Have you not heard of that madman who
lit a lantern in the bright morning hours,
ran out into the marketplace
crying incessantly "I seek God! I seek God!?"
As many of those who did not believe in
God were standing around at that time, he provoked much laughter.
"Has he got lost?" asked one.  "Did he lose his way like a child?" asked another.
"Or is he hiding?  "Is he afraid of us?"  "Has he gone on a voyage?  Emigrated?"
Thus they yelled and laughed.
The madman jumped into their midst and pierced them with his eyes!
"Whither is God? I will tell
you. We have killed him, you and I.
All of us are his murderers!  But how did we do this?
How could we drink up the sea?
Who gave us the sponge to wipe away the
entire horizon?
What were we doing when we unchained this earth from its sun?
Whither is it moving now?  Whither are we moving?
Away from all suns?
Are we not plunging continually backward, sideward, forward, in all directions?
Is there still any up or down?
Are we not straying as through an infinite nothing?
Do we not feel the breath of empty space?
Has it not become colder?
Is not night continually closing in on us?
Do we not need to light lanterns in the morning?
Do we hear nothing as yet of the noise of the gravediggers who are burying God?
Do we smell nothing as yet of the divine decomposition?
Gods decompose too!
God is dead.
God remains dead.
And we have killed him.
How shall we comfort ourselves, the
murderers of all murderers?
What was holiest and mightiest of all that the world has yet owned has bled to death under our knives.
Who will wipe this blood off us?
What water is there for us to clean ourselves?
What festivals of atonement, what sacred
games shall we have to invent?
Is not the greatness of this deed too great for us?
Must we ourselves not become gods simply to appear worthy of it?
There has never been a greater deed.
And whoever is born after us, for the sake of this deed will belong to a higher history than all histories hitherto.
Here the madman fell silent and looked again at his listeners,
and they too were silent and
stared at him in amazement.
At last, he threw his lantern to the ground and it broke into pieces and went out.
"I have come too early," he said then.
"My time is not yet. This
tremendous event is still on its way,
still wandering.
It has not yet reached the
ears of men.
Lightning and thunder require time.  The
light of the Stars requires time.
Deeds, though done still require time to be seen and heard.
This deed is still more distant from
them than most distant stars!
And yet,
they have done it themselves.
you
