The man of science, like the man of letters, is too apt to view mankind only in the abstract, selecting in his consideration only a single side of our complex and many-sided being. James G. Frazer More Quotes by James G. Frazer More Quotes From James G. Frazer Hence the strong attraction which magic and science alike have exercised on the human mind; hence the powerful stimulus that both have given to the pursuit of knowledge. They lure the weary enquirer, the footsore seeker, on through the wilderness of disappointment in the present by their endless promises of the future: they take him up to the top of an exceeding high mountain and show him, beyond the dark clouds and rolling mists at his feet, a vision of the celestial city, far off, it may be, but radiant with unearthly splendour, bathed in the light of dreams. James G. Frazer powerful strong dream The scapegoat upon whom the sins of the people are periodically laid, may also be a human being. James G. Frazer sin may people For there are strong grounds for thinking that, in the evolution of thought, magic has preceded religion. James G. Frazer magic strong thinking I am a plain practical man, not one of your theorists and splitters of hairs and choppers of logic. James G. Frazer logic hair men The moral world is as little exempt as the physical world from the law of ceaseless change, of perpetual flux. James G. Frazer law littles world The world cannot live at the level of its great men. James G. Frazer levels men world The Athenians regularly maintained a number of degraded and useless beings at the public expense; and when any calamity, such as plague, drought, or famine, befell the city, they sacrificed two of these outcast scapegoats. James G. Frazer cities numbers two The temple of the sylvan goddess, indeed, has vanished, and the King of the Wood no longer stands sentinel over the Golden Bough. James G. Frazer golden woods kings If the test of truth lay in a show of hands or a counting of heads, the system of magic might appeal, with far more reason than the Catholic Church, to the proud motto, 'Quod semper, quod ubique, quod ab omnibus' [always, everywhere, and by all], as the sure and certain credential of its own infallibility. James G. Frazer magic catholic hands The consideration of human suffering is not one which enters into the calculations of primitive man. James G. Frazer primitive-man suffering men But once a fool always a fool, and the greater the power in his hands the more disastrous is likely to be the use he makes of it. The heaviest calamity in English history, the breach with America, might never have occurred if George the Third had not been an honest dullard. James G. Frazer english-history hands america Even the recognition of an individual whom we see every day is only possible as the result of an abstract idea of him formed by generalization from his appearances in the past. James G. Frazer recognition past ideas Yet perhaps no sacrifice is wholly useless which proves there are men who prefer honour to life. James G. Frazer sacrifice useless men The natives of British Columbia live largely upon the fish which abound in their seas and rivers. If the fish do not come in due season, and the Indians are hungry, A Nootka wizard will make an image of a swimming fish and put it into the water in the direction from which the fish generally appear. This ceremony, accompanied by a prayer to the fish to come, will cause them to arrive at once. James G. Frazer swimming prayer sea The awe and dread with which the untutored savage contemplates his mother-in-law are amongst the most familiar facts of anthropology. James G. Frazer family mother men For extending its sway, partly by force of arms, partly by the voluntary submission of weaker tribes, the community soon acquires wealth and slaves, both of which, by relieving some classes from the perpetual struggle for a bare subsistence, afford them an opportunity of devoting themselves to that disinterested pursuit of knowledge which is the noblest and most powerful instrument to ameliorate the lot of man. James G. Frazer powerful struggle men The custom of burning a beneficent god is too foreign to later modes of thought to escape misinterpretation. James G. Frazer misinterpretation customs burning Indeed the influence of music on the development of religion is a subject which would repay a sympathetic study. James G. Frazer influence development study If mankind had always been logical and wise, history would not be a long chronicle of folly and crime. James G. Frazer crime wise long
