“If mankind had always been logical and wise, history would not be a long chronicle of folly and crime.”

— James Frazer , book The Golden Bough

Source: The Golden Bough (1890), Chapter 29, The Myth of Adonis

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update June 3, 2021. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "If mankind had always been logical and wise, history would not be a long chronicle of folly and crime." by James Frazer?

James Frazer 50

Scottish social anthropologist 1854–1941

Related quotes

“The reign of Antoninus is marked by the rare advantage of furnishing very few materials for history, which is indeed little more than the register of the crimes, follies, and misfortunes of mankind.”

Edward Gibbon (1737–1794) English historian and Member of Parliament

Vol. 1, Chap. 3. Compare: "L'histoire n'est que le tableau des crimes et des malheurs" (translated: "History is but the record of crimes and misfortunes"), Voltaire, L'Ingénu, chap. x.
The Decline And Fall Of The Roman Empire: Volume 1 (1776)

“The wise man who is not heeded is counted a fool, and the fool who proclaims the general folly first and loudest passes for a prophet and Führer, and sometimes it is luckily the other way round as well, or else mankind would long since have perished of stupidity.”

C.G. Jung book Mysterium Coniunctionis

Mysterium Coniunctionis http://books.google.com/books?id=fqt-AAAAMAAJ&q=%22The+wise+man+who+is+not+heeded+is+counted+a+fool+and+the+fool+who+proclaims+the+general+folly+first+and+loudest+passes+for+a+prophet+and%22+%22and+sometimes+it+is+luckily+the+other+way+round+as+well+or+else+mankind+would+long+since+have+perished+of+stupidity%22&pg=PA549#v=onepage (1955)

“Antoninus diffused order and tranquility over the greatest part of the earth. His reign is marked by the rare advantage of furnishing very few materials for history; which is, indeed, little more than the register of the crimes, follies, and misfortunes of mankind.”

Edward Gibbon (1737–1794) English historian and Member of Parliament

Vol. 1, Ch. 3 "Of the Constitution of the Roman Empire, in the Age of the Antonines" http://www.ccel.org/ccel/gibbon/decline/files/volume1/chap3.htm
This has often been paraphrased: History is indeed little more than the register of crimes, follies, and misfortunes of mankind.
The Decline And Fall Of The Roman Empire: Volume 1 (1776)

“War is mankind's most tragic and stupid folly; to seek or advise its deliberate provocation is a black crime against all men.”

Dwight D. Eisenhower (1890–1969) American general and politician, 34th president of the United States (in office from 1953 to 1961)

Graduation Exercises at the United States Military Academy at West Point, New York, U.S. (3 June 1947) http://www.eisenhower.archives.gov/all_about_ike/quotes.html
1940s
Context: War is mankind's most tragic and stupid folly; to seek or advise its deliberate provocation is a black crime against all men. Though you follow the trade of the warrior, you do so in the spirit of Washington — not of Genghis Khan. For Americans, only threat to our way of life justifies resort to conflict.

“The history of most fictions would be far stranger than the fictions themselves; but it would be a dark and sad chronicle.”

Letitia Elizabeth Landon (1802–1838) English poet and novelist

The Monthly Magazine

“What would become of history, had we not a dependence on the veracity of the historian, according to the experience, what we have had of mankind?”

David Hume book An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding

§ 8.18
An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding (1748)

“And it was because of their long history that he searched for something to say, something that would get them back to where they had been.

All that came to him was…”

Jessica Bird (1969) U.S. novelist

Source: Lover Mine

“Authority has always attracted the lowest elements in the human race. All through history mankind has been bullied by scum.”

P. J. O'Rourke book Parliament of Whores

Parliament of Whores (1991)
Context: Authority has always attracted the lowest elements in the human race. All through history mankind has been bullied by scum. Those who lord it over their fellows and toss commands in every direction and would boss the grass in the meadows about which way to bend in the wind are the most depraved kind of prostitutes. They will submit to any indignity, perform any vile act, do anything to achieve power. The worst off-sloughings of the planet are the ingredients of sovereignty. Every government is a parliament of whores. The trouble is, in a democracy, the whores are us.

“If Nature had been comfortable, mankind would never have invented architecture”

Oscar Wilde book The Decay of Lying

The Decay of Lying (1889)
Context: If Nature had been comfortable, mankind would never have invented architecture... In a house, we all feel of the proper proportions. Everything is subordinated to us, fashioned for our use and our pleasure.

“Debt is the prolific mother of folly and of crime.”

Benjamin Disraeli (1804–1881) British Conservative politician, writer, aristocrat and Prime Minister

Book 2, chapter 1.
Books, Coningsby (1844), Henrietta Temple (1837)

“If mankind had always been logical and wise, history would not be a long chronicle of folly and crime.”

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

James Frazer 50

Related quotes

Related topics