African Spir Quotes (98 quotes) | Quotes of famous people

"Qu'on songe au sort qui, dans ces conditions, serait réservé à des vérités nouvelles", Fr.
Source: Words of a Sage : Selected thoughts of African Spir (1937), p. 47.

“As the antagonism between those who possess, and those who do not, is becoming more acute day after day, we can already foresee a moment when it will bring about ("entraînera", Fr.) severe (big, high, intense, - "grands", Fr.) disasters, if we do turn (direct, aim, - "dirige", Fr.) life in time the social life in new directions”

African Spir

or ways, - "dans des voies nouvelles", Fr.
Source: Words of a Sage : Selected thoughts of African Spir (1937), p. 46.

“In ancient times, any man rising up above the common people tried to shape his life according to his principles; it is no longer like than now; it is (because) for the ancients, moral was a principle of inner life, whereas in our days, most of the time one is content to adhere to an official moral, that we recognize in theory, but that one does not care to put into practice.”

African Spir

Source: Words of a Sage : Selected thoughts of African Spir (1937), p. 39.

“When a man make of his personnal interests the mainspring of his life and he is greedy to make use of everything that can benefit him, he naturally enters into conflict with other persons, acting also in their interests, hence the disagreements that can become a hundred years old, and drive whole generations to a mutual hate.”

African Spir

Source: Words of a Sage : Selected thoughts of African Spir (1937), p. 42.

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“For those who do not need to work to provide for their maintenance, it is a question of conferring to their lives a content worthy of themselves. Now, this purpose can be attained only if we do not act solely with a view to our own benefits, but with a view to the benefit of all. Christ said: 'Where is your treasure, there also will be your heart.”

African Spir

Source: Words of a Sage : Selected thoughts of African Spir (1937), p. 56.

“If we accomplish a good deed, a charity in the hope of (getting…) future rewards, or with a more or less confessed (or admitted) ulterior motive to profit from personal advantages ("d'en retirer quelque avantage personnel", Fr.), we are probably doing a useful thing, but which is devoided of any ("tout", Fr.) truly moral character (or disposition)"”

African Spir

p .39.
Words of a Sage : Selected thoughts of African Spir (1937)

“It is not on the ruin of liberty that we may (in the future… - "pourra", Fr.) build justice.”

African Spir

Source: Words of a Sage : Selected thoughts of African Spir (1937), p. 46.

African Spir Quotes

“So many really divine individuals humanity has not already produced! Heros in the moral sense, who never got tired to practice renouncement and charity; bright intelligences who opened to the mind new ways and horizons; poets and wonderful artists, who created for him the image of an ideal world, the reflect of perfection. These are as many proofs of the presence of the absolu in the midst of humanity, for him that does not discover the immediate proof of that in himself.”

African Spir

Source: Words of a Sage : Selected thoughts of African Spir (1937), p. 44.

“There is only one thing in the world that is really valuable, it is to do good.”

African Spir

Source: Words of a Sage : Selected thoughts of African Spir (1937), p. 56.

“Arbitrariness and true liberty are as distinct from each other that the empirical nature is distinct from the higher nature of man.”

African Spir

Source: Words of a Sage : Selected thoughts of African Spir (1937), p. 50.

“In this world everything that is won to the ideal, is an eternal (or imperishable, - "impérissable", Fr.) good.”

African Spir

Source: Words of a Sage : Selected thoughts of African Spir (1937), p. 53.

“The social organization of work is the most complicated and difficult problem that humanity has ever had to solve. It being possible to realize that organization (a difficult translation or me: "Cette organisation ne pouvant être réalisée par", Fr.) neither by violence, nor by merely external (or outward) or legal measures, it require the free participation of all (or everybody) to the joint (or common, or in commun) work, and, consequently, to a regeneration (or reconditioning) of men that bring them to overcome their selfishness et understand their duty towards themselves et towards the community.”

African Spir

Source: Words of a Sage : Selected thoughts of African Spir (1937), p. 47.

“There are (or is) indeed no contradiction between science and religion, the fields of which are different, and which, far from mutually fighting and persecute, must, on the contrary, complete each other.”

