the [dull] masses

The masses seem to me worthy of notice in only three respects: first as blurred copies of great men, produced on pad paper with worn plates, further as resistance to the great, and finally as the tools of the great.

...Here the masses are, out of themselve, to give birth to greatness, that is, chaos is, out of itself, to give birth to order; and in the end, of course, the hymn to the birth-giving masses is intoned. Everything is then called 'great' which has for a prolonged time moved such masses and which, as one says, has been 'a historical power'. But is that not quite intentionally to confuse quantity with quality? If the dull masses have found some thought or other, say a religious thought, quite adequate, tenaciously defend it and drag it through centuries: then and only just then the finder and founder fo that thought is said to be great. But why! The noblest and highest has no effect on the masses; the historical success of Christianity, its historical power, tenacity and endurance, all this fortunately proves nothing as regards the greatness of its founder since basically it would testify against him: but between him and that historical success there is a very earthly and dark layer of passion, error, greed for power and honour, of the continuing effects of the 'imperium romanum a layer from which Christianity drew that earthy taste and bit of soil which made possible its continuation in the world and, as it were, gave it its durability.

...The purest and most truthful adherents of Christianity have always questioned and impeded rather than promoted its worldly success, its so-called "historical power"; for tehy used tot ake a stand outside the "world" and did not concern themselves with the "process of the Christian idea", which is why they have remained quite unknown and unnamed by history.