“Let us therefore trust the eternal Spirit which destroys and annihilates only because it is the unfathomable and eternal source of all life. The passion for destruction is a creative passion, too!”
"The Reaction in Germany" (1842)
Often paraphrased as, "The urge to destroy is also a creative urge"
Context: We exhort the compromisers to open their hearts to truth, to free themselves of their wretched and blind circumspection, of their intellectual arrogance, and of the servile fear which dries up their souls and paralyzes their movements.
Let us therefore trust the eternal Spirit which destroys and annihilates only because it is the unfathomable and eternal source of all life. The passion for destruction is a creative passion, too!
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Mikhail Bakunin 63
Russian revolutionary, philosopher, and theorist of collect… 1814–1876Related quotes
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"Philomela" (1853), st. 3
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"Prayer," p. 47
The Shape (2000), Sequence: “Pit of the Stone”
“Procreation annihilates eternity.”
“Eternity and Existence,” p. 31
The Sun Watches the Sun (1999), Sequence: “Skywalking”
Source: 1910s, Mysticism and Logic and Other Essays http://archive.org/stream/mysticism00russuoft/mysticism00russuoft_djvu.txt (1918), Ch. 2: The Place of Science in a Liberal Education