Skip to content

Jacques Ellul Quotes

1912–1994 France

Jacques Ellul (6 January 1912 – 19 May 1994) was a French philosopher, law professor, sociologist, lay theologian, and Christian anarchist.

France
Academics
Anarchists
Educators
Philosophers

Also known as: Ellul, The Technological Society

Random Jacques Ellul quote

89 quotes

I describe a world with no exit, convinced that God accompanies man throughout his history.

Interview in Le Monde (1981)

Hate, hunger, and pride make better levers of propaganda than do love or impartiality.

Propaganda: The Formation of Men's Attitudes (1962)

What seems to be one of the disasters of our time is that we all appear to agree that the nation-state is the norm.

Anarchy and Christianity [Anarchie et Christianisme (1988)

In a society such as ours, it is almost impossible for a person to be responsible.

The Betrayal by Technology (1993)

The will of the world is always a will to death, a will to suicide. We must not accept this suicide, and we must so act that it cannot take place.

The Presence of the Kingdom (1948)

The most favorable moment to seize a man and influence him is when he is alone in the mass. It is at this point that propaganda can be most effective.

Propaganda: The Formation of Men's Attitudes (1962)

A principal characteristic of technique … is its refusal to tolerate moral judgments. It is absolutely independent of them and eliminates them from its domain.

The Technological Society (1954)

The point is not to enforce a particular view of society but to establish a counterbalance, a protest, a sign of cleavage. In face of an absolute power only a total confrontation has any meaning.

The Ethics of Freedom (1973)

People think that they have no right to judge a fact — all they have to do is to accept it.

The Presence of the Kingdom (1948)

I believe that the biblical teaching is clear. It always contests political power.

The Subversion of Christianity (1984)

Propaganda does not aim to elevate man, but to make him serve.

Propaganda: The Formation of Men's Attitudes (1962)

I believe that life has meaning. We are not on earth by chance; we do not come from nowhere to go to nowhere. This is a statement; it cannot be proved.

What I Believe (1987)

His great passion in the world ought to be a passion for the liberation of men.

The Ethics of Freedom (1973)

Every modern state is totalitarian. It recognizes no limit either factual or legal.

The Ethics of Freedom (1973)

The biblical view is not just apolitical but antipolitical in the sense that it refuses to confer any value on political power, or in the sense that it regards political power as idolatrous.

The Subversion of Christianity (1984)

Technique is totally irrelevant to this notion and pursues no end, professed or unprofessed.

The Technological Society (1954)

It tends on the contrary, to create a completely independent technical morality.

The Technological Society (1954)

Science brings to the light of day everything man had believed sacred. Technique takes possession of it and enslaves it.

The Technological Society (1954)

Jesus does not advocate revolt or material conflict.

Anarchy and Christianity (1988)

Journalistic content is a technical complex expressly intended to adapt man to the machine.

The Technological Society (1954)

Attribution

Quotes and notes from Wikiquote: Jacques Ellul (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0.