Jacques Ellul Quotes - Page 2

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• 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

  Justice, Doe, Violence

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• I believe that the biblical teaching is clear. It always contests political power. It incites to "counterpower," to "positive" criticism, to an irreducible dialogue (like that between king and prophet in Israel), to antistatism, to a decentralizing of the relation, to an extreme relativizing of everything political, to an anti-ideology, to a questioning of all that claims either power or dominion (in other words, of all things political), and finally, if we may use a modern term, to a kind of "anarchism" (so long as we do not relate the term to the anarchist teaching of the nineteenth century).

  Jacques Ellul

  Kings, Teaching, Biblical

  "The Subversion of Christianity" by Jacques Ellul, translated by G. Bromiley, (p. 116), 1986.

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• God is always present, always available. At whatever moment in which one turns to him the prayer is received, is heard, is authenticated, for it is God who gives our prayer its value and its character, not our interior dispositions, not our fervor, not our lucidity. The prayer which is pronounced for God and accepted by him becomes, by that very fact, a true prayer.

  Jacques Ellul

  Prayer, Character, Giving

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• 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

  Christian, Distance, Practice

  Jacques Ellul (2011). “The Subversion of Christianity”, p.7, Wipf and Stock Publishers

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• True technique will know how to maintain the illusion of liberty, choice, and individuality; but these will have been carefully calculated so that they will be integrated into the mathematical reality merely as appearances!

  Jacques Ellul

  Reality, Choices, Individuality

  "The Technological Society". Book by Jacques Ellul, translated by John Wilkinson, p. 139, 1964.

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• There is one act par excellence which profanes money by going directly against the law of money, an act for which money is not made. That act is giving.

  Jacques Ellul

  Law, Giving, Excellence

  Jacques Ellul (2009). “Money and Power”, p.110, Wipf and Stock Publishers

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• It was with the Industrial Revolution, as society plunged ever more eagerly into the conquest of material riches and bent all its energies to the accumulation of goods, that material poverty became a major problem. Obviously, this meant abandonment or downgrading of spiritual values, virtue, etc. To share or not to share in the increase of the collective wealth-this was the Number One question. It was the desire to acquire wealth that prompted the poor to start fighting.

  Jacques Ellul

  Spiritual, Fighting, Numbers

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• When God picks out a man and speaks to him, it is to engage him in a work, an action. Nowhere in Scripture do we find indeterminate or purely mystical vocation.

  Jacques Ellul

  Christian, Prayer, Men

  Jacques Ellul, Geoffrey W. Bromiley (2011). “The Judgment of Jonah”, p.23, Wipf and Stock Publishers

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• Hate, hunger, and pride make better levers of propaganda than do love or impartiality.

  Jacques Ellul

  Hate, Pride, Levers

  "Propaganda: The Formation of Men's Attitudes". Book by Jacques Ellul, translated by Konrad Kellen and Jean Lerner,, 1965.

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• Christians have always tended to transform the Christian Revelation into a Christian religion. Christianity is said to be a religion like any other or, conversely, some Christians try to show that it is a better religion than the others. People attempt to take possession of God. Theology claims to explain everything, including the being of God. People tend to transform Christianity into a religion because the Christian faith obviously places people in an extremely uncomfortable position ­ that of freedom guided only by love and all in the context of God's radical demand that we be holy.

  Jacques Ellul

  Christian, People, Religion

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• The aim of modern propaganda is no longer to modify ideas, but to provoke action.

  Jacques Ellul

  Ideas, Action, Propaganda

  "Propaganda: The Formation of Men's Attitudes". Book by Jacques Ellul, translated by Konrad Kellen and Jean Lerner, 1965.

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• Because of the myth of progress, it is much easier to sell a man an electric razor than a straight-edged one.

  Jacques Ellul

  Men, Progress, Razors

  "Propaganda: The Formation of Men's Attitudes". Book by Jacques Ellul, translated by Konrad Kellen and Jean Lerner,, 1965.

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• Science brings to the light of day everything man had believed sacred. Technique takes possession of it and enslaves it.

  Jacques Ellul

  Men, Light, Technique

  "The Technological Society" by Jacques Ellul, translated by John Wilkinson, (p. 142), 1964.

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• (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

  Character, Two, Manipulation

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• Technique has taken over the whole of civilization. Death, procreation, birth all submit to technical efficiency and systemization.

  Jacques Ellul

  Taken, Civilization, Technique

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• Propaganda must not concern itself with what is best in man - the highest goals humanity sets for itself, its noblest and most precious feelings. Propaganda does not aim to elevate man, but to make him serve. It must therefore utilize the most common feelings, the most widespread ideas, the crudest patterns, and in so doing place itself on a very low level with regard to what it wants man to do and to what end. Hate, hunger, and pride make better levers of propaganda than do love or impartiality.

  Jacques Ellul

  Hate, Pride, Men

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• It is the emergence of mass media which makes possible the use of propaganda techniques on a societal scale.

  Jacques Ellul

  Media, Technique, Use

  "Jan. 6, 1912: Birth of the Supreme Tech Skeptic", www.wired.com. January 5, 2009.

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• I can very well say without hesitation that all those who have political power, even if they use it well have acquired it by demonic mediation and even if they are not conscious of it, they are worshippers of diabolos.

  Jacques Ellul

  Political, Use, Politics

  "Si tu es le Fils de Dieu" by Jacques Ellul, (p. 76), 1991.

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• To the ideal of high consumption and the downgrading of spiritual values corresponds a conception of injustice that centers exclusively on the problem of consumption; and equality in consumption cannot be achieved except by violence.

  Jacques Ellul

  Spiritual, Downgrading, Violence

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• Again I want to emphasize that the study of propaganda must be conducted within the context of a technological society. Propaganda is called upon to solve problems created by technology, to play on maladjustments, and to integrate the individual into a technological world.

  Jacques Ellul

  Technology, Play, World

  "Propaganda: The Formation of Men's Attitudes" by Jacques Ellul, translated by Konrad Kellen & Jean Lerner, Vintage Books, New York, (p. xvii), 1973.

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• No matter what God's power may be, the first aspect of God is never that of the absolute Master, the Almighty. It is that of the God who puts himself on our human level and limits himself.

  Jacques Ellul

  Levels, May, Matter

  Jacques Ellul (2011). “Anarchy and Christianity”, p.34, Wipf and Stock Publishers

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• Fate operates when people give up

  Jacques Ellul

  Giving Up, Fate, People

  Jacques Ellul, Madeleine Garrigou-Lagrange (1982). “In season, out of season: an introduction to the thought of Jacques Ellul”, Harper San Francisco

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• Salvation is universal because the love of God encompasses all. If God is God and if God is love, nothing is outside the love of God. A place like hell is thus inconceivable.

  Jacques Ellul

  God Love, Hell, God Is Love

  Jacques Ellul, Madeleine Garrigou-Lagrange (1982). “In season, out of season: an introduction to the thought of Jacques Ellul”, Harper San Francisco

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• Mass media provides the essential link between the individual and the demands of the technological society.

  Jacques Ellul

  Media, Links, Demand

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• In reality this is the very reverse of what we are told about the biblical God, who opens up freedom for us, who lets us make our own history, who goes with us on the more or less unheard-of adventures that we concoct.

  Jacques Ellul

  Adventure, Biblical, Unheard

  "The Subversion of Christianity".

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