Christopher Dawson Quotes

Quotes about:

• As soon as men decide that all means are permitted to fight an evil, then their good becomes indistinguishable from the evil that they set out to destroy.

  Christopher Dawson

  Philosophical, Mean, Fighting

  Christopher Dawson (2011). “The Judgment of the Nations”, p.9, CUA Press

  55 Copy quote

• As I have pointed out, it is the Christian tradition that is the most fundamental element in Western culture. It lies at the base not only of Western religion, but also of Western morals and Western social idealism.

  Christopher Dawson

  Christian, Lying, Elements

  Christopher Dawson, Gerald J. Russello (1998). “Christianity and European Culture (Selections from the Work of Christopher Dawson)”, p.118, CUA Press

  19 Copy quote

• It is the religious impulse which supplies the cohesive force which unifies a society and a culture... A society which has lost its religion becomes sooner or later a society which has lost its culture.

  Christopher Dawson

  Religious, Culture, Lost

  Christopher Dawson, Robert Royal (2009). “Enquiries Into Religion and Culture (The Works of Christopher Dawson)”, p.94, CUA Press

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• Faith transcends reason because divine truth is not only higher, but also wider than the human mind, and the rationalist in his haste for premature simplification always tends to shut his eyes to one aspect of the truth and to seek a false harmony of thought by the sacrifice of an essential element of reality.

  Christopher Dawson

  Eye, Sacrifice, Reality

  17 Copy quote

• It is impossible for us to understand the Church if we regard her as subject to the limitations of human culture. For she is essentially a supernatural organism which transcends human cultures and transforms them to her own ends.

  Christopher Dawson

  Church, Culture, Literature

  Christopher Dawson, Gerald J. Russello (1998). “Christianity and European Culture (Selections from the Work of Christopher Dawson)”, p.101, CUA Press

  14 Copy quote

• You can give men food and leisure and amusements and good conditions of work, and still they will remain unsatisfied. You can deny them all these things, and they will not complain so long as they feel that they have something to die for

  Christopher Dawson

  Men, Long, Giving

  Christopher Dawson, Gerald J. Russello (1998). “Christianity and European Culture (Selections from the Work of Christopher Dawson)”, p.122, CUA Press

  15 Copy quote

• Moreover, behind this vague tendency to treat religion as a side issue in modern life, there exists a strong body of opinion that is actively hostile to Christianity and that regards the destruction of positive religion as absolutely necessary to the advance of modern culture

  Christopher Dawson

  Strong, Issues, Culture

  Christopher Dawson, Gerald J. Russello (1998). “Christianity and European Culture (Selections from the Work of Christopher Dawson)”, p.119, CUA Press

  18 Copy quote

• No civilisation, not even that of ancient Greece, has ever undergone such a continuous and profound process of change as Western Europe has done during the last 900 years. It is impossible to explain this fact in purely economic terms by a materialistic interpretation of history. The principle of change has been a spiritual one and the progress of Western civilisation is intimately related to the dynamic ethos of Western Christianity, which has gradually made Western man conscious of his moral responsibility and his duty to change the world.

  Christopher Dawson

  Spiritual, Responsibility, Men

  11 Copy quote

• We must recognize that we are living in an imperfect world in which human and superhuman forces of evil are at work and so long as those forces affect the political behaviour of mankind there can be no hope of abiding peace.

  Christopher Dawson

  Imperfect World, Long, Evil

  12 Copy quote

• The man who is fond of books is usually a man of lofty thought, and of elevated opinions.

  Christopher Dawson

  Book, Reading, Men

  11 Copy quote

• We have entered a new phase of culture - we may call it the Age of the Cinema - in which the most amazing perfection of scientific technique is being devoted to purely ephemeral objects, without any consideration of their ultimate justification. It seems as though a new society was arising which will acknowledge no hierarchy of values, no intellectual authority, and no social or religious tradition, but which will live for the moment in a chaos of pure sensation.

  Christopher Dawson

  Religious, Perfection, Live In The Moment

  Christopher Dawson (2001). “Progress and Religion: An Historical Inquiry (The Works of Christopher Dawson)”, p.176, CUA Press

  13 Copy quote

• And so, today, if the state can no longer appeal to the old moral principles that belong to the Christian tradition, it will be forced to create a new official faith and new moral principles which will be binding on its citizens.

