Zoroaster — "I will sing praises to You, O Ahura Mazda, with good thoughts and truthful words…"
I will sing praises to You, O Ahura Mazda, with good thoughts and truthful words.
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More from Zoroaster
"The soul of the righteous shall go to the Best Existence, the soul of the wicked to the Worst Existence."
"Seek knowledge. And if you can't find it, at least find something interesting to look at."
"To him who chooses me, I shall give as a reward the best of existence, but to him who does not choose me, I shall give the worst."
"Do not to others what ye do not wish Done to yourself; and wish for others too. What ye desire and long for, for yourself. This is the whole of righteousness, heed it well."
"The poet of Thy praise, I call myself, O Mazda!"
About Zoroaster (c. 1500-1000 BCE (debated))
Iranian prophet who founded Zoroastrianism, the first major religion of cosmic dualism between good (Ahura Mazda) and evil (Angra Mainyu). Closely associated with The Buddha (near-contemporary Eastern moral-cosmological revolutionary). For an intellectual contrast, see Friedrich Nietzsche, German philosopher of 'beyond good and evil' — Nietzsche appropriated Zarathustra's name for Thus Spoke Zarathustra (1883) precisely to invert the original's moral cosmology — the historical Zoroaster founded the good-versus-evil framework Nietzsche's character announces the end of.
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Understanding this quote
What it means
The speaker dedicates themselves to honoring Ahura Mazda, the supreme god, through pure intentions and honest speech. Worship is not just ritual or sacrifice, but a discipline of aligning one's inner mind and outer words with truth. Good thinking and truthful speaking become the offering itself. Devotion is expressed through ethical conduct and mental clarity, treating how you think and what you say as the real measure of reverence.
Relevance to Zoroaster
Zoroaster founded the faith centered on Ahura Mazda as the single wise creator, and built his teaching around the triad of good thoughts, good words, and good deeds. As a priest-prophet who received visions, he composed the Gathas, hymns addressed directly to Ahura Mazda. This line mirrors his personal practice of devotional poetry and his insistence that moral purity, not blood sacrifice, was the true path to the divine.
The era
Zoroaster lived in ancient Persia, likely between 1500 and 1000 BCE, among pastoral tribes practicing polytheistic rituals with animal sacrifice and intoxicating haoma offerings. He broke from this tradition by preaching one supreme god and an ethical dualism between truth and the lie. Writing did not yet capture his hymns, so the Gathas were preserved orally by priests for centuries, shaping later Persian empires and influencing Judaism, Christianity, and Islam.
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