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.
Because he (the Sage) demands no honor, he will never be dishonored.
Will you be clever at the expense of others, or will you be kind?
She was fluent in four languages and yet her fists against the rusted hood were the fullest articulation of her defeat.
Stupidity is the deliberate cultivation of ignorance.
The most important thing in life is to dare. The most complicated thing in life is to be afraid. The smartest thing in the world is to try to be a moral person.
That which hurts, also instructs.
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