Quotessence
Home / Books / Eugenics and Other Evils : An Argument Against the Scientifically Organized State

Eugenics and Other Evils : An Argument Against the Scientifically Organized State

Book by G.K. Chesterton · 2 quotes · Eugenics, Diction, Established Religion

Filter quotes by topic

AllEugenicsDictionEstablished ReligionMaterialismPoliticsReformRepealScience

Eugenics and Other Evils : An Argument Against the Scientifically Organized State Quotes

“Most Eugenists are Euphemists. I mean merely that short words startle them, while long words soothe them. And they are utterly incapable of translating the one into the other, however obviously they mean the same thing. Say to them "The persuasive and even coercive powers of the citizen should enable him to make sure that the burden of longevity in the previous generation does not become disproportionate and intolerable, especially to the females"; say this to them and they will sway slightly to and fro like babies sent to sleep in cradles. Say to them "Murder your mother," and they sit up quite suddenly. Yet the two sentences, in cold logic, are exactly the same. Say to them "It is not improbable that a period may arrive when the narrow if once useful distinction between the anthropoid homo and the other animals, which has been modified on so many moral points, may be modified also even in regard to the important question of the extension of human diet"; say this to them, and beauty born of murmuring sound will pass into their face. But say to them, in a simple, manly, hearty way "Let's eat a man!" and their surprise is quite surprising. Yet the sentences say just the same thing.”

EugenicsDiction
Book:Eugenics and Other Evils : An Argument Against the Scientifically Organized State
Create image

“The thing that really is trying to tyrannize through government is Science. The thing that really does use the secular arm is Science. And the creed that really is levying tithes and capturing schools, the creed that really is enforced by fine and imprisonment, the creed that really is proclaimed not in sermons but in statues, and spread not by pilgrims but by policemen—that creed is the great but disputed system of thought which began with Evolution and has ended in Eugenics. Materialism is really our established Church; for the government will really help it to persecute its heretics…I am not frightened of the word ‘persecution’…It is a term of legal fact. If it means the imposition by the police of a widely disputed theory, incapable of final proof—then our priests are not now persecuting, but our doctors are.”

ScienceMaterialismEugenicsEstablished Religion
Book:Eugenics and Other Evils : An Argument Against the Scientifically Organized State
Create image