African Spir

Source: Words of a Sage : Selected thoughts of African Spir (1937), p. 39.

“As long as men, in their aberration ("aberration", Fr.), will go out of their way ("s'ingénieront", Fr.) in every manners ("de toutes manières", Fr.) to harm and torment each others, it is an urgent duty, for those who are conscious of the absurdity of such a state of affairs, to strive to put them in the picture about (or throw light on) their wildness”

African Spir

"égarements", Fr.
Source: Words of a Sage : Selected thoughts of African Spir (1937), p. 38.

“If man do not find in himself the required (or wished, or wanted, - "voulue", Fr.) force to accomplish his moral aspirations, he can try to purt himself in the conditions suitable to assist (or promote, or further, -"favoriser", Fr.) his self-control.”

African Spir

Source: Words of a Sage : Selected thoughts of African Spir (1937), p. 50 [Spir rejected ascetism: for it is "opposed to sound reason to unnaturally impose onself extreme hardships"- Esquisse biographique, p. 32.

“The doctrine expounded by me is the true one, but I am not its author. I have only been, so to speak, the soil in which it has germinated and has developed itself with an extreme slowness in the course of long years. Also there has never been such a disproportion between the man and his work than in my case, and what is the saddest (or the saddest in this, - "et ce qui est le plus triste", Fr.), is that one has to suffer because of ("pâtir de", Fr.) the incapacity and the weakness of the other. A man more capable than me, possessing this doctrine, would already have stirred (or moved, - remuer", Fr.) the world.”

African Spir

Esquisse biographique, p. 18.
Words of a Sage : Selected thoughts of African Spir (1937)

“It is from the education of the new generations that we will especially be able to expect a real moral progress. It is important first of all to develop in it (or 'him', the next generations…) self-control, love of truth and solidarity spirit.”

African Spir

Source: Words of a Sage : Selected thoughts of African Spir (1937), p. 58.

“The peculiar (or own) value that such and such activity can have for a man rather really depends ("dépend bien plutôt", Fr.) on the spirit in which it was deployed (or displayed, - "déployée", Fr.) than its importance or its scope. Thus the most humble work (or task, - "besogne", Fr.) can be accomplished by a great genius, whereas the highest functions (or offices), such as to rule over a whole people, can be practised in a petty”

African Spir

or mean or stingy) spirit of personal glorification, as it is frequently seen.", Fr.
Source: Words of a Sage : Selected thoughts of African Spir (1937), p. 49.

“On the account (or for the reason that, or… from the fact that… "Du fait que", Fr.) that one person advocate and want something, it does not follow that others have to want it too; only the postulates of reason and certitude are identicals, invariables, and can always be of use to everyone as a fulcrum ("point d'appui", Fr.) with a view to a free agreement”

African Spir

"entente libre", Fr
Source: Words of a Sage : Selected thoughts of African Spir (1937), p. 42.

“Place (or put) a spider on top of a mountain, it will only try to catch flies; alas, they are many those who, in the figurative meaning, have spider's eyes.”

African Spir

Source: Words of a Sage : Selected thoughts of African Spir (1937), p. 52.

“The basic notion of justice, is that the rights of everybody are equals, in principle. In the rights of others, we have to respect our own rights. It is only in that condition that we can reasonnably require that it be respected by others.”

African Spir

Source: Words of a Sage : Selected thoughts of African Spir (1937), p. 44 - (Gandhi said the same thing in All men are brothers; Simone Weil too, at the beginning of L'enracinement (the translator).

“Experience shows that what great role pratice and experience play in education; pratice, the prolonged exercice lead to habit: exemple suggests imitation. Habit can become a second nature, but, wrongly directed (or guided), it may also heighten (or intensify) unfortunate tendencies and be an obstacle to progress.”

African Spir

Source: Words of a Sage : Selected thoughts of African Spir (1937), p. 57.

“To reform society, and with it humanity, there is only one mean; to transform the mentality of men, to direct them ("les orienter", Fr.) in a new spirit.”

African Spir

Source: Words of a Sage : Selected thoughts of African Spir (1937), p. 60.

