Culture Quotes

To my mind, this embracing of what were unambiguously children's characters at their mid-20th century inception seems to indicate a retreat from the admittedly overwhelming complexities of modern existence. It looks to me very much like a significant section of the public, having given up on attempting to understand the reality they are actually living in, have instead reasoned that they might at least be able to comprehend the sprawling, meaningless, but at-least-still-finite 'universes' presented by DC or Marvel Comics. I would also observe that it is, potentially, culturally catastrophic to have the ephemera of a previous century squatting possessively on the cultural stage and refusing to allow this surely unprecedented era to develop a culture of its own, relevant and sufficient to its times.

~ Alan Moore

Whereas, in the west, individuality and drive are considered positive qualities, they are not seen the same way, in Japan. In that country, if you are too much of a rugged individualist, it might actually indicate that you are a weak, unreliable character and that you are selfish, in a childish, willful kind of way.

~ Alexei Maxim Russell

Never trust a German to get a sauce right. Their solution to everything is just add more butter.

~ Kate Quinn

Addiction is to the habits of mind that technology allows us to practice.

~ Sherry Turkle

As adults, we can develop and change our opinions. In childhood, we establish the truth of our hearts.

~ Sherry Turkle

She had set it on the Internet, its own peculiar echo chamber.

~ Sherry Turkle

Politics is always driven by competing worries.

~ George F. Will

Violence is temporary, but learning is permanent.

~ Patrick Hennessey

Another anti-theoretical stratagem is to claim that in order to launch some fundamental critique of our culture, we would need to be standing at some Archimedean point beyond it. What this fails to see is that reflecting critically on our situation is part of our situation. It is a feature of the peculiar way we belong to the world. It is not some impossible light-in-the-refrigerator attempt to scrutinize ourselves when we are not there. Curving back on ourselves is as natural to us as it is to cosmic space or a wave of the sea. It does not entail jumping out of our own skin. Without such self-monitoring we would not have survived as a species.

~ Terry Eagleton

I see the cultural messaging everywhere that says an ordinary life is a meaningless life. . . . I know the yearning to believe that what I'm doing matters and how easy it is to confuse that with the drive to be extraordinary. I know how seductive it is to use the celebrity culture yardstick to measure the smallness of our lives. And I also understand how grandiosity, entitlement, and admiration-seeking feel like just the right balm to soothe the ache of being too ordinary and inadequate.

~ Brené Brown

A cardinal tenet of conservatism is that social inertia is – and ought to be – strong. It discourages and, if necessary, defeats the political grandiosity of those who would attempt to engineer the future by rupturing connections with the past.

~ George F. Will

Since much of American taxes prior to 1763 went to support the local clergy, one humorist suggested the opportunity to vote on that. If the minister was turned out, he could open a tavern and preach to his customers if he served them liquor.

~ Colin G. Calloway

Americans in 1763 lived always in the shadow and presence of death. Death was not yet romanticized as it would be in the 19th century, nor yet sanitized as it would be in the 20th century.

~ Colin G. Calloway

We look at the Ark of the Covenant and remember who we are.

~ Geraldine Brooks

Look at the mirror! Who are you? You are not yourself, you are your culture! Do you want to be yourself? Then leave your prison and discover the paths beyond your path!

~ Mehmet Murat Ildan

This is what technology wants, it wants to be a symptom. Like all psychological symptoms, it obscures a problem by solving it without addressing it.

~ Sherry Turkle

From visible habits we make inferences as to the invisible attributes of the soul. Therefore, statecraft is soulcraft.

~ George F. Will

That I growed up a man and not a beast says something for me.

~ Charles Dickens

Without a doubt, it [Canada] is the land God gave to Cain.

~ Mordecai Richler

Shared history was the coin of the realm.

~ Chris Matthews

Our religion was the religion of a Book. Man must be educated on Earth for Heaven. John Quincy Adams

~ Paul C. Nagel

By our day, self-restraint was considered madness.

~ Mark Sayers

Anecdotes came with his DNA.

~ Chris Matthews

Disequilibrium is often instigated by the will to power, a sleepless drive in the human personality to control others, to force them to do what one wants, or not to do what one opposes.

~ Ron Suskind

Both sides had more confidence in their opponents' weaknesses than their own strength.

~ H.w. Brands

Strong prejudices in an ill-formed mind are hazardous to government.

~ Barbara W. Tuchman

Islam is in a formative period struggling to consolidate the vast reach won by both inspiration and force at its founding. Two centuries along, the faith of Muhammad hangs like an intricate veil: a religion still searching for institutional wholeness, a set of lessons to live by.

~ Ron Suskind

Once information slipped the bonds of gravity and friction, it tended to gather where it was most valuable.

~ H.w. Brands

Shaving was invented to kill time before a date.

~ M*A*S*H Episode Guide Team

He saw the Constitution as the vehicle to keep ecumenical passions in check.

~ Jeffrey Toobin

Cities force growth and make men talkative and entertaining, but they make them artificial. Ralph Waldo Emerson

~ H.w. Brands

A Pakistani exchange student's maternal American host managed to summon the transforming question of her culture, built on the revolutionary idea that people are the sovereign, the boss, captains of their own fate.She said, simply, But what do YOU think?

~ Ron Suskind

This is not an issue of geography. He IS of two worlds wherever he goes.

~ Ron Suskind

Disorder is the least tolerable up sinful conditions.

~ Barbara W. Tuchman

It may be that the voice of the people is the voice of God 51 times out of 100. But the remaining 49 times, it is the voice of the devil, or worse, the voice of a fool. Theodore Roosevelt

~ H.w. Brands

Why, since folly or perversity is expected of individuals, should we expect anything else from government?

~ Barbara W. Tuchman

It does not strike me as a good thing that the only person we can be so, so close to is the person we're dating.

~ Chris Damian

By focusing on her career and taking a calculated approach to amassing power, Heidi violated our stereotypical expectations of women. Yet by behaving in the same manner, Howard lived up to our stereotypical expectations of men. The end result? Liked him, disliked her.

~ Sheryl Sandberg

One of the highest marks of citizenship is fighting for the common defense.

~ Richard Brookhiser

Any man's life can be seen as a series of engagements with his fathers, Including the surrogates provided by life and literature.

~ Richard Brookhiser