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Human life began in flight and fear. Religion rose from rituals of propitiation, spells to lull the punishing elements.

— Camille Paglia Sexual Personae: Art and Decadence from Nefertiti to Emily Dickinson (1990)

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More quotes by Camille Paglia

Even the best critical writing on Emily Dickinson underestimates her. She is frightening.

Sexual Personae: Art and Decadence from Nefertiti to Emily Dickinson (1990)

Running to Mommy and Daddy on the campus grievance committee is unworthy of strong women.

Sex, Art and American Culture : New Essays (1992)

Nefertiti is like Athena born from the brow of Zeus, a head-heavy armored goddess. She is beautiful but desexed.

Sexual Personae: Art and Decadence from Nefertiti to Emily Dickinson (1990)

The mystique of the femme fatale cannot be perfectly translated into male terms.

Sexual Personae: Art and Decadence from Nefertiti to Emily Dickinson (1990)

Art is a vast, ancient interconnected web-work, a fabricated tradition. Overconcentration on any one point is a distortion.

Sex, Art and American Culture : New Essays (1992)

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All religions, arts and sciences are branches of the same tree. All these aspirations are directed toward ennobling man's life, lifting it from the sphere of mere physical existence and leading the individual towards freedom.

Albert Einstein Moral Decay (1937)

Science and religion are two human enterprises sharing many features.

Freeman Dyson Infinite in All Directions (1988)

The moment the idea is admitted into society, that property is not as sacred as the law of God, and that there is not a force of law and public justice to protect it, anarchy and tyranny commence.

John Adams A Defence of the Constitutions of Government (1787)

The Puritan hated bear-baiting, not because it gave pain to the bear, but because it gave pleasure to the spectators.

Thomas Babington Macaulay History of England (1849)

Attribution

Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: Camille Paglia (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.