“The intellectual development of man, far from having get men away from war, has, rather, on the contrary, bring them to a refinment always more perfected in the art of killing. They even came to raise the methods of slaughter to the rank of "science"… We would not (On ne saurait", Fr.) imagine a more extraordinary moral blindness!”

African Spir

Source: Words of a Sage : Selected thoughts of African Spir (1937), p. 55.

“Nothing that rest on some contradictory basis shall succeed or last in the long run ("ne saurait réussir ou durer, à la longue", Fr.); all that involve (or imply…) a contradiction is fatally destined, early or late, to disintegrate and disappear.”

African Spir

Source: Words of a Sage : Selected thoughts of African Spir (1937), p. 37.

“Whether (If) in a banquet somebody was to take it upon himself to snatch pieces from the mouth of the guests, we would be unanimous to find the method iniquitous and brutal (or violent), but if from another source ("par ailleurs", Fr.) the same is practised in a less apparent (or visible) way (or guise), we hardly show ourselves offended (or shocked) by it ("quand par ailleurs la chose se pratique sous une forme moins apparente, on ne s'en montre guère offusqué." Fr.)”

African Spir

Source: Words of a Sage : Selected thoughts of African Spir (1937), p. 46.

“Education has a tremendous power on man. Can't we see to which astonishing disciple the people of Sparte have submitted ("s'est plié", Fr.) for centuries, and this with a view to very petty purposes: purely outer greatness, the military predominace of Sparte. This example proves that man can everything on themselves when they want it ("peuvent tout sur eux-mêmes quand ils le veulent", Fr.); therefore it would only be a question of making them will the good.”

African Spir

Source: Words of a Sage : Selected thoughts of African Spir (1937), p. 58.

“So many forces and resources would become available if States, aware (or conscious) of their true (or real) mission, would want to get on (or agree) to abolish every politics aiming at ("visant à", Fr.) expansion or hegemony; system that maintain among nations a a perpetual distrust and tension, impose on them (or force or compel, "leur impose", Fr.) formidable armies and crushing war budgets.”

African Spir

Source: Words of a Sage : Selected thoughts of African Spir (1937), p. 54.

“See that unfortunate soldier who is falling hurt to death ("tombe blessé à…", Fr.) on the battlefield; he learns that his folks have vanquished and dies happy. He detached himself from himself (s'est détacher de lui-même", Fr.), has identified himself with something greater and more lasting than himself; his homeland ("patrie", Fr.); thus, while dying as an individual, he has the certainty to survive in a larger existence.”

African Spir

Source: Words of a Sage : Selected thoughts of African Spir (1937), p. 53.

“What is missing to our civilisation, is the soul, the spiritual unity, the basis. That is why everything in it is pretence and contrivance ("façade et artifice", Fr.); why also, in spite of the progress and marvellous improvement they have accomplished in the external realm ("domaine extérieur", Fr.) men have, in general, become themselves neither better, nor happier. They have neglected too much the essential; their own perfecting”

African Spir

or improvement - "perfectionnement", Fr.
Source: Words of a Sage : Selected thoughts of African Spir (1937), p. 36 -First thought of the book, - the translator.

“A good man ("un homme de bien", Fr.) never wholly perishes, the best part of his being outlives (or survives) in eternity.”

African Spir

Source: Words of a Sage : Selected thoughts of African Spir (1937), p. 44.

“The divine element manifests itself (or show up) in man as well by his aptitude for science, than by his aptitude for virtue. True morality, true philosophy and true art are in their essence ("dans leur essence", Fr.) religious."”

African Spir

Source: Words of a Sage : Selected thoughts of African Spir (1937), p. 40.

“Only a moral education based on free inner discipline can bring to bear a salutary action and lead to a true morality.”

African Spir

Source: Words of a Sage : Selected thoughts of African Spir (1937), p. 59.

“The supreme blossoming of character lies (or reside) in renounciation (or renuncement) and abnegation of self ("abnégation de soi", Fr.)”

African Spir

Source: Words of a Sage : Selected thoughts of African Spir (1937), p. 38.

