Magic enables man to carry out with confidence his important tasks, to maintain his poise and his mental integrity in fits of anger, in the throes of hate, of unrequited love, of despair and anxiety. The function of magic is to ritualize man's optimism, to enhance his faith in the victory of hope over fear. Magic expresses the greater value for man of confidence over doubt, of steadfastness over vacillation, of optimism over pessimism.
Interpretation
Magic symbolizes the ability to maintain optimism and confidence in challenging situations.
This quote by Bronislaw Malinowski highlights the importance of having confidence and maintaining hope in the face of adversity, such as anger, hate, or despair. He suggests that magic serves as a metaphor for our inner strength and optimism, reminding us that our faith and assurance can help us overcome fear and doubt, allowing us to navigate life's difficulties with grace and resilience.
In practice
During a motivational speech to inspire resilience in students facing exams.
Coastal sailing as long as it is perfectly safe and easy commands no magic. Overseas expeditions are invariably bound up with ceremonies and ritual. Man resorts to magic only where chance and circumstances are not fully controlled by knowledge.
The anthropologist must relinquish his comfortable position in the long chair on the veranda of the missionary compound, Government station, or planter's bungalow, where, armed with pencil and notebook and at times with a whisky and soda, he has been accustomed to collect statements from informants.... He must go out into the villages, and see the natives at work in gardens, on the beach, in the jungle; he must sail with them to distant sandbanks and to foreign tribes.
The final goal ... is to grasp the native's point of view, _x000D_ his relation to life, to realise his vision of his world.
There are no peoples however primitive without religion and magic. Nor are there, it must be added at one, any savage races lacking in either the scientific attitude, or in science, though this lack has been frequently attributed to them.
When you see yourself doing something badly and nobody's bothering to tell you anymore, that's a very bad place to be. Your critics are the ones telling you they still love you and care.
There are many ways to calm a negative energy without suppressing or fighting it. You recognize it, you smile to it, and you invite something nicer to come up and replace it; you read some inspiring words, you listen to a piece of beautiful music, you go somewhere in nature, or you do some walking meditation.
One of the things I learned, the easiest of lessons, was that the better you do your job, often going against conventional mores, the less popular you are likely to be.
He who is able to conquer others is powerful; he who is able to conquer himself is more powerful.
Generally speaking, if a human being never shows anger, then I think something's wrong. He's not right in the brain.
It is really the mistake of our age. We think it is enough to discover new things, but we don't realize that knowing more demands a corresponding development of morality.
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