“Since fresh examples and proofs could always be found of the alleged relation between guilt and punishment: if you behave in such and such a way, it will go badly with you. Now, as it generally does go badly, the allegation was constantly confirmed; and thus popular morality, a pseudo- science on a level with popular medicine, continually gained ground.”

—  Georg Brandes

Source: An Essay on Aristocratic Radicalism (1889), p. 26 (cf. Daybreak, § 11)

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 "Since fresh examples and proofs could always be found of the alleged relation between guilt and punishment: if you beha…" by Georg Brandes?
Georg Brandes photo
Georg Brandes40
Danish literature critic and scholar 1842–1927

Related quotes

Dana Gioia photo

“For thousands of years, poetry was taught badly, and consequently it was immensely popular”

Dana Gioia (1950) American writer

24
Essays, Can Poetry Matter? (1991), Poetry as Enchantment (2015)

William Pulteney, 1st Earl of Bath photo

“The army causes taxes, the taxes cause discontents, & the discontents are alleged to make an army necessary. Thus you go in a circle.”

William Pulteney, 1st Earl of Bath (1684–1764) English politician

Cited in John Brewer, The Sinews of Power 8-10 (1988)

Sam Harris photo

“If religion were the only durable foundation for morality you would suspect atheists to be really badly behaved. You would go to a group like the National Academy of Sciences. These are the most elite scientists, 93 percent of whom reject the idea of God. You would expect these guys to be raping and killing and stealing with abandon.”

Sam Harris (1967) American author, philosopher and neuroscientist

Sam Harris, During speech, The New Atheists (January 5, 2007) http://www.pbs.org/wnet/religionandethics/2007/01/05/january-5-2007-the-new-atheists/3734/ <br class="br">2000s

Bertrand Russell photo

“It is a waste of energy to be angry with a man who behaves badly, just as it is to be angry with a car that won't go. The difference is that you can compel your car to go to a garage, but you cannot compel Hitler to go to a psychiatrist.”

Bertrand Russell (1872–1970) logician, one of the first analytic philosophers and political activist

A Fresh Look at Empiricism: 1927-42 (1996), p. 544
Attributed from posthumous publications

Buckminster Fuller photo

“Science... the ways it does its calculating that approximately nobody going in at a basic level can gain any sense of the whole.”

Buckminster Fuller (1895–1983) American architect, systems theorist, author, designer, inventor and futurist

From 1980s onwards, Buckminster Fuller Talks Politics (1982)

Simon Munnery photo

“Sex. If you want it badly that's how you're going to get it.”

Simon Munnery (1967) British comedian

Attention Scum! (2001), How To Live (2005)

Stefan Zweig photo

“When one does another person an injustice, in some mysterious way it does one good to discover (or to persuade oneself) that the injured party has also behaved badly or unfairly in some little matter or other; it is always a relief to the conscience if one can apportion some measure of guilt to the person one has betrayed.”

Stefan Zweig book Beware of Pity

Beware of Pity (1939)

Alice Munro photo

“Love removes the world for you, and just as surely when it's going well as when it's going badly.”

Alice Munro (1931) Canadian novelist

Source: The Beggar Maid: Stories of Flo and Rose

“Well, you know, the future is always unmade, and my crystal ball is badly cracked because I’m one of the geniuses that said that "Trump is going to lose by a couple of million votes; he can't win." Well, he lost by a couple of million popular votes, but in the Electoral College, very narrowly, he was able to win.”

Mike Murphy (political consultant) (1962) American political consultant

2010s, 2018, Interview with Bill Kristol (2018)

“But if the general opinion of Mankind is optimistic then we're in for a period of extreme popularity for science fiction. If the general opinion is pessimistic, fantasy is going to hold its own.”

David Eddings (1931–2009) American novelist

Related topics