“There is a radical dualism between the empirical nature of man and its moral nature.”

African Spir

Source: Words of a Sage : Selected thoughts of African Spir (1937), p. 59.

“The physical (or material, "matériel" Fr.) man, who does not imagine that everyhting is relative, yield (or bow down before, "s'incline", Fr.) to outer force, that impress him (or command him respect) from outside, and whose effects are tangible to him, whether they manifest themselves by force, wealth or by domination.”

African Spir

Source: Words of a Sage : Selected thoughts of African Spir (1937), p. 50.

“In the actual state of social relationships, the forms ("formes", Fr.) of politeness are necessary as a subsitute to benevolence.”

African Spir

Source: Words of a Sage : Selected thoughts of African Spir (1937), p. 50.

“To be effective, morality has to be reasoned (or worked out). To want ("vouloir", Fr.) to repress evil only by coercion, and to obtain morality by a sort of training with the help of constraint, without motivating it from within, is to make it an unnatural result, devoided of lastind value.”

African Spir

Source: Words of a Sage : Selected thoughts of African Spir (1937), p. 59.

“There are some who esteem that it is a naivety to believe that a moral regeneration may be possible ("soit possible", Fr.); now, if this was not the case, it would not be worth the trouble that humanity continue to vegetate without aim.”

African Spir

Source: Words of a Sage : Selected thoughts of African Spir (1937), p. 61.

“If pity was always equally alive and acting in all individuals and in all circumstances, we could do away with moral. Unfortunately, it is not compassion, but rather it's contrary, selfishness, that act most strongly in us.”

African Spir

Source: Words of a Sage : Selected thoughts of African Spir (1937), p. 57.

“Men spend their life down here in the worship of petty (or mean) interests and the search of perishable things, and with that ("et avec cela", Fr.) they pretend to perpetuate for all eternity their self ("moi", Fr.) so hardly worthy ("digne", Fr.) of it.”

African Spir

Source: Words of a Sage : Selected thoughts of African Spir (1937), p. 51.

“A same breath will give life to ("animera", Fr.) men, when they will will have succeeded in overcoming all that divide them et put them in opposition one another; then they will have a feeling of (or be aware, or conscious of) the limits of their individuality wonderfully widen (or broaden) and will (or might) be able to ("pourront", Fr.) unite in a beneficial (or salutary or kindly) atmosphere of harmony and brotherly concord.”

African Spir

Source: Words of a Sage : Selected thoughts of African Spir (1937), p. 62.

“The distinction between right and wrong ("la distinction du bien et du mal", Fr.), is nothing else than their unyielding (or implacable) opposition; thus the moral consciousness is an innate and intimate revelation of the absolute, which goes beyond (or goes pass, or exceed) every empirical data (or given information). It is only on these principles that we will be able to establish ("pourront être édifiées", Fr.) the real basis of morality.”

African Spir

Source: Words of a Sage : Selected thoughts of African Spir (1937), p. 60 - Hélène's Claparède-Spir underlined.

“The duty of the State is double; it must strive to perfect its member, by promoting their intellectual and moral progress, et try to keep the right and the justice in their mutual relationships.”

African Spir

Source: Words of a Sage : Selected thoughts of African Spir (1937), p. 44.

“Up to here, in general, we have mainly stuffed the brain of the young people with a indigestible multitude of varios notions, without thinking about enough of the prime necessity to form their character.”

African Spir

Source: Words of a Sage : Selected thoughts of African Spir (1937), p. 58.

“The need for sociability induce man to be in touch with his fellow men. However, this need might not ("ne saurait", Fr.) find its full (or complete) satisfaction in the conventional (or superficial, - "conventionnel", Fr.) and deceitful world, in which (or where) everyone is mainly (or mostly) trying to assert oneself in front of others ("devant les autres", Fr.), to appear, and hoping to find in society ("mondaine", Fr.) relationships some advantages for his interest and vanity”

African Spir

or vainglory or conceit", Fr
Source: Words of a Sage : Selected thoughts of African Spir (1937), p. 53.

