Georges Duhamel: Man

Georges Duhamel was French writer. Explore interesting quotes on man.
Georges Duhamel: 46 quotes2 likes

“M. André Mayer … made an astonishing confidence not long ago. “The laboratories,” he said, “are working at this moment with splendid results. In physics and biology, for example, we can predict new and very important discoveries. What is humanity going to do with the power which will soon be put into its hands? Humanity is not yet ready to receive this power. It is not in a state to make good use of it.” The events of the moment prove that this power, of which we know very little yet, and which is announced to us with such proper reserve, has little chance of serving the cause of man straight away. It will more probably be employed, or rather confiscated, for the benefit of the ambitious, the impudent, and the reckless.”

Georges Duhamel

Source: Défense des Lettres [In Defense of Letters] (1937), p. xii

“Radio and cinema are daily playing a more and more important part, not only in the amusements of the twentieth-century man but also in the visible formation of his character.”

Georges Duhamel

Source: Défense des Lettres [In Defense of Letters] (1937), p. 20

“The instinct to synthesize is a good one so long as it is concerned with elements that are capable of forming a whole. But today the man in the street is fed, morally as well as physically, on a mass of debris which has no resemblance to a nourishing diet. There is no method in this madness, which is the very negation of culture.”

Georges Duhamel

Source: Défense des Lettres [In Defense of Letters] (1937), p. 35

“Books are the friends of solitude. They develop individuality and freedom. In solitary reading a man who is seeking himself has some chance of finding himself.”

Georges Duhamel

Source: Défense des Lettres [In Defense of Letters] (1937), p. 42

“Radio, on the other hand, is now the chief agent of imperialism. It does not purify the spirit of man, does not, like the book, bring him back to the sanctuary of solitude, but throws him to the lions, subtly preparing his mind for the blood and chains of public sacrifice.”

Georges Duhamel

Source: Défense des Lettres [In Defense of Letters] (1937), p. 42