African Spir Quotes

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.

It is not on the ruins of liberty that we may in the future build justice.

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.

Si dans un banquet quelqu’un s’avisait d’arracher aux convives les morceaux de la bouche, on serait unanime à trouver le procédé inique et brutal, mais quand par ailleurs la chose se pratique sous une forme moins apparente, on ne s’en montre guère offusqué.

Injustice having always been predominant on earth, there are some who imagine that this existing social order will continue forever. That this order was able to last until now, has mainly been due to the conviction of people that it was of divine institution.

Men generally are too inclined to let themselves be overawed by what is quantitatively great. It is thus that even thoughtful minds let themselves be impressed by the strength of Napoleon, so much so that they see in his person something august or majestic, when in fact he only had selfish ambitions. Half the earth was put to fire and sword to obtain for a man the pleasant sensation of his own absolute power.

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.

Si nous possédions un flair moral plus développé, nous serions aussi écœurés moralement par la rapacité de ceux qui cherchent a profiter et à accaparer sans égards pour autrui, que nous le sommes par une odeur nauséabonde.

The feeling of solidarity that is born amidst a community rests on the feeling of antagonism against those who are opposed to it. Most of the time we only adhere to a party or a group, in order to better differentiate ourselves from another.

If the present civilisation does not acquire some stable moral fondations, its existence will hardly be more assured than that of the civilisations that have preceeded it, and which have fallen.

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.

In reality, there is no contradiction between science and religion, whose domains are distinct, and which, far from fighting and persecuting each other, must, on the contrary, complement each other.

The virtue preached by devout persons is the virtue of the slave who always believes themselves under the eye of the master. However, Jésus said: 'Serve God not as slaves, but as sons in the house'

If we accomplish a good deed, a charity in the hope of future rewards, or with a more or less admitted ulterior motive to profit from personal advantages, we are probably doing a useful thing, but which is devoid of any truly moral character.

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.