Quotes from book
The Golden Bough

The Golden Bough

The Golden Bough: A Study in Comparative Religion is a wide-ranging, comparative study of mythology and religion, written by the Scottish anthropologist Sir James George Frazer. The Golden Bough was first published in two volumes in 1890; in three volumes in 1900; and in twelve volumes in the third edition, published 1906–15. It has also been published in several different one-volume abridgments. The work was aimed at a wide literate audience raised on tales as told in such publications as Thomas Bulfinch's The Age of Fable, or Stories of Gods and Heroes . The influence of The Golden Bough on contemporary European literature and thought was substantial.


James Frazer photo
James Frazer photo
James Frazer photo
James Frazer photo
James Frazer photo
James Frazer photo
James Frazer photo

“The consideration of human suffering is not one which enters into the calculations of primitive man.”

Source: The Golden Bough (1890), Chapter 64, The Burning of Human Beings in the Fires.

James Frazer photo
James Frazer photo
James Frazer photo

“The advance of knowledge is an infinite progression towards a goal that ever recedes.”

Source: The Golden Bough (1890), Chapter 69, Farewell to Nemi.

James Frazer photo
James Frazer photo
James Frazer photo
James Frazer photo

“Indeed the influence of music on the development of religion is a subject which would repay a sympathetic study.”

Source: The Golden Bough (1890), Chapter 31, Adonis in Cyprus.

James Frazer photo

“For the present we have journeyed far enough together, and it is time to part.”

Source: The Golden Bough (1890), Chapter 69, Farewell to Nemi.

James Frazer photo

“We seem to move on a thin crust which may at any moment be rent by the subterranean forces slumbering below.”

Source: The Golden Bough (1890), Chapter 4, Magic and Religion.

James Frazer photo
James Frazer photo

“In point of fact magicians appear to have often developed into chiefs and kings.”

Source: The Golden Bough (1890), Chapter 6, Magicians as Kings.

James Frazer photo
James Frazer photo

“I am a plain practical man, not one of your theorists and splitters of hairs and choppers of logic.”

Source: The Golden Bough (1890), Chapter 4, Magic and Religion.

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