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Johan Huizinga

Johan Huizinga Quotes

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Famous Johan Huizinga Quotes

“Si se considera que lo serio es aquello que se expresa de manera consecuente en las palabras de la vida alerta, entonces la poesía nunca será algo serio. Se halla más allá de lo serio, en aquel recinto, más antiguo, donde habitan el niño, el animal, el salvaje y el vidente, en el campo del sueño, del encanto, de la embriaguez y de la risa. Para comprender la poesía hay que ser capaz de aniñarse el alma, de investirse el alma del niño como una camisa mágica y de preferir su sabiduría a la del adulto.”

PoesíaJuegoHomo Ludens
Book:Homo Ludens: A Study of the Play Element in Culture
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“If, then, this civilization is to be saved, if it is not to be submerged by centuries of barbarism, but to secure the treasures ofits inheritance on new and more stable foundations, there is indeed need for those now living fully to realize how far the decay has already progressed.”

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Author:Johan Huizinga
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“We are living in a demented world. And we know it. It would not come as a surprise to anyone if tomorrow the madness gave way to afrenzy which would leave our poor Europe in a state of distracted stupor, with engines still turning and flags streaming in the breeze, but with the spirit gone.”

IfsKnowsWorldWayStillsWarStatesSpiritPoorHistoryGoneTomorrowEuropeMadnessSurpriseWar Of The WorldsEnginesWorld War IiFlagsWorld War IBreezeDistractedStreamingDemented
Author:Johan Huizinga
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“He who wishes to maintain that the past of mankind no longer has any absolute value in lifemust also be ready to deny his ownlife until the present moment, indeed in advance until the last moment, as worthless. He who realizes that culture is the giving of form will also see that the highest forms that it is given to the human spirit to recognize have always been, psychologically considered, such evasions from the present. Considerations such as these do not at all square with the direction of America's mind.”

GivingMindHumansMomentsLastsAmericaPastFormSpiritValuesCultureGivenWishRealizingHistoryMankindReadyHighestAbsolutesDenyConsiderationPresent MomentSquaresWorthlessHuman SpiritValue Of LifeEvasion
Author:Johan Huizinga
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“When the world was half a thousand years younger all events had much sharper outlines than now. The distance between sadness and joy, between good and bad fortune, seemed to be much greater than for us; every experience had that degree of directness and absoluteness which joy and sadness still have in the mind of a child”

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Author:Johan Huizinga
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“Science, unguided by a higher abstract principle, freely hands over its secrets to a vastly developed and commercially inspired technology, and the latter, even less restrained by a supreme culture saving principle, with the means of science creates all the instruments of power demanded from it by the organization of Might.”

MeanHandsMightScienceCultureSecretPrinciplesTechnologyHigherOrganizationInstrumentsInspiredSupremeSavingAbstractLatterOver It
Author:Johan Huizinga
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“Today the average inhabitant of the western hemisphere knows a little of everything. He has the newspaper on his breakfast table and wireless within reach. For the evening there is the film, cards, or a meeting to complete a day spent in the office or factory where nothing that is essential has been learnt. With slight variation this picture of a low cultural average holds good over the entire range from factory-hand of clerk to manager or director. Only the personal will to culture, in whatever field and however pursued raises modern man above this level.”

KnowsMenLittlesHas BeensHandsTodayFilmCultureLevelsModernFieldsDirectorsEssentialsOfficeLowsRaisesTablesMeetingsWesternAverageNewspapersCardsEveningManagersRangeBreakfastFactoriesPursuedVariationClerksWirelessModern ManHemisphereWithin Reach
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“If the Americans, in addition to the eagle and the Stars and Stripes and the more unofficial symbols of bison, moose and Indian, should ever need another emblem, one which is friendly and pleasant, then I think they should choose the grapefruit. Or rather the half grapefruit, for this fruit only comes in halves, I believe. Practically speaking, it is always yellow, always just as fresh and well served. And it always comes at the same, still hopeful hour of the morning.”

IfsThinkingNeedsShouldBelieveWellsStillsAmericaI BelieveStarsHoursHalfMorningFruitSymbolsIndianPleasantHopefulFriendlyYellowEaglesStripesEmblemsMooseGrapefruitBison
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“The more the specific feelings of being under obligation range themselves under a supreme principle of human dependence the clearer and more fertile will be the realization of the concept, indispensable to all true culture, of service; from the service of God down to the simple social relationship as between employer and employee.”

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Author:Johan Huizinga
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“Every work of history constructs contexts and designs, forms in which past reality can be comprehended. History creates comprehensibility primarily by arranging facts meaningfully and only in a very limited sense by establishing strict causal connections.”

InspirationalFactsRealityMotivationalPastFormHistoryDesignConnectionsStrictConstructsArranging
Book:Men and Ideas: History, the Middle Ages, the Renaissance
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