Quote

Belief is reassuring. People who live in the world of belief feel safe. On the contrary, faith is forever placing us on the razor's edge.

Jacques Ellul

Change background

T
T
T

Change font

TAGS & TOPICS

Jacques Ellul
Age: 82 †
Born: 1912
Born: January 6
Died: 1994
Died: May 19
French Resistance Fighter
Philosopher
Sociologist
Theologian
University Teacher
Writer
Bordèu
World
Contrary
People
Safe
Forever
Razor
Belief
Placing
Faith
Razors
Live
Reassuring
Feel
Edge
Feels
Edges

More quotes by Jacques Ellul

Image
Because of the myth of progress, it is much easier to sell a man an electric razor than a straight-edged one.
Jacques Ellul
Image
(Propaganda) proceeds by psychological manipulations, character modifications, by creation of stereotypes useful when the time comes - The two great routes that this sub-propaganda takes are the conditioned reflex and the myth
Jacques Ellul
Image
Fate operates when people give up
Jacques Ellul
Image
We have to admit that there is an immeasurable distance between all that we read in the Bible and the practice of the Church and of Christians.
Jacques Ellul
Image
For in a civilization which has lost the meaning of life, the most important thing a Christian can do is to live, and life, understood from the point of view of faith, has an extraordinary explosive force.
Jacques Ellul
Image
In sum, thought and reflection have been rendered thoroughly pointless by the circumstances in which modern men and women live and act.
Jacques Ellul
Image
Everyone has been taught that technique is an application of science.... This traditional view is radically false. It takes into account only a single category of science and only a short period of time
Jacques Ellul
Image
For the word is dialectical in itself and at the same time is integrated into the whole of existence. By this I mean that the word is intended to be lived.
Jacques Ellul
Image
Human life as a whole is not inundated by technique. It has room for activities that are not rationally or systematically ordered. But the collision between spontaneous activities and technique is catastrophic for the spontaneous activities.
Jacques Ellul
Image
Propaganda begins when dialogue ends.
Jacques Ellul
Image
Science brings to the light of day everything man had believed sacred. Technique takes possession of it and enslaves it.
Jacques Ellul
Image
Journalistic content is a technical complex expressly intended to adapt man to the machine.
Jacques Ellul
Image
It is the emergence of mass media which makes possible the use of propaganda techniques on a societal scale.
Jacques Ellul
Image
When there is propaganda, we are no longer able to evaluate certain questions, or even to discuss them
Jacques Ellul
Image
Our civilization is first and foremost a civilization of means in the reality of modern life, the means, it would seem, are more important than the ends.
Jacques Ellul
Image
Modern technology has become a total phenomenon for civilization, the defining force of a new social order in which efficiency is no longer an option but a necessity imposed on all human activity.
Jacques Ellul
Image
It is not true that the perfection of police power is the result of the state's Machiavellianism or of some transitory influence. The whole structure of society implies it, of necessity. The more we mobilize the forces of nature, the more must we mobilize men and the more do we require order.
Jacques Ellul
Image
Prayer is not a discourse. It is a form of life, the life with God. That is why it is not confined to the moment of verbal statement.
Jacques Ellul
Image
Almost always, it is the conviction that 'I am right' or 'my cause is the cause of justice' that triggers violence. That is, ...the moment propaganda does its work, violence is unleashed. And violence can be reduced by countering this propaganda.
Jacques Ellul
Image
All human language draws its nature and value from the fact that it both comes from the Word of God and is chosen by God to manifest himself. But this relationship is secret and incomprehensible, beyond the bounds of reason and analysis.
Jacques Ellul