African Spir Quotes

As humanity began with flint tools, and has arrived little by little to the powerful and perfected machines of today, so man, by shaping himself generation after generation, will arrive to a degree of perfection which, up to now, the example was given to us only by rare individuals.

If the abandonment of religious and moral principles was to become widespread, the consequences could be become such that we would finally see crop up in the very heart of civilisation, a new and apalling barbarism capable of engulfing all the acquisitions of the past.

Morality, to be effective, has to be well-reasoned. To want to repress evil only by coercion, and to obtain morality by a kind of education using constraint, without motivating it from within, is to make an artificial thing, devoid of lasting value.

If at a banquet someone were to rip the morsels from the mouths of the guests, we would be unanimous in finding their behaviour to be iniquitous and brutal, but when the same is done in a less conspicuous way, people are hardly offended.

Men who have sacrificed their well-being, and even their lives, for the cause of truth or the public good, are, from an empirical point of view (which scorns virtue and altruism) regarded as insane or as fools; but, from a moral standpoint, they are heroes who honour humanity.

By devoting ourselves too exclusively to the pursuit of material happiness and ephemeral goods, we ignore the true realities of life and allow our spirit to wither and dry up.

The social organization of work is the most complicated and difficult problem that humanity has ever had to solve. It being possible to realize this organization neither by violence, nor by merely external or legal measures, it requires the free participation of all to the common work, and, consequently, to a regeneration of men that brings them to overcome their selfishness and to understand their duty towards themselves and towards the community.

To sacrifice the moral to the physical, as is done in these days, is to sacrifice reality for a shadow.

The realization of justice is, in the actual state of things, a matter of life or death for society and for civilisation itself.

En s'adonnant trop exclusivement à la recherche d'un bonheur matériel, de biens éphémères, on méconnaît les vraies réalités dela vie et on laisse s'étioler et se dessécher l'esprit.

If we recognize, following the materialist theories, that only the physical nature exists, and that man contains no higher essence, divine, which raises him above his animal nature, it would be a question neither of obligation, nor of moral responsibility; then the supreme good would consist for him, indeed, to satisfy his appetites and his natural inclinations, to look for pleasure and to flee from pain. In this case, there could be neither religion nor morality, since religion is precisely what raises man above vulgar reality, and morality is the very negation of selfishness.

If we possessed a more developed moral sense, we'd be as disgusted by the rapacity of those who seek to profit and take without regard for others, as we are by a foul smell.

It is from our lack of proper content, from our inner emptiness, that we need occupations and distractions. Otherwise we experience boredom, which is nothing else than the feeling of unease that takes hold of us when our spirit is not asorbed in the mirages of life.

Place a spider on top of a mountain and it will only try to catch flies; alas, they are many who, in the figurative meaning, have spider's eyes.

L’homme poursuit deux buts : il recherche le bonheur et, étant vide par essence, il cherche à remplir sa vie ; ce dernier motif joue un rôle plus considérable qu’on ne le pense d’ordinaire. Ce que l’on prend pour vanité, ambition, amour du pouvoir et des richesses, est souvent, en réalité, le besoin de masquer ce vide.