within you to give birth to a dancing star.
Friedrich Nietzsche Thus Spoke Zarathustra, Prologue, §5 (1883) Translated by R. J. Hollingdale
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When and why it was written
- When
- Published in 1883, in the prologue where Zarathustra first addresses a crowd.
- Why
- Zarathustra is describing what he sees in the people in front of him and finding it insufficient.
What it means
The full passage is a warning, not encouragement. Zarathustra asks whether his listeners still have chaos in them and implies they do not.
The dancing star is what disorder is for. Nietzsche's target is the person who has resolved every internal contradiction into comfort and has nothing left to make anything from.
Read the source
Thus Spoke Zarathustra, 1883
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