151 Quotes by Jacques Ellul

When there is propaganda, we are no longer able to evaluate certain questions, or even to discuss them.

Belief is reassuring. People who live in the world of belief feel safe. On the contrary, faith is forever placing us on the razor’s edge.

Fate operates when people give up.

A major fact of our present civilization is that more and more sin becomes collective, and the individual is forced to participate in collective sin.

The goal of modern propaganda is no longer to transform opinion but to arouse an active and mythical belief.

No matter what God’s power may be, the first aspect of God is never that of the absolute Master, the Almighty. It is that of the God who puts himself on our human level and limits himself.

Propaganda ceases where simple dialogue begins.

The Holy Spirit alone can do this, the Holy Spirit alone can establish this link with one’s neighbor.

It is true that we still talk about “happiness” or “liberty” or “justice,” but people no longer have any idea of the content of the phrases, nor of the conditions they require, and these empty phrases are only used in order to take measures which have no relation to these illusions.