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

“Being alive and being a woman is all I got but being colored is a metaphysical dilemma I haven't conquered yet”
― Ntozake Shange, quote from for colored girls who have considered suicide/when the rainbow is enuf


“Llevo deseando encontrar el amor desde que era pequeña. El amor que ves en la televisión o sobre el cual lees en los libros, ese en el que descubres tu otra mitad - la persona con la que estás destinada a pasar el resto de tu vida - y de repente te sientes completa.
[...] Siempre he pensado que el amor verdadero me abrasaría.”
― Theo Lawrence, quote from Mystic City


“It's to have people see her instead of her condition. That's all that anybody with a disability wants. Don't sum up the person based on what you see, or what you don't understand; get to know them.”
― Wendelin Van Draanen, quote from The Running Dream


“Bobby had a secret. You know what it was? It took nothing to make him happy. That was it. He held happiness in his hand easy as if he'd just, I don't know, plucked a blade of grass form the ground. And all he did his whole short life was offer that happiness to anybody who'd smile at him. That's all he wanted form me. From you. From anybody. A smile.”
― William Kent Krueger, quote from Ordinary Grace


“Each day my reason tells me so; But reason doesn't rule in love, you know.”
― Molière, quote from The Misanthrope


Interesting books

Captive in the Dark
(61.7K)
Captive in the Dark
by C.J. Roberts
Lord of Misrule
(42.2K)
Lord of Misrule
by Rachel Caine
The Constitution of the United States of America
(21.3K)
Midnight Alley
(53.7K)
Midnight Alley
by Rachel Caine
Among the Hidden
(100.8K)
Among the Hidden
by Margaret Peterson Haddix
The Complete Stories
(30.6K)
The Complete Stories
by Flannery O'Connor

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.