“We tread on unsure ground, theologically. The doctrines are still in the malleable state; what eventually evolves from them will owe its existence not to pre-eminent merit, but to the shrewdness of the compromises made by the factions.”

Source: What Entropy Means to Me (1972), Chapter 5 “In the Hall of the Mountain Thing” (p. 80).

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 "We tread on unsure ground, theologically. The doctrines are still in the malleable state; what eventually evolves from …" by George Alec Effinger?
George Alec Effinger photo
George Alec Effinger 59
Novelist, short story writer 1947–2002

Related quotes

Mahatma Gandhi photo

“The state represents violence in a concentrated and organized form. The Individual has a soul, but as the state is a soulless machine, it can never be weaned from violence to which it owes its very existence.”

Mahatma Gandhi (1869–1948) pre-eminent leader of Indian nationalism during British-ruled India

Modern Review (October, 1935) p. 412. Interview with Nirmal Kumar Bose (9/10 November 1934)
1930s
Context: It is my firm conviction that if the State suppressed capitalism by violence, it will be caught in the coils of violence itself, and fail to develop non-violence at any time. The state represents violence in a concentrated and organized form. The Individual has a soul, but as the state is a soulless machine, it can never be weaned from violence to which it owes its very existence.

Thomas Jefferson photo
Werner Sombart photo
Nicolas Chamfort photo

“Eminence without merit earns deference without esteem.”

Nicolas Chamfort (1741–1794) French writer

Maximes et pensées (1805)

Joan Robinson photo

“The bastard Keynesian doctrine, evolved in the United States, invaded the economic faculties of the world, floating on the wings of the almighty dollar.”

Joan Robinson (1903–1983) English economist

Source: Contributions to Modern Economics (1978), Chapter 23, What Has Become of Employment Policy?, p. 256

Eric R. Kandel photo

“I owe my existence in the United States to the generosity of the Viennese Kultusgemeinde.”

Eric R. Kandel (1929) American neuropsychiatrist

In Search of Memory (2006)
Context: The Viennese Kultusgemeinde... was going bankrupt... European governments typically compensate Jewish agencies... but the Austrian government's compensation was not adequate.... I owe my existence in the United States to the generosity of the Viennese Kultusgemeinde.

Hariprasad Chaurasia photo

“Wealth owes its existence to labour, not labour to wealth.”

Leon MacLaren (1910–1994) British philosopher

Leon MacLaren, Nature of Society and Other Essays

Christina Rossetti photo

Related topics