Faustian bargain

1. Faust, in the legend, traded his soul to the devil in exchange for knowledge. To “strike a Faustian bargain” is to be willing to sacrifice anything to satisfy a limitless desire for knowledge or power.

Example Sentences

The BBC story concludes by highlighting the desperation that drove the Trumpists in that community to make a Faustian bargain with their “savior”:

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If we regard Matt’s promise to Mill to play to the lowest common denominator as a Faustian bargain, it’s not one that seems to have any long-term consequences, only scrambling in the moment to keep his job and a modicum of self-respect.

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The more important unanswered questions, however, may concern exactly what Faustian bargain Europe’s far right is making in aligning with Musk, and whether the differences between his techno-libertarianism and Bannon’s retro-macho, supposed working-class populism are purely superficial or more fundamental.

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They made a Faustian bargain together.

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Melissa: Plastics are such a Faustian bargain.

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