idolatry

Link	Quote	Tags	Author
a9f73fa	If God created us in his own image, we have more than reciprocated.	religion idolatry atheism	Voltaire
eaf8877	The denigration of those we love always detaches us from them in some degree. Never touch your idols: the gilding will stick to your fingers.	love-disappointment idols idolatry	Gustave Flaubert
2b38ece	Your god, sir, is the World. In my eyes, you, too, if not an infidel, are an idolater. I conceive that you ignorantly worship: in all things you appear to me too superstitious. Sir, your god, your great Bel, your fish-tailed Dagon, rises before me as a demon. You, and such as you, have raised him to a throne, put on him a crown, given him a sceptre. Behold how hideously he governs! See him busied at the work he likes best -- making marriages. He binds the young to the old, the strong to the imbecile. He stretches out the arm of Mezentius and fetters the dead to the living. In his realm there is hatred -- secret hatred: there is disgust -- unspoken disgust: there is treachery -- family treachery: there is vice -- deep, deadly, domestic vice. In his dominions, children grow unloving between parents who have never loved: infants are nursed on deception from their very birth: they are reared in an atmosphere corrupt with lies ... All that surrounds him hastens to decay: all declines and degenerates under his sceptre. god is a masked Death.	family-relationships hatred unhappiness injustice marriage women death disparity domestic-life false-belief lovelessness scorn unfreedom disharmony families preconceptions discord married-life worldliness idolatry decay demons matrimony force social-norms society hypocrisy disgust contempt vice expectations	Charlotte Brontë
3fcbed0	Steam seems to have killed all gratitude in the hearts of sailors.	idolatry technology	Jules Verne
42d84a6	No man engaged in a work he does not like can preserve many saving illusions about himself. The distaste, the absence of glamour, extend from the occupation to the personality. It is only when our appointed activities seem by a lucky accident to obey the particular earnestness of our temperament that we can taste the comfort of complete self-deception.	idolatry job	Joseph Conrad
bb62454	It has always been dangerous to institutionalize hope, and we no longer live in a society in which we will be allowed to institutionalize memory.	worship intimacy-with-god idolatry conventional-wisdom resilience materialism	Harold Bloom
fb82574	The more we listen to the voices of others, voices unlike our own, the more we remain open to the transcendent forces that save us from idolatry. The more we listen to ourselves, the more we create God in our own image until God becomes a tawdry idol that looks and speaks like us. The power of the commandments is found not in the writings of theologians, although I read and admire some, but in the pathos of human life, including lives that are very unlike our own. All states and nations work to pervert religions into civic religions, ones where the goals of the state become the goals of the divine. This is increasingly true in the United States. But once we believe we understand the will of God and can act as agents of God we become dangerous, a menace to others and a menace to ourselves. We forget that we do not understand. We forget to listen.	humanity religion pathos idolatry law theology	Chris Hedges
fb4b6a2	mysterious money had stood to him as the symbol of earthly good, and the immediate object of toil. He had seemed to love it little in the years when every penny had its purpose for him; for he loved the purpose then. But now, when all purpose was gone, that habit of looking towards the money and grasping it with a sense of fulfilled effort made a loam that was deep enough for the seeds of desire.	money idolatry	George Eliot
7b8d487	Dante subsumed everything, and so, in a sense, secularized nothing.	worship work idolatry vocation discipleship	Harold Bloom
a648ca1	King die hard, in Shakespeare and in life.	leadership idolatry	Harold Bloom
c80e9e4	Spiritual power and spiritual authority notoriously shade over into both politics and poetry.	church-and-state idolatry manipulation	Harold Bloom
c17d347	And that day the cultural god of science had shone a bit less brightly, had died a little in the people's minds.	science idolatry	Clifford D. Simak
ed12801	"The narrator refers to a character as "an oily scoundrel whose hands were heavy with the money that stuck to them."	idolatry distraction materialism	Pearl S. Buck
bac5f00	"Of England's patrician class, the author writes: "It was easy to be agreeable when everything was done to keep them in comfort and ease."	idolatry elitism	Barbara W. Tuchman
70f3549	The author says one patrician English leader saw his relationship with the populace thusly: He wasn't responsible TO them. He was responsible FOR them. He was responsible for their care.	leadership dominion paternalism ministry idolatry	Barbara W. Tuchman

If God created us in his own image, we have more than reciprocated.

Voltaire

eaf8877

The denigration of those we love always detaches us from them in some degree. Never touch your idols: the gilding will stick to your fingers.

love-disappointment idols idolatry

Gustave Flaubert

2b38ece

Your god, sir, is the World. In my eyes, you, too, if not an infidel, are an idolater. I conceive that you ignorantly worship: in all things you appear to me too superstitious. Sir, your god, your great Bel, your fish-tailed Dagon, rises before me as a demon. You, and such as you, have raised him to a throne, put on him a crown, given him a sceptre. Behold how hideously he governs! See him busied at the work he likes best -- making marriages. He binds the young to the old, the strong to the imbecile. He stretches out the arm of Mezentius and fetters the dead to the living. In his realm there is hatred -- secret hatred: there is disgust -- unspoken disgust: there is treachery -- family treachery: there is vice -- deep, deadly, domestic vice. In his dominions, children grow unloving between parents who have never loved: infants are nursed on deception from their very birth: they are reared in an atmosphere corrupt with lies ... All that surrounds him hastens to decay: all declines and degenerates under his sceptre. god is a masked Death.

family-relationships hatred unhappiness injustice marriage women death disparity domestic-life false-belief lovelessness scorn unfreedom disharmony families preconceptions discord married-life worldliness idolatry decay demons matrimony force social-norms society hypocrisy disgust contempt vice expectations

Charlotte Brontë

3fcbed0

Steam seems to have killed all gratitude in the hearts of sailors.

idolatry technology

Jules Verne

42d84a6

No man engaged in a work he does not like can preserve many saving illusions about himself. The distaste, the absence of glamour, extend from the occupation to the personality. It is only when our appointed activities seem by a lucky accident to obey the particular earnestness of our temperament that we can taste the comfort of complete self-deception.

idolatry job

Joseph Conrad

bb62454

It has always been dangerous to institutionalize hope, and we no longer live in a society in which we will be allowed to institutionalize memory.

worship intimacy-with-god idolatry conventional-wisdom resilience materialism

Harold Bloom

fb82574

The more we listen to the voices of others, voices unlike our own, the more we remain open to the transcendent forces that save us from idolatry. The more we listen to ourselves, the more we create God in our own image until God becomes a tawdry idol that looks and speaks like us. The power of the commandments is found not in the writings of theologians, although I read and admire some, but in the pathos of human life, including lives that are very unlike our own. All states and nations work to pervert religions into civic religions, ones where the goals of the state become the goals of the divine. This is increasingly true in the United States. But once we believe we understand the will of God and can act as agents of God we become dangerous, a menace to others and a menace to ourselves. We forget that we do not understand. We forget to listen.

humanity religion pathos idolatry law theology

Chris Hedges

fb4b6a2

mysterious money had stood to him as the symbol of earthly good, and the immediate object of toil. He had seemed to love it little in the years when every penny had its purpose for him; for he loved the purpose then. But now, when all purpose was gone, that habit of looking towards the money and grasping it with a sense of fulfilled effort made a loam that was deep enough for the seeds of desire.

money idolatry

George Eliot

7b8d487

Dante subsumed everything, and so, in a sense, secularized nothing.

worship work idolatry vocation discipleship

Harold Bloom

a648ca1

King die hard, in Shakespeare and in life.

leadership idolatry

Harold Bloom

c80e9e4

Spiritual power and spiritual authority notoriously shade over into both politics and poetry.

church-and-state idolatry manipulation

Harold Bloom

c17d347

And that day the cultural god of science had shone a bit less brightly, had died a little in the people's minds.

science idolatry

Clifford D. Simak

ed12801

"The narrator refers to a character as "an oily scoundrel whose hands were heavy with the money that stuck to them."

idolatry distraction materialism

Pearl S. Buck

bac5f00

"Of England's patrician class, the author writes: "It was easy to be agreeable when everything was done to keep them in comfort and ease."

idolatry elitism

Barbara W. Tuchman

70f3549

The author says one patrician English leader saw his relationship with the populace thusly: He wasn't responsible TO them. He was responsible FOR them. He was responsible for their care.

leadership dominion paternalism ministry idolatry

Barbara W. Tuchman