Quotessence
Home / Books / The Crisis of the Modern World

The Crisis of the Modern World

Book by René Guénon · 5 quotes · Modernity, Truth, Spirituality

Filter quotes by topic

AllModernityTruthSpiritualityTraditionAuthorityBalanceDespairDivisionGoalHopeInspirationLogicMankindMatterOrderPhilosophyPurposeReligionSacredSpiritual

The Crisis of the Modern World Quotes

“In a traditional civilization it is almost inconceivable that a man should claim an idea as his own; [...] If an idea is true, it belongs equally to all who are capable of understanding it; if it is false, there is no credit in having invented it. A true idea cannot be 'new', for truth is not a product of the human mind; it exists independently of us, and all we have to do is to take cognizance of it; outside this knowledge there can be nothing but error: but do the moderns on the whole care much about truth, or do they even know what it is? Here again words have lost their real meaning, inasmuch as some people-for instance contemporary pragmatists-go so far as to misappropriate the word 'truth' for what is simply practical utility, that is to say for something that is quite foreign to the intellectual order. The logical outcome of the modern deviation is precisely the negation of truth, as well as of the intelligence of which truth is the object.”

PhilosophyTruthTraditionLogic
Book:The Crisis of the Modern World
Create image

“Where is the notion of a real hierarchy still to be found in the modern world? Nothing and nobody is any longer in the right place; men no longer recognize any effective authority in the spiritual order or any legitimate power in the temporal; the 'profane' presume to discuss what is sacred, and to contest its character and even its existence; the inferior judges the superior, ignorance sets bounds to wisdom, error prevails over truth, the human is substituted for the Divine, earth has priority over Heaven, the individual sets the measure for all things and claims to dictate to the universe laws drawn entirely from his own relative and fallible reason. 'Woe unto you, ye blind guides,' the Gospel says; and indeed everywhere today one sees nothing but blind leaders of the blind, who, unless restrained by some timely check, will inevitably lead them into the abyss, there to perish with them.”

WisdomSpiritualAuthoritySacredModernity
Book:The Crisis of the Modern World
Create image

“Those who might be tempted to give way to despair should realize that nothing accomplished in this order can ever be lost, that confusion, error and darkness can win the day only apparently and in a purely ephemeral way, that all partial and transitory disequilibrium must perforce contribute towards the greater equilibrium of the whole, and that nothing can ultimately prevail against the power of truth.”

WorldInspirationTruthPurposeReligionOrderSpiritualityHopeGoalBalanceDespairTraditionModernity
Book:The Crisis of the Modern World
Create image