Quotes from The Golden Bough

James George Frazer ·  939 pages

Rating: (6.9K votes)


“Small minds cannot grasp great ideas; to their narrow comprehension, their purblind vision, nothing seems really great and important but themselves.”
― James George Frazer, quote from The Golden Bough


“For extending its sway, partly by force of arms, partly by the voluntary submission of weaker tribes, the community soon acquires wealth and slaves, both of which, by relieving some classes from the perpetual struggle for a bare subsistence, afford them an opportunity of devoting themselves to that disinterested pursuit of knowledge which is the noblest and most powerful instrument to ameliorate the lot of man.”
― James George Frazer, quote from The Golden Bough


“For strength of character in the race as in the individual consists mainly in the power of sacrificing the present for the future, of disregarding the immediate temptations of ephemeral pleasure for more distant and lasting sources of satisfaction. The more the power is exercised the higher and stronger becomes the character; till the height of heroism is reached in men who renounce the pleasures of life and even life itself for the sake of winning for others, perhaps in distant ages, the blessings of freedom and truth.”
― James George Frazer, quote from The Golden Bough


“the fear of the human dead, which, on the whole, I believe to have been probably the most powerful force in the making of primitive religion.”
― James George Frazer, quote from The Golden Bough


“So in Scotland witches used to raise the wind by dipping a rag in water and beating it thrice on a stone, saying: “I knok this rag upone this stane To raise the wind in the divellis name, It sall not lye till I please againe.”
― James George Frazer, quote from The Golden Bough



“Thus religion, beginning as a slight and partial acknowledgment of powers superior to man, tends with the growth of knowledge to deepen into a confession of man’s entire and absolute dependence on the divine; his old free bearing is exchanged for an attitude of lowliest prostration before the mysterious powers of the unseen, and his highest virtue is to submit his will to theirs: In la sua volontade è nostra pace.”
― James George Frazer, quote from The Golden Bough


“legend ascribed to the Tauric Diana is familiar to classical readers;”
― James George Frazer, quote from The Golden Bough


“THE PRIMARY aim of this book is to explain the remarkable rule which regulated the succession to the priesthood of Diana at Aricia.”
― James George Frazer, quote from The Golden Bough


“fear of the human dead, which, on the whole, I believe to have been probably the most powerful force in the making of primitive religion.”
― James George Frazer, quote from The Golden Bough


About the author

James George Frazer
Born place: in Glasgow, The United Kingdom
Born date January 1, 1854
See more on GoodReads

Popular quotes

“I just wasn't able to say it before now.'
He blinked. 'You needed to knee a man in the groin before you could tell me you loved me?'
'No!' Then she thought about his words. 'Well, yes, in a way. I've always been so fearful that you would run my life. But I've learned that having you with me doesn't mean that I can't take care of myself as well.'
'You certainly made short work of Eversleigh.'
Her chin lifted a notch and she allowed herself a satisfied smile. 'Yes, I did, didn't I? And do you know, but I think I couldn't have done it without you.'
'Victoria, you did this all on your own. I wasn't even present.'
'Yes, you were.' She picked up his hand and placed it over her heart.”
― Julia Quinn, quote from Everything and the Moon


“He settled for writing a letter, in a quiet corner, while Temeraire dictated his own:

"Gentlemen, I am very happy to accept your commission, and we should like to be the eighty-first regiment, if that number is not presently taken. We do not need any rifles, and we have got plenty of powder and shot for our cannons,” Laurence wrote with a vivid awareness of the reactions this should produce, “but we are always in need of more cows and picks and sheep, and goats would also do, if a good deal easier to come by. Lloyd and our herdsmen have done very well, and I should to commend them to your attention, but there are a lot of us, and some more herdsmen would be very useful.”

“Pepper, put in pepper,” another dragon said, craning her head over; she was a middle-weight, yellowish striped with gray, some kind of cross-breed. “And canvas, we must have a lot of canvas—“

“Oh, very well, pepper,” Temeraire said, and continuing his list of requests added, “I should very much like Keynes to come here, and also Gong Su, and Emily Roland, who has my talon-sheaths, and the rest of my crew; and also we need some surgeons for the wounded me. Dorset had better come, too, and some of the other dragon-surgeons. You had all better not stay where you are at present—“

“Temeraire, you cannot write so to your superior officers,” Laurence said, breaking off.”
― Naomi Novik, quote from Victory of Eagles


“Life arises naturally; where life is, death is, joy is, pain is. Where joy and pain are, ecstacy and horror are, all part of the pattern. They occur as night and day occur on a whirling planet. They are not individually willed into being and shot at persons like arrows. Mankind accepts good fortune as his due, but when bad occurs, he thinks it was aimed at him, done to him, a hex, a curse, a punishment by his deity for some transgression, as though his god were a petty storekeeper, counting up the day’s receipts…”
― Sheri S. Tepper, quote from The Visitor


“Have you spoken with any of these girls?" Sue Ellen asked incredulously."Please do so before suggesting anything requiring thought from their part.”
― quote from Young, Only Once


“...life makes ugly faces at us sometimes, I know.”
― Edith Wharton, quote from The Buccaneers


Interesting books

The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet
(32.3K)
The Long Way to a Sm...
by Becky Chambers
Torture the Artist. Joey Goebel
(1.7K)
Incognito: The Secret Lives of the Brain
(19.5K)
Incognito: The Secre...
by David Eagleman
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass
(401.8K)
Alice's Adventures i...
by Lewis Carroll
The Complete Cosmicomics
(1.6K)
The Complete Cosmico...
by Italo Calvino
The Girl of Ink and Stars
(4.2K)
The Girl of Ink and...
by Kiran Millwood Hargrave

About BookQuoters

BookQuoters is a community of passionate readers who enjoy sharing the most meaningful, memorable and interesting quotes from great books. As the world communicates more and more via texts, memes and sound bytes, short but profound quotes from books have become more relevant and important. For some of us a quote becomes a mantra, a goal or a philosophy by which we live. For all of us, quotes are a great way to remember a book and to carry with us the author’s best ideas.

We thoughtfully gather quotes from our favorite books, both classic and current, and choose the ones that are most thought-provoking. Each quote represents a book that is interesting, well written and has potential to enhance the reader’s life. We also accept submissions from our visitors and will select the quotes we feel are most appealing to the BookQuoters community.

Founded in 2023, BookQuoters has quickly become a large and vibrant community of people who share an affinity for books. Books are seen by some as a throwback to a previous world; conversely, gleaning the main ideas of a book via a quote or a quick summary is typical of the Information Age but is a habit disdained by some diehard readers. We feel that we have the best of both worlds at BookQuoters; we read books cover-to-cover but offer you some of the highlights. We hope you’ll join us.