lescoursjulien.com
Famous Quotes Explained: « The devil is still the best ruse to exonerate God. » – Civilization and Its Discontents, Freud, 1929.
Civilization and Its Discontents is a major work by Sigmund Freud, first published in 1929. In this work, Freud explores the fundamental tension between individual human instincts and the requirements of civilization. He examines how society imposes restrictions on individual instinctual drives, leading to psychological conflict. Freud discusses key concepts such as the « pleasure principle » and the « reality principle, » as well as the role of aggressive and erotic drives in the formation of civilization. The author also reflects on the nature of culture, religion, and concludes pessimistically on the possibility of resolving the inherent discomfort in social life. The work remains influential for its insights into individual and social psychology.
The quote The devil is still the best ruse to exonerate God can be interpreted in the context of Freud’s thinking. From this perspective, the quote suggests that the concept of the devil, as a malevolent force, is used as a means to rationalize or justify the darker aspects of human nature. Freud analyzes how civilization imposes restrictions on instinctual desires, creating internal conflict. The devil could be seen as a symbolic metaphor for these repressed and unacceptable impulses.
By using the devil as a ruse or escape, one could divert responsibility for the negative aspects of humanity away from God, attributing them instead to this malevolent force. This raises questions about how societies and individuals rationalize the inherent discomfort in social life, often attributing evil to external entities rather than human nature itself.
This quote also suggests that the concept of the devil, often associated with evil and temptation, is employed as an effective means to justify or excuse God in the face of imperfections, evils, and problems in the world. It implies that the notion of the devil provides a convenient explanation for the negative aspects of existence, allowing God to be absolved of responsibility for these woes. This interpretation can be viewed within the realms of theology, philosophy, or even psychological analysis, indicating that the devil is used as a scapegoat to divert attention from challenging questions about the nature of God and evil in the world.
The devil is still the best ruse to exonerate God
Links to Another quotes: Famous Quotes Explained: « He who loses himself in his passion loses less than he who loses his passion, » The Confessions, Saint Augustine, 397-401. Famous Quotes Explained: « Words are the mysterious passers-by of the soul, »Les Contemplations, Victor Hugo, 1856. Famous Quotes Explained: « Art is meant to disturb. Science reassures. », From the book Le Jour et la Nuit (The Day and the Night), Georges Braque, 1952.Famous Quotes Explained: « Philosophy is the discipline of creating concepts, »What is Philosophy?, Deleuze, 1991.Famous quotes explained : « Paris is a populated solitude. A provincial town is a desert without solitude, » La Province, François Mauriac, 1926. Famous Quotes Explained: « To say prejudice is to say an opinion received without examination because it would not stand on its own, » Discours sur le bonheur, Marquise du Châtelet, 1779.Famous Quotes Explained: « Fanaticism is a monster that dares to call itself the offspring of religion », Philosophical Dictionary, Voltaire, 1764.Famous Quotes Explained: « In times of peace, the mercenary steals; in times of war, he deserts, »The Prince, Machiavelli, 1532. Famous Quotes Explained: « One of the greatest wisdoms of military art is not to drive one’s enemy to despair, » Essais, Montaigne, 1580.Famous Quotes Explained: « Violence always presents itself as a counter-violence, that is, as a response to the violence of the other. », Critique of Dialectical Reason, Jean-Paul Sartre, 1960.Famous Quotes Explained: « Neither despotism nor terrorism. We want progress on a gentle slope, » Les Misérables, Victor Hugo, 1862. Famous quotes explained: « It is with the poor that the rich make war. », Organization of Labour, Louis Blanc, 1839. Famous quotes explained: « Ignorance is the mother of all crimes. A crime is, above all, a lack of reasoning », La Cousine Bette, Balzac, 1846-1847.Famous Quotes Explained: « Colonization: a bridgehead into a civilization of barbarism from which, at any moment, pure and simple negation of civilization can emerge, » Discourse on Colonialism, Aimé Césaire, 1950. Famous quotes explained: « Chance is the greatest novelist in the world; to be fruitful, one only has to study it », La Comédie humaine, Balzac, 1842.Famous Quotes Explained: « There are infinitely more men who accept civilization as hypocrites than men who are truly and genuinely civilized, » Essays in Psychoanalysis, Sigmund Freud, 1927.Famous Quotes Explained: « The strength of love appears in suffering, » The Palace Gallery, Pierre Corneille, 1632.Famous Quotes Explained: « Philosophy is not an illusion; it is the algebra of history. » In Praise of Philosophy (Éloge de la philosophie), Merleau-Ponty, 1953.Famous Quotes Explained: « As one grows older, anger turns into sadness. », Act III, Scene 5, The Dead Queen, Montherlant.Famous Quotes Explained: « To dream is allowed to the defeated; to remember is allowed to the solitary, » Songs of the Streets and Woods, Preface, Victor Hugo, 1865.Famous Quotes Explained: « Laughter is unique to man, » Gargantua, Rabelais, 1534. Famous Quotes Explained: « Happiness is to continue desiring what one already possesses, » Saint Augustine, 5th-4th century BC. Famous Quotes Explained: « Politics is the art of obtaining money from the rich and votes from the poor, under the pretext of protecting them from each other, » Jules Michelet, 19th century.Famous quotes explained: « If the world were clear, art would not exist », The Myth of Sisyphus, Camus, 1942. Famous quotes explained: « Laws are always useful to those who possess and harmful to those who have nothing. », The Social Contract,Rousseau, 1762.Famous quotes explained: « History is a novel that has been, the novel a story that could have been. », Edmond and Jules Goncourt.Famous quotes explained: « The work exposes, the man disposes », Criticism and truth, Roland Barthes, 1966.Famous quotes explained: « We may brave human laws, but we cannot resist natural ones », Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea , Jules Verne, 1870.Famous quotes explained: « Reading all good books is like having a conversation with the most honest people of past centuries. »Descartes, Discourse on Method, 1637. Famous quotes explained: « tyrants are only great because we are on our knees », Discourse on Voluntary Servitude La Boétie, 1576.Famous quotes explained: « Politeness consists in appearing to forget oneself for others », The Lily of the Valley, Balzac, 1836. Famous quotes explained: « And to esteem everyone is to esteem nothing », The Misanthrope, Molière, 1667.Famous quotes explained: « Work keeps three great evils away from us: boredom, vice, and need. », Candide, Voltaire, 1759. Famous quotes explained: « Without the freedom to criticize, there is no genuine praise. » Act V, Scene 3., The Marriage of Figaro, Beaumarchais, 1784.Famous quotes explained: « One must eat to live, not live to eat. »The Miser, Act III, Scene V, Molière, 1668. Famous Quotes explained: « In war, it is the war of men; in peace, it is the war of ideas. », Fragments, Hugo, 1885. Famous Quotes explained: « I am weary of museums, cemeteries of the arts. » , Lamartine, Voyage en Orient, 1835. Famous Quotes Explained: « What is well conceived is clearly expressed. And the words to say it come easily. », Nicolas Boileau, The Art of Poetry, 1674. Famous Quotes Explained: « One sees clearly with the heart. What is essential is invisible to the eyes. », The Little Prince, Saint-Exupéry, 1943. Famous quotes explained: « Education is given by the family; instruction is owed by the state. », Victor Hugo, Words and deeds, 1876. Famous Quotes explained: « One person is missing, and everything is depopulated. » Méditations poétiques, « L’Isolement », Lamartine, 1820. Famous quotes explained: « To love is to know how to say ‘I love you’ without speaking. » Victor Hugo
Website: lescoursjulien.com
Facebook Page: CoursJulien
Twitter:@lescoursjulien
Contact: lescoursjulien@yahoo.fr