What's the meaning and background of the sentence below?
'' Then you carried your ashes to the mountains: will you today carry your fire into the valleys? Do you not fear an incendiary’s punishment?'' It's a sentence from Friedrich Nietzsche's book, but i want to know the exact meaning and background of the sentence.

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I put the phrase into google, and found it on Google Books.  You can read the context there.

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I do not know the background of this quote, but I can offer a basic explanation that may help a bit.

It will not hurt you to carry cooled ashes. However, carrying fire would burn your hands. (incendiary's punishment = burn) So, Nietzsche is asking the person that carried the ashes if he will also carry fire or is he afraid of getting burned. I am not sure what the significance of the mountain and valley are.

Hope this can help a bit. ^-^

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It's very difficult to understand without more context.

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