“Dwellers by the sea cannot fail to be impressed by the sight of its ceaseless ebb and flow, and are apt, on the principles of that rude philosophy of sympathy and resemblance... to trace a subtle relation, a secret harmony, between its tides and the life of man... The belief that most deaths happen at ebb tide is said to be held along the east coast of England from Northumberland to Kent.” MenSaidPhilosophyHappensBeliefSecretPrinciplesFailingSeaFlowSightEnglandRelationHarmonyEastSubtleTidesImpressedRudeCoastResemblanceEast CoastEbb And FlowDwellersKent Author:James G. Frazer
“From the earliest times man has been engaged in a search for general rules whereby to turn the order of natural phenomena to his own advantage, and in the long search he has scraped together a great hoard of such maxims, some of them golden and some of them mere dross. The true or golden rules constitute the body of applied science which we call the arts; the false are magic.” MenLongHas BeensArtBodyTogetherOrderTurnsNaturalMagicAdvantageMereGoldenEngagedMaximsGolden RuleNatural PhenomenaDrossApplied Science Author:James G. Frazer
“I am a plain practical man, not one of your theorists and splitters of hairs and choppers of logic.” MenHairLogicPracticalsTheoristsChoppers Author:James G. Frazer
“In primitive society, where uniformity of occupation is the rule, and the distribution of the community into various classes of workers has hardly begun, every man is more or less his own magician; he practices charms and incantations for his own good and the injury of his enemies.” MenCommunityEnemyClassPracticeWorkersVariousEvery ManCharmInjuryOccupationPrimitiveDistributionMagicianUniformity Author:James G. Frazer
“Man has created gods in his own likeness and being himself mortal he has naturally supposed his creatures to be in the same sad predicament.” MenCreaturesMortalsPredicaments Author:James G. Frazer
“Yet perhaps no sacrifice is wholly useless which proves there are men who prefer honour to life.” MenSacrificeProveUselessHonour Author:James G. Frazer
“The consideration of human suffering is not one which enters into the calculations of primitive man.” MenHumansSufferingConsiderationPrimitiveCalculationsHuman SufferingPrimitive Man Author:James G. Frazer
“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.” MenOpportunityForceCommunityWealthPowerfulClassStruggleArmsInstrumentsSlavePursuitAcquireMost PowerfulPerpetualTribesSubmissionExtendingPursuit Of KnowledgeDisinterestedSubsistence Author:James G. Frazer
“By religion, then, I understand a propitiation or conciliation of powers superior to man which are believed to direct and control the course of nature and of human life.” MenHumansReligionCoursesDirectSuperiorsHuman LifePropitiation Author:James G. Frazer
“The world cannot live at the level of its great men.” MenWorldLevelsGreat Men Author:James G. Frazer
“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.” MenSidesViewsMankindHe ManLettersComplexesAbstractConsiderationTwo Sides Author:James G. Frazer
“The question whether our conscious personality survives after death has been answered by almost all races of men in the affirmative.” MenHas BeensRacePersonalityConsciousAfterlifeAfter DeathAffirmative Author:James G. Frazer
“The awe and dread with which the untutored savage contemplates his mother-in-law are amongst the most familiar facts of anthropology.” MenFactsLawMotherFamilyAtheismMen And WomenPositive AtheismFamiliarAweDreadContemplatingSavagesIn-lawsAnthropologyMother In LawFamily Man Author:James G. Frazer
