“The Garden of Eden in which Adam and Eve dwelt was only an illusion. Before men accumulated sexual shame and celebrative guilt they lacked that character differentiation out of which the human soul takes its being. Their world was a garden only in the sense that the jungle is a garden to its animal inhabitants. Man means something different when he speaks of a garden, or an El Dorado, or a paradise for the human spirit. Man means a world of eternal springtime in the human heart, where faith never fails and hope never falters, where men always understand more today than they did yesterday, and establish an always broadening responsibility in the world. He means a world of lasting contentment, where the contentment of today passes that of yesterday, and a world of complete happiness where today's happiness is bigger than that of the day before. He means a world of love which fears nothing that the human eye can see, and a world of power which cannot be touched by rage in the performance of any act. When he sees these things he is not dreaming, and when he reaches for them he is not play acting. He is only sounding the battle horn and raising the banner by which he lays claim to ownership of the world, acting in his own name.”

— Paul Rosenfels

page 188
Psychoanalysis and Civilization

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 "The Garden of Eden in which Adam and Eve dwelt was only an illusion. Before men accumulated sexual shame and celebrativ…" by Paul Rosenfels?

Paul Rosenfels photo

Paul Rosenfels 9

American sociologist 1909–1985

Related quotes

“Only the soul that is naked and unashamed, can be pure and innocent, even as Adam was in the primal garden of humanity.”

Sri Aurobindo (1872–1950) Indian nationalist, freedom fighter, philosopher, yogi, guru and poet

Thoughts and Aphorisms (1913), Karma

“A soul is a troublesome possession, and when man developed it he lost the Garden of Eden.”

W. Somerset Maugham (1874–1965) British playwright, novelist, short story writer

Red http://books.google.com/books?id=6ZZgZw5yX8QC&q="a+soul+is+a+troublesome+possession+and+when+man+developed+it+he+lost+the+Garden+of+Eden"&pg=PA413#v=onepage (1921)

“The idea that paradise, the proper habitat of a human being, is a walled garden – is a good one. It's an echo back to the chaos/order idea. Walls: culture. Garden: nature. The proper human habitat is a properly tended garden.”

Jordan Peterson (1962) Canadian clinical psychologist, cultural critic, and professor of psychology

Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ifi5KkXig3s "Biblical Series IV: Adam and Eve: Self-Consciousness, Evil, and Death"

“The two girls grew up at the edge of the ocean and knew it was paradise, and better than Eden, which was only a garden.”

Eve Babitz (1943) American author

Source: Sex and Rage: Advice to Young Ladies Eager for a Good Time: A Novel

“God created man for fellowship… The fall of man ruined that and Paradise—that is, the garden of Eden—was lost, but on the new earth paradise will be regained and God will again fellowship with mankind in a unique sense.”

Paul P. Enns (1937) American theologian

Source: Heaven Revealed (Moody, 2011), p. 88

“Isn’t Hollywood a dump — in the human sense of the word. A hideous town, pointed up by the insulting gardens of its rich, full of the human spirit at a new low of debasement.”

F. Scott Fitzgerald (1896–1940) American novelist and screenwriter

Letter to Alice Richardson (29 July 1940)
Quoted, Letters

“One of the most important resources that a garden makes available for use, is the gardener's own body. A garden gives the body the dignity of working in its own support. It is a way of rejoining the human race.”

Wendell Berry (1934) author

“A hundred objective measurements didn't sum the worth of a garden; only the delight of its users did that. Only the use made it mean something.”

Lois McMaster Bujold Vorkosigan Saga

Vorkosigan Saga, A Civil Campaign (1999)

“As citizens of Cheon Il Guk, please have the wisdom to protect and love nature. Return to nature and enjoy a life of liberation and complete freedom. To love nature is to love God and humanity. When human life resonates with nature, human character can blossom in perfection. The flowers of a true culture of heart, a true artistic world, will bloom. It will be the Garden of Eden, the original ideal where human beings and all creation live in complete harmony and express their original nature.”

Sun Myung Moon (1920–2012) Korean religious leader

Cheon Il Guk is the Ideal Heavenly Kingdom of Eternal Peace http://www.unification.net/2006/20060613_1.html (2006-06-13)

“Is there an intelligent man or woman now in the world who believes in the Garden of Eden story? If you find any man who believes it, strike his forehead and you will hear an echo. Something is for rent.”

Robert G. Ingersoll (1833–1899) Union United States Army officer

Orthodoxy (1884)

Related topics