“Moral improvement (or perfecting) require an evolution leading to a higher consciousness, which is the true torch of life; it is what we have failed too much to appreciate, and that which would be fatal to fail to appreciate any longer ("pluslongtemps", Fr.); For if we do not take it upon ourselves to remedy in time to the moral colapse (or bankruptcy) that already threaten, the whole civilisation will risks to disappear.”

African Spir

Source: Words of a Sage : Selected thoughts of African Spir (1937), p. 60.

“A savage (or primitive) man, questioned (or asked) on what is good and what is wrong, answered: 'Right is when I defeat (or beat or hit) and deprive (or strip) others; wrong is when I am beated and deprived by them.' This is ("c'est là," Fr.) the voice of the natural man, who does not understand that good is always good, and wrong is always wrong, whether it happens to ourselves or it happens to others.*”

African Spir

Source: Words of a Sage : Selected thoughts of African Spir (1937), p. 43.

“It depends on ourselves to be to each others, either a blessing or a torment.”

African Spir

Source: Words of a Sage : Selected thoughts of African Spir (1937), p. 37.

“It is erroneous to consider the multiplication (or increase) of needs as a sign of progress, to think that it is necessary to arouse in the people still unpolished (or rough), new needs to bring them to a more civilised life. Similarly ("de même", Fr.) it is erroneous to expect (or want, or wish, - "vouloir," Fr.) to measure (or assess) the degree of culture of a man to the degree of refinement he make (or deploy, or unfold) in his methods ("modes", Fr.) of pleasure”

African Spir

"jouissance", Fr.
Source: Words of a Sage : Selected thoughts of African Spir (1937), p. 48 - Gandhi wrote something that is almost word for word the same, in All men are brothers.

“To spend for destruction ten times more than for instruction, such is the fashion in our time; and men seriously regard themsleves as rational beings!”

African Spir

Source: Words of a Sage : Selected thoughts of African Spir (1937), p. 50.

“If the present civilisation does not acquire some stable moral fondations ("bases morales stables", Fr.), its existence will hardly be more assured than that of the civilisations that have preceeded it, and which have fallen”

African Spir

or collapse, or failed
Source: Words of a Sage : Selected thoughts of African Spir (1937), p. 41.

“The well understood equity as well as interest of society demand that we work on much more to prevent crime and offenses than to punish them.”

African Spir

Source: Words of a Sage : Selected thoughts of African Spir (1937), p. 52.

“Men who have sacrifice their well-being, and even their lives, for the cause of truth or the public good, are, from an empirical point of view - which scorn ("fait fi", Fr.) virtue and altruism - regarded as insane or fools; but, from a moral standpoint, they are heros who do honour ("qui honorent", Fr.) humanity.”

African Spir

Source: Words of a Sage : Selected thoughts of African Spir (1937), p. 38.

“As long as men will not be freed from their errors and delusions, humanity will not be able to go towards ("marcher vers", Fr.) the accomplishment of its true destinies.”

African Spir

Source: Words of a Sage : Selected thoughts of African Spir (1937), p. 60.

“The first principle from which stems the moral of about all people at all time; it is summarized in this precept: Love thy neighbour as thyself, and: do as you would be done by.”

African Spir

Source: Words of a Sage : Selected thoughts of African Spir (1937), p. 38 ["… moral consciousness is an innate and intimate revelation of the absolute, which exceed every empirical data..." - see above].

“Injustice having always hold sway (- be predominant, - régné", Fr.) on earth, there are some who ("d'aucuns", Fr.) imagine (or pretend) that the existing social order may ("pourra", Fr.) subsist (or remain) for ever. Whether this order could last until now, this was mainly due to the conviction of people, that it was of divine institution. But this belief is vanishing (or disapearing, or fainting), and with it the only moral support of the actual order will collapse, leaving (or letting) only brutal forces opposed to each others clashing, with no peaceful way out (or solution) ("et avec elle s'effondrera le seul soutient moral de l'ordre présent, ne laissant aux prises que des forces brutales opposés les unes aux autres, sans issue pacifique.", Fr.)”

African Spir

Source: Words of a Sage : Selected thoughts of African Spir (1937), p. 45.