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Jacques Barzun

Jacques Barzun Quotes

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Famous Jacques Barzun Quotes

“We are accustomed to the artist scoundrel or specialist in vice, and unaccustomed to the creator in whom passion and reason and moral integrity hold in balance. But greatness of intellect and feeling, or soul and conduct - magnanimity, in short - does occur; it is not a myth for boy scouts, and its reality is important, if only to give us the true range of the term "human," which we so regularly define by its lower reaches.”

IfsGivingHumansDoeImportantSoulReasonFeelingsRealityArtistPassionTermMoralBoysGreatnessBalanceIntegrityVicesCreatorIntellectMythRangeAccustomedSpecialistsScoundrelsMagnanimityBoy ScoutMoral Integrity
Author:Jacques Barzun
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“A person is not a democrat thanks to his ignorance of literature and the arts, nor an elitist because he or she has cultivated them. The possession of knowledge makes for unjust power over others only if used for that very purpose: a physician or lawyer or clergyman can exploit or humiliate others, or he can be a humanitarian and a benefactor. In any case, it is absurd to conjure up behind anybody who exploits his educated status the existence of an "elite" scheming to oppress the rest of us.”

IfsPersonsArtUsedPurposeLiteratureBehindsExistenceCasesIgnoranceDemocratPossessionHumanitarianLawyerAbsurdEducatedThanksElitesPhysiciansUnjustExploitsElitistHumiliateClergymenBenefactorsPower Over Others
Author:Jacques Barzun
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“A culture may be conceived as a network of beliefs and purposes in which any string in the net pulls and is pulled by the others,thus perpetually changing the configuration of the whole. If the cultural element called morals takes on a new shape, we must ask what other strings have pulled it out of line. It cannot be one solitary string, nor even the strings nearby, for the network is three-dimensional at least.”

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Book:The Culture We Deserve
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