It is not true that the perfection of police power is the result of the state's Machiavellianism or of some transitory influence. The whole structure of society implies it, of necessity. The more we mobilize the forces of nature, the… — Jacques Ellul Copy Share Image
The individual, by means of the discipline imposed on him by sport, not only plays and finds relaxation from the various compulsions to which he is subjected, but without knowing it trains himself for new compulsions. ... Training in sports makes of the individual an efficient piece of apparatus which is henceforth unacquainted with anything but the harsh joys of… — Jacques Ellul Copy Share
Christians were never meant to be normal. We’ve always been holy troublemakers, we’ve always been creators of uncertainty, agents of dimension that’s incompatible with… — Jacques Ellul Copy Share Image
It is inconceivable that the God who gives Himself in His Son to save us, should have created some people ordained to evil and damnation. There can only be one predestination to salvation. In and through Jesus Christ all people are predestined to be saved. Our free choice is ruled out in this regard. God wants free people, except in… — Jacques Ellul Copy Share
Technological society leads to increasing numbers of people who cannot adapt to the inhuman rhythm of modern life with its emphasis on specialization. A class of people is growing up who are unexploitable because they are not worth employing even for the minimum wage. Technological progress makes whole categories of people useless without making it possible to support them with… — Jacques Ellul Copy Share
It is the multiplication of men who are exluded from working which provokes war. We ought at least to bear this in mind when… — Jacques Ellul Copy Share Image
The orchestration of press, radio and television to create a continuous, lasting and total environment renders the influence of propaganda virtually unnoticed precisely because… — Jacques Ellul Copy Share Image
“No society can last in conditions of anarchy. This is self-evident and I am in full agreement. But my aim is not the establishment of an anarchist society or the total destruction of the state. Here I differ from anarchists. I do not believe that it is possible to destroy the modern state. It is pure imagination to think that… — Jacques Ellul Copy Share
The qualities which technique requires for its advance are precisely those characteristics of a technical order which do not represent indivisual intelligence...The individual, in… — Jacques Ellul Copy Share Image
Education no longer has a humanist end or any value in itself; it has only one goal, to create technicians. — Jacques Ellul Copy Share Image
The goal of modern propaganda is no longer to transform opinion but to arouse an active and mythical belief — Jacques Ellul Copy Share Image
Freedom is completely without meaning unless it is related to necessity, unless it represents victory over necessity. — Jacques Ellul Copy Share Image
