Bertrand Russell Quotes 366 |
One of the troubles about vanity is that it grows with what it feeds on. The more you are talked about, the more you will wish to be talked about. ... It is scarcely possible to exaggerate the influence of vanity throughout the range of human life, from the child of three to the potentate at whose frown the world trembles. Mankind have even committed the impiety of attributing similar desires to the Deity, whom they imagine avid for continual praise.
Source: Human Society in Ethics and Politics, 1954, part II: The Conflict of Passions, chapter 2: Politically important desires, n.5
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Humans have a desire for self-exaltation, a desire to be slightly superior to others, and many other desires. The irony is that man created God in the image of man, and that it is ‘disrespectful to God’ for man to think that God also has a desire to continue to be admired. Although fanatics will not appreciate this irony of Russell's, there have been ‘praise wars against God’ all over the world.
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