"When the first savage saw his hut destroyed by a bolt of lightning, he fell down upon his face in terror. He had no conception of natural forces, of laws of electricity ; he saw this event as the act of an individual intelligence. To-day we read about fairies and demons, dryads and fauns and satyrs, Wotan and Thor and Vulcan, Freie and Flora and Ceres, and we think of all these as pretty fancies, play-products of the mind; losing sight of the fact that they were originally meant with entire seriousness—that not merely did ancient man believe in them, but was forced to believe in them, because the mind must have an explanation of things that happen, and an individual intelligence was the only explanation available. The story of the hero who slays the devouring dragon was not merely a symbol of day and night, of summer and winter; it was a literal explanation of the phenomena, it was the science of early times."
Quote Details
Added by wikiquote-import-bot
Unverified quote
0 likes
Politicians from CaliforniaPoliticians from New York CityActivists from New York CityPoliticians from New JerseyPoliticians from Maryland
Original Language: English
Available Languages (1)
Sources
Book One : The Church of the Conquerors, "The Priestly Lie"
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Upton_Sinclair
Revision History
No revisions have been submitted for this quote.
Categories
Upton Sinclair
55 quotes on TrueQuotesView all quotes by Upton Sinclair →
Related Quotes
"I am a person who has never used violence himself. My present opinion is that people who have obtained the ballot sho…"
"I intend to do what little one man can do to awaken the public conscience, and in the meantime I am not frightened by…"
"Men of unlimited means live lives of unbridled lust, and then, in their old age, they are helpless victims of their o…"
"I aimed at the public's heart, and by accident I hit it in the stomach."
"What life means to me is to put the content of Shelley into the form of Zola. The proletarian writer is a writer with…"
"Let us redeem our great words from base uses. Let that no longer call itself Love, which knows that it is not free!"
"I know you are brave and unselfish people, making sacrifices for a great principle but I cannot join you. I believe i…"
"I have lived in Germany and know its language and literature, and the spirit and ideals of its rulers. Having given m…"
"American capitalism is predatory, and American politics are corrupt: The same thing is true in England and the same i…"
"All art is propaganda. It is universally and inescapably propaganda; sometimes unconsciously, but often deliberately,…"