Nothing defines the quality of life in a community more clearly than people who regard themselves, or whom the consensus chooses t...o regard, as mentally unwell.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
The only questions worth asking today are whether humans are going to have any emotions tomorrow, and what the quality of life wil...l be if the answer is no.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
The future of humanity is uncertain, even in the most prosperous countries, and the quality of life deteriorates; and yet I believ...e that what is being discovered about the infinitely large and infinitely small is sufficient to absolve this end of the century and millennium. What a very few are acquiring in knowledge of the physical world will perhaps cause this period not to be judged as a pure return of barbarism.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
Culture is the name for what people are interested in, their thoughts, their models, the books they read and the speeches they hea...r, their table-talk, gossip, controversies, historical sense and scientific training, the values they appreciate, the quality of life they admire. All communities have a culture. It is the climate of their civilization.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
Life at its noblest leaves mere happiness far behind; and indeed cannnot endure it.... Happiness is not the object of life: life h...as no object: it is an end in itself; and courage consists in the readiness to sacrifice happiness for an intenser quality of life.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
Society is the stage on which manners are shown; novels are the literature. Novels are the journal or record of manners; and the n...ew importance of these books derives from the fact, that the novelist begins to penetrate the surface, and treat this part of life more worthily.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
Manners are the happy way of doing things; each once a stroke of genius or of love--now repeated and hardened into usage. They for...m at last a rich varnish, with which the routine of life is washed, and its details adorned. If they are superficial, so are the dewdrops which give such depth to the morning meadows.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
The novels are as useful as Bibles, if they teach you the secret, that the best of life is conversation, and the greatest success ...is confidence, or perfect understanding between sincere people.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »