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Quote by James G. Frazer

“The old notion that the savage is the freest of mankind is the reverse of the truth. He is a slave, not indeed to a visible master, but to the past, to the spirits of his dead forefathers, who haunt his steps from birth to death, and rule him with a rod of iron.”

Quote by James G. Frazer

Author

James G. Frazer

James G. Frazer was a prominent mythologist, born on January 1, 1854, and died on May 7, 1941. His work, 'The Golden Bough', had a profound impact on the study of Western mythology. more

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“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.”

Men Long Has Beens Art Body Together Order Turns Natural Magic Advantage Mere Golden Engaged Maxims Golden Rule Natural Phenomena Dross Applied Science

Author:James G. Frazer

“If the test of truth lay in a show of hands or a counting of heads, the system of magic might appeal, with far more reason than the Catholic Church, to the proud motto, 'Quod semper, quod ubique, quod ab omnibus' [always, everywhere, and by all], as the sure and certain credential of its own infallibility.”

Ifs Reason Shows Hands Might Certain Church Magic Proud Tests Catholic Lays Appeals Motto Counting Catholic Church Infallibility

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“To understand the heart and mind of a person, look not at what he has already achieved, but at what he aspires to.”

“I am a plain practical man, not one of your theorists and splitters of hairs and choppers of logic.”

Men Hair Logic Practicals Theorists Choppers

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.”

Men Community Enemy Class Practice Workers Various Every Man Charm Injury Occupation Primitive Distribution Magician Uniformity

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“The slow, the never ending approach to truth consists in perpetually forming and testing hypotheses, accepting those at which at the time seem to fit the facts and rejecting the others.”

Facts Seems Accepting Fit Approach Hypothesis Testing Never Ending Rejecting

Author:James G. Frazer

“In point of fact magicians appear to have often developed into chiefs and kings.”

Facts Kings Chiefs Magician

Author:James G. Frazer

“With the advance of knowledge, therefore, prayer and sacrifice assume the leading place in religious ritual; and magic; which once ranked with them as a legitimate equal, is gradually relegated to the background and sinks to the level of a black art.”

Art Black Religious Prayer Levels Magic Sacrifice Equal Assuming Backgrounds Ritual Religious Rituals Black Art

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“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.”

Men Creatures Mortals Predicaments

Author:James G. Frazer

“Yet perhaps no sacrifice is wholly useless which proves there are men who prefer honour to life.”

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Author:James G. Frazer