“Men do not sufficiently realise that their future is in their own hands.”
Concluding sentences <!-- University of Notre Dame Press, 2002, p. 317 --> ; often just the last part of the last sentence is quoted, in the form: "The universe is a machine for making gods."
The Two Sources of Morality and Religion (1932)
Context: Men do not sufficiently realise that their future is in their own hands. Theirs is the task of determining first of all whether they want to go on living or not. Theirs is the responsibility, then, for deciding if they want merely to live, or intend to make just the extra effort required for fulfilling, even on their refractory planet, the essential function of the universe, which is a machine for the making of gods (la fonction essentielle de l'universe, qui est une machine à faire des dieux).
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Henri Bergson 18
French philosopher 1859–1941Related quotes
Elton Mayo, “Irrationalty and Revery”, Journal of Personnel Research, March 1933, p.482; Cited in: Ionescu, G.G., & A.L. Negrusa. "Elton Mayo, an Enthusiastical Managerial Philosopher." Revista de Management Comparat International 14.5 (2013): 671.
“After centuries of dormancy, young women can now look toward a future moulded by their own hands.”
Quoted in Obituary in The Guardian http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2012/dec/30/rita-levi-montalcini
“Criminals do not die by the hands of the law. They die by the hands of other men.”
#57
1900s, Maxims for Revolutionists (1903)
Source: Man and Superman
“How do you like that? The future of the universe may be in the hands of a crazy woman.”
Source: Saga of the Skolian Empire, Primary Inversion (1995), Chapter 11, “A Time to Speak” (p. 232)
“This is what you do. You make a future for yourself out of the raw material at hand.”
Source: A Home at the End of the World
“Do not try to do too much with your own hands.”
Twenty-Seven Articles (1917)
Context: Do not try to do too much with your own hands. Better the Arabs do it tolerably than that you do it perfectly. It is their war, and you are to help them, not to win it for them. Actually, also, under the very odd conditions of Arabia, your practical work will not be as good as, perhaps, you think it is.
Answering the question: "Do sentient beings have free will?" in Dzogchen : The Heart Essence of the Great Perfection (2001), p. 168, ISBN 155939157X.
"A Scientist Rebels" Atlantic Monthly (Jan, 1947)
Context: The measures taken during the war by our military agencies, in restricting the free intercourse among scientists on related projects or even on the same project have gone so far that it is clear that if continued in time of peace, this policy will lead to the total irresponsibility of the scientist, and, ultimately, to the death of science.... The interchange of ideas, which is one of the greatest traditions of science, must of course receive certain limitations when the scientist becomes an arbiter of life and death.... I do not expect to publish any future work of mine which may do damage in the hands of irresponsible militarists...
Documentary films, 2016: Obama's America (2012)