The sort of dependence that results from exchange, i.e., from commercial transactions, is a reciprocal dependence. We cannot be dependent upon a foreigner without his being dependent on us. Now, this is what constitutes the very essence of society. To sever natural interrelations is not to make oneself independent, but to isolate oneself completely.
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The pillars of truth and the pillars of freedom--they are the pillars of society.
The pillars of truth and the pillars of freedom--they are the pillars of society.
Every man's ability may be strengthened or increased by culture.
Every man's ability may be strengthened or increased by culture.
Civilized man has always had a great inclination to read his conceptions and feelings into the mind of primitive man; read more
Civilized man has always had a great inclination to read his conceptions and feelings into the mind of primitive man; but he has only a limited capacity for understanding the latter's undeveloped mental life and for interpreting, as it were, his nature.
It is not at all simple to understand the simple.
It is not at all simple to understand the simple.
Without an element of the obscene there can be no true and deep aesthetic or moral conception of life...It is read more
Without an element of the obscene there can be no true and deep aesthetic or moral conception of life...It is only the great men who are truly obscene. If they had not dared to be obscene they could never have dared to be great.
When grubbing for necessities man is still an animal. He becomes uniquely human when he reaches out for the superfluous read more
When grubbing for necessities man is still an animal. He becomes uniquely human when he reaches out for the superfluous and extravagant.
...man has an irrepressible tendency to read meaning into the buzzing confusion of sights and sounds impinging on his senses; read more
...man has an irrepressible tendency to read meaning into the buzzing confusion of sights and sounds impinging on his senses; and where no agreed meaning can be found, he will provide it out of his own imagination.
It is only because the majority opinion will always be opposed by some that our knowledge and understanding progress. In read more
It is only because the majority opinion will always be opposed by some that our knowledge and understanding progress. In the process by which opinion is formed, it is very probable that, by the time any view becomes a majority view, it is no longer the best view: somebody will already have advanced beyond the point which the majority have reached. It is because we do not yet which of the many competing new opinions will prove itself the best that we wait until it has gained sufficient support.
Society is like a lawn where every roughness is smoothed, every bramble eradicated, and where the eye is delighted by read more
Society is like a lawn where every roughness is smoothed, every bramble eradicated, and where the eye is delighted by the smiling verdure of a velvet surface.
