Mutual repect implies discretion and reserve even in love itself; it means preserving as much liberty as possible to those whose l...ife we share. We must distrust our instinct of intervention, for the desire to make one's own will prevail is often disguised under the mask of solicitude.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
To suppose that "I know" is a descriptive phrase, is only one example of the descriptive fallacy, so common in philosophy. Even if... some language is now purely descriptive, language was not in origin so, and much of it is still not so. utterance of obvious ritual phrases, in the appropriate circumstances, is not describing the action we are doing, but doing it ("I do"): in other cases it functions, like tone and expression, or again like punctuation and mood, as an intimation that we are employing language in a special way ("I warn," "I ask," "I define"). Such phrases cannot, strictly, be lies, though they can "imply" lies, as "I promise" implies that I fully intend, which may be true.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
An artist is an artist only because of his exquisite sense of beauty, a sense which shows him intoxicating pleasures, but which at... the same time implies and contains an equally exquisite sense of all deformities and all disproportions.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
We have two kinds of "conference." One is that to which the office boy refers when he tells the applicant for a job that Mr. Blevi...tch is "in conference." This means that Mr. Blevitch is in good health and reading the paper, but otherwise unoccupied. The other type of "conference" is bona fide in so far as it implies that three or four men are talking together in one room, and don't want to be disturbed.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
What side of American life is not touched by this antithesis? What explanation of American life is more central or more illuminati...ng? In everything one finds this frank acceptance of twin values which are not expected to have anything in common: on the one hand, a quite unclouded, quite unhypothetical assumption of aesthetic theory ("high ideals"), on the other a simultaneous acceptance of catchpenny realities. Between university ethics and business ethics, between American culture and American humour, between Good Government and Tammany, between academic pedantry and pavement slang, there is no community, no genial middle ground. The very accent of the words "Highbrow" and "Lowbrow" implies an instinctive perception that this is a very unsatisfactory state of affairs. For both are used in a derogatory sense. The "Highbrow" is the superior person whose virtue is admitted but felt to be an inept unpalatable virtue; while the "Lowbrow" is a good fellow one readily takes to, but with a certain scorn for him and all his works.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
Religion means goal and way, politics implies end and means. The political end is recognizable by the fact that it may be attained...--in success--and its attainment is historically recorded. The religious goal remains, even in man's highest experiences, that which simply provides direction on the mortal way; it never enters into historical consummation.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
I think it saves much confusion to regard religion as quite distinct from morality, or the right conduct of life--as having necess...arily nothing to do with these, but as a system of faith and worship, a belief in something extranatural.... Indeed, the most religious people are by no means the most moral. Hence it is that religion so rarely changes the man, or makes him practically any better. Let us keep things separated, religion by itself, and morality by itself. Religion implies a belief in the supernatural; in a personal deity who takes sides with or against us. A man may be pure, noble, virtuous, high-minded, spiritual, and not have a religion.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
Truth is used to vitalize a statement rather than devitalize it. Truth implies more than a simple statement of fact. "I don't have... any whisky," may be a fact but it is not a truth.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
Without culture, and the relative freedom it implies, society, even when perfect, is but a jungle. This is why any authentic creat...ion is a gift to the future.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »