Redeemers themselves were unfree and ignorant: their spirits were gaps stuffed with a 'stop-gap' cal… — Friedrich Nietzsche

Redeemers themselves were unfree and ignorant: their spirits were gaps stuffed with a 'stop-gap' called God; pity drowned their spirit and swelled into folly.

By Friedrich Nietzsche, from Thus Spoke Zarathustra

Key Arguments

They did not come from 'freedom' nor 'walked upon the carpets of understanding.'
Their spirits were 'gaps' filled by a 'stop-gap'—a conceptual plug named God.
Their pity drowned their spirit; excess pity produced 'a prodigious folly.'

Source Quotes

But whom could this masquerading misery ever persuade! ‘Verily, their redeemers did not themselves come from freedom and from freedom’s seventh Heaven! Verily, they themselves have never walked upon the carpets of understanding!

Verily, they themselves have never walked upon the carpets of understanding! ‘Of gaps the spirit of these redeemers consisted; but into every gap they put their , their stop-gap, which they called God. ‘In their pitying their spirit had drowned, and whenever they swelled and overswelled with pitying, there always swam to the surface a prodigious folly.

‘Of gaps the spirit of these redeemers consisted; but into every gap they put their , their stop-gap, which they called God. ‘In their pitying their spirit had drowned, and whenever they swelled and overswelled with pitying, there always swam to the surface a prodigious folly. ‘Zealously and with much shouting they drove their herd over their bridge: as if to the future there were but one bridge!

Key Concepts

‘Verily, their redeemers did not themselves come from freedom and from freedom’s seventh Heaven!
‘Of gaps the spirit of these redeemers consisted; but into every gap they put their , their stop-gap, which they called God.
‘In their pitying their spirit had drowned, and whenever they swelled and overswelled with pitying, there always swam to the surface a prodigious folly.

Context

Philosophical-psychological critique of founders and redeemers: lack of freedom and knowledge, conceptual deficiency compensated by the postulate of God, and corrupting excess of pity.

Perspectives

Nietzsche: Aligns with his critique of pity and metaphysical placeholders; 'God' as plug for ignorance; priests' pity produces harmful folly.
Zarathustra: Refuses their authority: they neither knew nor were free; calls their god a stop-gap and their pity a drowning force.