6 quotes
What we call Man's power over Nature turns out to be a power exercised by some men over other men with Nature as its instrument.
The Abolition of Man (1943)
We laugh at honour and are shocked to find traitors in our midst.
The Abolition of Man (1943)
We reduce things to mere Nature in order that we may 'conquer' them.
The Abolition of Man (1943)
There is something which unites magic and applied science while separating both from the wisdom of earlier ages. For the wise men of old the cardinal problem had been how to conform the soul to reality, and the solution had been knowledge, self-discipline, and virtue. For magic and applied science alike the problem is how to subdue reality to the wishes of men.
The Abolition of Man (1943)
It is the magician's bargain: give up our soul, get power in return. But once our souls, that is, ourselves, have been given up, the power thus conferred will not belong to us. We shall in fact be the slaves and puppets of that to which we have given our souls.
The Abolition of Man (1943)
What is now common to all men is a mere abstract universal, an H.C.F. [Highest Common Factor], and Man's conquest of himself means simply the rule of the Conditioners over the conditioned human material, the world of post-humanity which, some knowingly and some unknowingly, nearly all men in all nations are at present labouring to produce.
The Abolition of Man (1943)