“Sacrifice has always been regarded as the most convincing proof of loyalty; and its most common form involves a foregoing of the use of some organic function, as in the case of celibacy or fasting. Of at least equal significance, however, is a sacrifice of the use of reason - credo quia impossibile - and the more incredible the assertion, the stronger the proof of the devotion manifested by its acceptance. The Catholic theologians are quite explicit about this, and openly say that by affirming what to the human reason appears absurd, a believer proves his love for God. Although they are never so frank about it, the secular sects make similar demands.”
Social Sciences as Sorcery (1972)
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Stanislav Andreski6
Polish-British sociologist 1919–2007Related quotes
“Loyalty means nothing unless it has at its heart the absolute principle of self-sacrifice.”
Woodrow Wilson (1856–1924) American politician, 28th president of the United States (in office from 1913 to 1921)
Address on American Spirit http://books.google.com/books?id=_VYEIml1cAkC&pg=PA142&dq=%22loyalty+means+nothing%22, Washington (13 July 1916) <br class="br">1910s
Andrei Tarkovsky book Sculpting in Time
Source: Sculpting in Time (1986), p. 38
Context: Art is born and takes hold wherever there is a timeless and insatiable longing for the spiritual, for the ideal: that longing which draws people to art. Modern art has taken the wrong turn in abandoning the search for the meaning of existence in order to affirm the value of the individual for his own sake. What purports to be art begins to looks like an eccentric occupation for suspect characters who maintain that any personalised action is of intrinsic value simply as a display of self-will. But in an artistic creation the personality does not assert itself it serves another, higher and communal idea. The artist is always the servant, and is perpetually trying to pay for the gift that has been given to him as if by a miracle. Modern man, however, does not want to make any sacrifice, even though true affirmation of the self can only be expressed in sacrifice. We are gradually forgetting about this, and at the same time, inevitably, losing all sense of human calling.
“The proof of a theory is in its reasoning, not in its sponsorship”
Ludwig von Mises (1881–1973) austrian economist
Theory of Money and Credit http://www.econlib.org/library/Mises/msT1.html (1912) <br class="br">Source: http://www.econlib.org/library/Mises/msT2.html#I.5.12 | Theory of Money and Credit
“Wide acceptance of an idea is not proof of its validity.”
Dan Brown book The Lost Symbol
Source: The Lost Symbol
Claude Lévi-Strauss book Tristes Tropiques
Source: Tristes Tropiques (1955), Chapter 13 : Pioneer Zone, pp.123-124
Thomas Hughes (1822–1896) English lawyer, author and cricketer
Part II
The Manliness of Christ (1879)
G. H. Hardy (1877–1947) British mathematician
Source: Ramanujan (1940), Ch. I : The Indian mathematician Ramanujan.
Dana Gioia (1950) American writer
Essays, Can Poetry Matter? (1991), The Catholic Writer Today (2013)