“The individual, by means of the discipline imposed on him by sport, not only plays and finds relaxation from the various compulsions to which he is subjected, but without knowing it trains himself for new compulsions. … Training in sports makes of the individual an efficient piece of apparatus which is henceforth unacquainted with anything but the harsh joys of exploiting his body and winning.”
Source: The Technological Society (1954), p. 383
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Jacques Ellul 125
French sociologist, technology critic, and Christian anarch… 1912–1994Related quotes
Quoted in John Skow, "Verdict on a Superstar," Time (1982-12-06)

VALIS (1981)
Context: For each person there is a sentence — a series of words — which has the power to destroy him … another sentence exists, another series of words, which will heal the person. If you're lucky you will get the second; but you can be certain of getting the first: that is the way it works. On their own, without training, individuals know how to deal out the lethal sentence, but training is required to deal out the second.
William Barclay (1964) The Gospel of John. Vol. 2, p. 77

Source: Willa Cather in Europe (1956), Ch. 4 (16 July 1902)

“Can the mind become completely still without coercion, without compulsion, without discipline?”
7th Public Discussion, Saanen, Switzerland (10 August 1971)
1970s

Paris Review interview (1958)
Context: No one is without Christianity, if we agree on what we mean by that word. It is every individual’s individual code of behavior by means of which he makes himself a better human being than his nature wants to be, if he followed his nature only. Whatever its symbol — cross or crescent or whatever — that symbol is man’s reminder of his duty inside the human race. Its various allegories are the charts against which he measures himself and learns to know what he is. It cannot teach a man to be good as the textbook teaches him mathematics. It shows him how to discover himself, evolve for himself a moral codes and standard within his capacities and aspirations, by giving him a matchless example of suffering and sacrifice and the promise of hope.