He was one of those men who possess almost every gift, except the gift of the power to use them.
Charles KingsleyRead
We have used the Bible as if it was a mere special constable's handbook — an opium-dose for keeping beasts of burden patient while they were being overloaded — a mere book to keep the poor in order.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote critiques the misuse of the Bible as a tool for social control rather than as a source of genuine spiritual guidance.
In this quote, Charles Kingsley expresses his concern that the Bible has often been treated as a manual for maintaining societal order and pacifying the oppressed, rather than being valued for its spiritual and moral teachings. He likens its use to a sedative for the marginalized, suggesting that it has been manipulated by those in power to prevent revolt and maintain their dominance, thus losing its true purpose as a source of hope and ethical guidance.
Themes
BibleSocial ControlOppressionSpiritualityCritique
In practice
Example use cases
This quote can be used in a discussion about the role of religion in society during a public lecture on ethics.
More from Charles Kingsley
All quotes →Beauty is God's handwriting — a wayside sacrament; welcome it in every fair face, every fair sky, every fair flower, and thank for it Him.
Charles KingsleyRead
Take comfort, and recollect however little you and I may know, God knows; He knows Himself and you and me and all things; and His mercy is over all His works.
Charles KingsleyRead
Being forced to work, and forced to do your best, will breed in you temperance and self-control, diligence and strength of will, cheerfulness and content, and a hundred virtues which the idle will never know.
Charles KingsleyRead
Do today's duty, fight to-day's temptation; and do not weaken and distract yourself by looking forward to things which you cannot see, and could not understand if you saw them.
Charles KingsleyRead
You must not talk about 'ain't and can't' when you speak of this great wonderful world round you, of which the wisest man knows only the very smallest corner, and is, as the great Sir Isaac Newton said, only a child picking up pebbles on the shore of a boundless ocean.
Charles KingsleyRead
Similar quotes
Things happen to us in unpredictable ways, but the effect that that has on the kind of people who we become actually is not only open to chance - we can influence it in pretty profound ways.
Clayton M. ChristensenRead
A man should ever, as much as in him lieth, be ready booted to take his journey, and above all things look he have then nothing to do but with himself.
Michel De MontaigneRead
If it is not totalitarian to arrest a man and detain him, when you cannot charge him with any offence against any written law – if that is not what we have always cried out against in Fascist states – then what is it?… If we are to survive as a free democracy, then we must be prepared, in principle, to concede to our enemies – even those who do not subscribe to our views – as much constitutional rights as you concede yourself.
Lee Kuan YewRead
Suddenness," he says. " You do not prepare, you do not explain, you do not apologize. Suddenly, you go. And with you, you take all contemplation, all consideration of your own departure. All the suffering that would have come from knowing comes after you are gone, and you are not a part of it.
Tea ObrehtRead
She would have liked not to be alive, or to be always asleep.
Gustave FlaubertRead
To conquer oneself is the best and noblest victory; to be vanquished by one's own nature is the worst and most ignoble defeat.
PlatoRead