Ellul Society Quotes & Sayings

Faith lived in the incognito is one which is located outside the criticism coming from society , from politics , from history , for the very reason that it has itself the vocation to be a source of criticism. It is faith (lived in the incognito) which triggers the issues for the others, which causes everything seemingly established to be placed in doubt , which drives a wedge into the world of false assurances. — Jacques Ellul

ReThink culture, because it is the foundation of all strategic success. — Tony Dovale

I've had to learn through experiences not to be afraid to fail. You don't know what the future holds for you. You can hope your dreams come true, but you have to be fearless. I don't want to look back and think, What if? — Nastia Liukin

But the most successful people invest in their friends, peers, and family members to propel themselves forward. — Shawn Achor

You are made of bent coat hangers, honey, gravel, epoxy and handstands. I am made of lying on the floor, the same song on repeat. — Dean Young

Mass media provides the essential link between the individual and the demands of the technological society. — Jacques Ellul

Bend me over, pull my hair, whisper more dirty things that will make me tremble with need, Ryder, and then fuck me like you mean it.Fuck me like I am the air you need to live. I don't want to be your world; I just want to be your favorite part of it — Amelia Hutchins

Children driven good are apt to be driven mad. — Sylvia Townsend Warner

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 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

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

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

You gotta play the hand that's dealt you. There may be pain in that hand, but you play it. And I've played it. — James Brady

For me, liberals are people who seek to use government to promote the general welfare. — Douglas Massey

No society can last in conditions of anarchy. This is self-evident and I am in full agreement. But my aim is not the establishment of an anarchist society or the total destruction of the state. Here I differ from anarchists. I do not believe that it is possible to destroy the modern state. It is pure imagination to think that some day this power will be overthrown. From a pragmatic standpoint there is no chance of success. Furthermore, I do not believe that anarchist doctrine is the solution to the problem of organization in society and government. I do not think that if anarchism were to succeed we should have a better or more livable society. Hence I am not fighting for the triumph of this doctrine.
On the other hand, it seems to me that an anarchist attitude is the only one that is sufficiently radical in the face of a general statist system. — Jacques Ellul

Technological society leads to increasing numbers of people who cannot adapt to the inhuman rhythm of modern life with its emphasis on specialization. A class of people is growing up who are unexploitable because they are not worth employing even for the minimum wage. Technological progress makes whole categories of people useless without making it possible to support them with the wealth produced by the progress. — Jacques Ellul

He was an enigma, John Pritkin: a mad scientist with gun calluses and old scars and even more secrets than me. — Karen Chance

Sport carries on without deviation the mechanical tradition of furnishing relief and distraction to the worker after he has finished his work proper so that he is at no time independent of one technique or another. In sport the citizen of the technical society finds the same spirit, criteria, morality, actions and objectives in short, all the technical laws and customs which he encounters in office or factory. — Jacques Ellul

Cutcutcutcutcutcut . . . At 4:10, the machine lifted off the roof of Mitford Hospital and, in the starless night, burned itself away. — Jan Karon

You know, looking at it objectively, I've written one or two good books. — Doris Lessing

Christians should be troublemakers, creators of uncertainty, agents of a dimension incompatible with society. — Jacques Ellul

I wanted to be a star, not a gallery mascot. — Jean-Michel Basquiat

The eighteenth and nineteenth centuries abandoned the idea of spiritual or intellectual happiness in order to have this material happiness, consisting of a certain number of essential consumer goods. And hence, in the nineteenth century, happiness was linked to a well-being obtained by mechanical means, industrial means, production. The new thing that Saint-Just spoke about was that, in the past, happiness could appear as a very vague, very distant prospect for humanity, whereas now, people seemed to be within reach of the concrete, material possibility of attaining it. That was why happiness was to become an absolutely essential image for the nineteenth-century bourgeoisie, and for modern society. Happiness was attainable thanks to industrial development, and this image of happiness brought us fully into the consumer society. — Jacques Ellul