  Christopher Dawson

  Christian, Sea, Literature

  Christopher Dawson, Gerald J. Russello (1998). “Christianity and European Culture (Selections from the Work of Christopher Dawson)”, p.120, CUA Press

  10 Copy quote

• It is Christian culture that has created Western man and the Western way of life.

  Christopher Dawson

  Christian, Religious, Men

  Christopher Dawson, Gerald J. Russello (1998). “Christianity and European Culture (Selections from the Work of Christopher Dawson)”, p.6, CUA Press

  6 Copy quote

• Every great movement in the history of Western civilization from the Carolingian age to the nineteenth century has been an international movement which owed its existence and its development to the cooperation of many different peoples.

  Christopher Dawson

  Civilization, Age, Movement

  Christopher Dawson (1961). “The Crisis of Western Education”, New York : Sheed and Ward

  13 Copy quote

• The moment that the state came into conflict with the higher power, the moment that it set itself up as an end in itself, it became identified with Augustine's earthly city and lost all claims to a higher sanction than the law of force and self-interest. Without justice, what is a great kingdom but a great robbery, magnum latrocinium?

  Christopher Dawson

  Self, Law, Cities

  Christopher Dawson (1932). “The Making of Europe: An Introduction to the History of European Unity”, p.174, CUA Press

  5 Copy quote

• Reason lives on the systematization of the past, but Faith is the promise of the future.

  Christopher Dawson

  Faith, Past, Promise

  "Progress and Religion". Book by Christopher Dawson, Ch. X, 1929.

  4 Copy quote

• For humanism also appeals to man as man. It seeks to liberate the universal qualities of human nature from the narrow limitations of blood and soil and class and to create a common language and a common culture in which men can realize their common humanity.

  Christopher Dawson

  Men, Blood, Common Humanity

  18 Copy quote

• Law describes the way things would work if men were angels.

  Christopher Dawson

  Angel, Men, Law

  7 Copy quote

• No society lies nearer to the cyclonic path of the forces of world change than the United States, and few societies are more intellectually aware of the nature of the issues that have to be faced

  Christopher Dawson

  Lying, Issues, United States

  6 Copy quote

• Every society rests in the last resort on the recognition of common principles and common ideals, and if it makes no moral or spiritual appeal to the loyalty of its members, it must inevitably fall to pieces.

  Christopher Dawson

  Loyalty, Spiritual, Fall

  Christopher Dawson, Gerald J. Russello (1998). “Christianity and European Culture (Selections from the Work of Christopher Dawson)”, p.120, CUA Press

  8 Copy quote

• It is clear that this essential Christian doctrine gives a new value to human nature, to human history and to human life which is not to be found in the other great oriental religions.

  Christopher Dawson

  Christian, Giving, Essentials

  Christopher Dawson (2008). “The Formation of Christendom”, p.159, Ignatius Press

  8 Copy quote

• The chief safeguard of personal freedom in a democratic society is the anarchy and disorder of capitalist individualism.

  Christopher Dawson

  Anarchy, Individualism, Disorder

  11 Copy quote

• The modern dilemma is essentially a spiritual one, and every one of its main aspects, moral, political and scientific, brings us back to the need of a religious solution.

  Christopher Dawson

  Spiritual, Religious, Political

  Christopher Dawson, Gerald J. Russello (1998). “Christianity and European Culture (Selections from the Work of Christopher Dawson)”, p.118, CUA Press

  17 Copy quote

• American literature has never been content to be just one among the many literatures of the Western World. It has always aspired to be the literature not only of a new continent but of a New World.

  Christopher Dawson

  Literature, World, Continents

  8 Copy quote

• The true makes of history are the spiritual men whom the world knew not, the unregarded agents of the creative action of the Spirit. The supreme instance of this-the key to the Christian understanding of history-is to be found in the Incarnation- the presence of the maker of the world in the world unknown to the world. ... The Incarnation is itself in a sense the divine fruit of history-of the fullness of time-and it finds its extension and completion in the historic life of the Church.

  Christopher Dawson

  Christian, Spiritual, Men

  8 Copy quote

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