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I walk among this people and keep my eyes open: the do not forgive me that I do not envy their small virtues. They bite at me because I say to them: small people need small virtues- and I find it hard to accept that small people are needed. I am still like the rooster in a strange yard, where the hens also bite at him; but I am not angry with the hens on that account. I am polite to them as to all small annoyances; to be prickly to what is small strikes me as wisdom for hedgehogs. ...I walk among this people and keep my eye open: they have become smaller; but this is due to their doctrine of happiness and virtue. For they are modest in virtue, too-because they want contentment. But only a modest virtue gets along with contentment. To be sure, even they learn in their way to stride and stride forward: I call it their hobbling. Thus they become a stumbling block for everyone in a hurry.-Thus Spoke Zarathustra