Jacques Ellul

The intellectual who wants to do her work properly must today go back to the starting point: the woman whom she knows, and first of all to herself. It is at that level, and at no other, that she ought to begin to think about the world situation.

I describe a world with no exit convinced that God accompanies man throughout his history.

Propaganda begins when dialogue ends.

For the word is dialectical in itself and at the same time is integrated into the whole of existence. By this I mean that the word is intended to be lived.

The Holy Spirit alone can do this, the Holy Spirit alone can establish this link with one's neighbor.

There are different forms of anarchy and different currents in it. I must, first say very simply what anarchy I have in view. By anarchy I mean first an absolute rejection of violence.

The orchestration of press, radio and television to create a continuous, lasting and total environment renders the influence of propaganda virtually unnoticed precisely because it creates a constant environment.

Belief is reassuring. People who live in the world of belief feel safe. On the contrary, faith is forever placing us on the razor's edge.

All human language draws its nature and value from the fact that it both comes from the Word of God and is chosen by God to manifest himself. But this relationship is secret and incomprehensible, beyond the bounds of reason and analysis.

Propaganda proceeds by psychological manipulations, character modifications, by creation of stereotypes useful when the time comes.The two great routes that this sub-propaganda takes are the conditioned reflex and the myth

Modern technology has become a total phenomenon for civilization, the defining force of a new social order in which efficiency is no longer an option but a necessity imposed on all human activity.

Prayer is not a discourse. It is a form of life, the life with God. That is why it is not confined to the moment of verbal statement.

It is the emergence of mass media which makes possible the use of propaganda techniques on a societal scale.

In sum, thought and reflection have been rendered thoroughly pointless by the circumstances in which modern men and women live and act.

The machine is a tool. But it is not a neutral tool. We are deeply influenced by the machine while using it.

Mass media provides the essential link between the individual and the demands of the technological society.

To the ideal of high consumption and the downgrading of spiritual values corresponds a conception of injustice that centers exclusively on the problem of consumption and equality in consumption cannot be achieved except by violence.

Prayer holds together the shattered fragments of the creation. It makes history possible.

Thinking has become a superfluous exercise... purely internal, without compelling force, more or less a game.

The goal of modern propaganda is no longer to transform opinion but to arouse an active and mythical belief.

Technical civilization has made a great error in not suppressing death the only human reality still intact.