The Best Jacques Ellul quotes

Philosophy which asserts that human experience repeats itself is ineffectual. — Jacques Ellul

No technique is possible when men are free. Technique requires predictability and, no less, exactness of prediction. It is necessary, then, that technique prevail over the human being. — Jacques Ellul

The human being is changing slowly under the pressure of the economic milieu; he is in process of becoming the uncomplicated being the liberal economist constructed. — Jacques Ellul

No matter what God’s power may be, the first aspect of God is never that of the absolute Master, the Almighty. It is that of the God who puts himself on our human level and limits himself. — Jacques Ellul

It is the multiplication of men who are exluded from working which provokes war. We ought at least to bear this in mind when we boast of the continual decrease in human participation in technical operations. — Jacques Ellul

Everyone has been taught that technique is an application of science…. This traditional view is radically false. It takes into account only a single category of science and only a short period of time — Jacques Ellul

Science brings to the light of day everything man had believed sacred. Technique takes possession of it and enslaves it. — Jacques Ellul

The individual who is the servant of technique must be completely unconscious of himself. — Jacques Ellul

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

The will of the world is always a will to death, a will to suicide. We must not accept this suicide, and we must so act that it cannot take place. — Jacques Ellul

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

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. — Jacques Ellul

The work of Christian intellectuals is not done in the abstract; it is effective participation in the preservation of the world, and in the building up of the church. — Jacques Ellul

Our civilization is first and foremost a civilization of means; in the reality of modern life, the means, it would seem, are more important than the ends. — Jacques Ellul

No one knows where we are going, the aim of life has been forgotten, the end has been left behind. Man has set out at tremendous speed–to go nowhere. — Jacques Ellul

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. — Jacques Ellul

What constantly marked the life of Jesus was not nonviolence but in every situation the choice not to use power. — Jacob E Van Vleet

For in a civilization which has lost the meaning of life, the most important thing a Christian can do is to live, and life, understood from the point of view of faith, has an extraordinary explosive force. — Jacques Ellul

What we are witnessing at the moment is a rearrangement of the world in an intermediate stage; the change is not in the use of a natural force but in the application of technique to all spheres of life. — Jacques Ellul

God is not an encyclopedia whose task is to satisfy our curiosity. — Jacques Ellul

Hate, hunger, and pride make better levers of propaganda than do love or impartiality. — Jacques Ellul

Salvation is universal because the love of God encompasses all. If God is God and if God is love, nothing is outside the love of God. A place like hell is thus inconceivable. — Jacques Ellul

When God picks out a man and speaks to him, it is to engage him in a work, an action. Nowhere in Scripture do we find indeterminate or purely mystical vocation. — Jacques Ellul

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

Politics] is always a means of conquering others and exercising power over them. — Jacques Ellul

By thinking globally I can analyze all phenomena, but when it comes to acting, it can only be local and on a grassroots level if it is to be honest, realistic, and authentic. — Jacques Ellul