Scottish - Scientist | November 8, 1846 - March 31, 1894
This being so, it follows that mythology ought not to take the prominent place that is too often assigned to it in the scientific study of ancient faiths.
William Robertson Smith
PlaceStudyMythologyTakeAncient
This, it may be said, is no more than a hypothesis... only of that force of precedent which in all times has been so strong to keep alive religious forms of which the original meaning is lost.
StrongMeaningAliveLostSaidMore
Thus a man was born into a fixed relation to certain gods as surely as he was born into a relation to his fellow-men; and his religion... was simply one side of the general scheme of conduct prescribed for him by his position as a member of society.
ManReligionSocietyBornHimSide
We are so accustomed to think of religion as a thing between individual men and God that we can hardly enter into the idea of a religion in which a whole nation in its national organisation appears as the religious unit.
GodMenReligionThinkNationWhole
Copyright © 2024 QuotesDict William Robertson Smith quotes