“The capacity of passion is both cruel and divine”

— George Sand

Last update June 3, 2021. History

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George Sand38

French novelist and memoirist; pseudonym of Lucile Aurore D… 1804–1876

László Gyimesi (1948) Hungarian musician

John Bennett, Calgary Herald, 1972.
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“We inherit the warlike type; and for most of the capacities of heroism that the human race is full of we have to thank this cruel history.”

William James (1842–1910) American philosopher, psychologist, and pragmatist

1900s, The Moral Equivalent of War (1906)
Context: We inherit the warlike type; and for most of the capacities of heroism that the human race is full of we have to thank this cruel history. Dead men tell no tales, and if there were any tribes of other type than this they have left no survivors. Our ancestors have bred pugnacity into our bone and marrow, and thousands of years of peace won't breed it out of us. The popular imagination fairly fattens on the thought of wars. Let public opinion once reach a certain fighting pitch, and no ruler can withstand it. In the Boer war both governments began with bluff, but they couldn't stay there; the military tension was too much for them.

“In one African myth the word for God is even identical with skill and capacity. The Godhead is defined as that thing which appears in man as the mystery of an unusual skill or capacity. It is something divine, a spark of the divinity in him, not his own possession or achievement, but a miracle.”

Marie-Louise von Franz (1915–1998) Swiss psychologist and scholar

Source: Creation Myths (1972), Deus Faber, p. 140 - 141

“Men tend to have the beliefs that suit their passions. Cruel men believe in a cruel God, and use their belief to excuse their cruelty. Only kindly men believe in a kindly God, and they would be kindly in any case.”

Bertrand Russell (1872–1970) logician, one of the first analytic philosophers and political activist

In London Calling http://books.google.pt/books?id=l80fAQAAMAAJ&q=%22Men+tend+to+have+the+beliefs+that+suit+their+passions.%22&dq=%22Men+tend+to+have+the+beliefs+that+suit+their+passions.%22&hl=pt-PT&sa=X&ei=q9mEUcj-AoqM7AbW3IGoBQ&ved=0CFMQ6AEwBw (1947), p. 18 <br class="br">1940s