“Too often, contemning the external order as unspiritual, [the Puritan] has made it, and ultimately himself, less spiritual by reason of his contempt.”

—  R. H. Tawney

Part IV, Ch. 3
Religion and the Rise of Capitalism (1926)

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 "Too often, contemning the external order as unspiritual, [the Puritan] has made it, and ultimately himself, less spirit…" by R. H. Tawney?
R. H. Tawney photo
R. H. Tawney 34
English philosopher 1880–1962

Related quotes

Jacobo Arbenz Guzmán photo

“Unfortunately even the President of the United States of America has made little of his high office, and he too, either through lack of information or other reasons, has lent himself to the campaign of pressure and intimidation against Guatemala.”

Jacobo Arbenz Guzmán (1913–1971) president of Guatemala in 1951-54

As quoted in Bitter Fruit: The Story of the American Coup in Guatemala by Stephen Schlesinger and Stephen Kinzer
Appeal to the Nation (19 June 1954)

Immanuel Kant photo

“Nature has willed that man should, by himself, produce everything that goes beyond the mechanical ordering of his animal existence, and that he should partake of no other happiness or perfection than that which he himself, independently of instinct, has created by his own reason.”

Immanuel Kant (1724–1804) German philosopher

Third Thesis
Idea for a Universal History from a Cosmopolitan Point of View (1784)

Martin Luther photo

“Reason is the greatest enemy that faith has: it never comes to the aid of spiritual things, but--more frequently than not--struggles against the divine Word, treating with contempt all that emanates from God.”

Martin Luther book Table Talk

353
Table Talk (1569)

Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel photo

“The person must give himself an external sphere of freedom in order to have being as Idea.”

Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel book Elements of the Philosophy of Right

Die Person muß sich eine äußere Sphäre ihrer Freiheit geben, um als Idee zu sein.
Sect. 41
Elements of the Philosophy of Right (1820/1821)

Larry Wall photo

“The court finds everyone to be in contempt (including himself :-), and orders everyone sentenced to five years hard labor.”

Larry Wall (1954) American computer programmer and author, creator of Perl

Working on Perl, of course. [199807211548.IAA26184@wall.org, 1998]
Usenet postings, 1998

Ludwig Wittgenstein photo

“The less somebody knows and understand himself the less great he is, however great may be his talent. For this reason our scientists are not great.”

Ludwig Wittgenstein (1889–1951) Austrian-British philosopher

Source: Culture and Value (1980), p. 51e

Anthony de Mello photo

“The Master once referred to the Hindu notion that all creation is "leela" — God's play — and the universe is his playground. The aim of spirituality, he claimed, is to make all life play.
This seemed too frivolous for a puritanical visitor. "Is their no room then for work?"
"Of course there is. But work becomes spiritual only when it is transformed into play."”

Anthony de Mello (1931–1987) Indian writer

Source: One Minute Nonsense (1992), p. 96
("Leela" is more commonly spelled "Lila")

“The Christian.. cannot dismiss the philosophy and science of his society as though they were external to him; they are in him. … He cannot rid himself of political beliefs and economic customs by rejecting the more or less external institutions; these customs and beliefs have taken up residence in his mind.”

H. Richard Niebuhr (1894–1962) American theologian

Source: Christ and Culture (1951), p. 69

Stanisław Lem photo

“It is not good for a man to be too cognizant of his physical and spiritual mechanisms. Complete knowledge reveals limits to human possibilities, and the less a man is by nature limited in his purposes, the less he can tolerate limits.”

Stanisław Lem book Fiasco

Fiasco (1986), Ch. 3, tr. Michael Kandel (1987)

“To me, Dharma had always been a matter of moral norms, external rules and regulations, do's and don'ts, enforced on life by an act of will. Now I was made to see Dharma as a multi dimensional movement of man's inner law of being, his psychic evolution, his spiritual growth, and his spontaneous building of an outer life for himself and the community in which he lived.”

Sita Ram Goel (1921–2003) Indian activist

How I became a Hindu (1982)
Variant: To me, Dharma had always been a matter of moral norms, external rules and regulations, do's and don'ts, enforced on life by an act of will. Now I was made to see Dharma as a multi dimensional movement of man's inner law of being, his psychic evolution, his spiritual growth, and his spontaneous building of an outer life for himself and the community in which he lived.

Related topics