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Quote by Allan Bloom

“The utilitarian behaves sensibly in all that is required for preservation but never takes account of the fact that he must die... His whole life is absorbed in avoiding death, which is inevitable, and therefore he might be thought to be the most irrational of men, if rationality has anything to do with understanding ends or comprehending the human situation as such.”

Quote by Allan Bloom

Author

Allan Bloom was an influential American philosopher, born on September 14, 1930, and died on October 7, 1992. He is one of the most influential philosophers of the 20th century, known for his profound understanding and unique insights into Western philosophy. more

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“These sociologists who talk to facilely about the sacred are like a man who keeps a toothless old circus lion around the house in order to experience the thrills of the jungle.”

Men Order House Sacred Lions Jungle Circus Sociologists Toothless

Author:Allan Bloom

“Sycophancy toward those who hold power is a fact in every regime, and especially in a democracy, where, unlike tyranny, there is an accepted principle of legitimacy that breaks the inner will to resist.... Flattery of the people and incapacity to resist public opinion are the democratic vices, particularly among writers, artists, journalists and anyone else who is dependent on an audience.”

People Facts Artist Opinion Principles Break Audience Democracy Democratic Vices Accepted Tyranny Journalist Dependent Regimes Flattery Public Opinion Legitimacy Incapacity

Book:Closing of the American Mind

Source: Closing of the American Mind

“There is no real education that does not respond to felt need; anything else acquired is trifling display.”

Needs Doe Real Felt Display Trifling Real Education

Book:Closing of the American Mind

Source: Closing of the American Mind

“Education is not sermonizing to children against their instincts and pleasures, but providing a natural continuity between what they feel and what they can and should be.”

Feels Should Children Natural Pleasure Instinct Providing Continuity

Book:Closing of the American Mind

Source: Closing of the American Mind

“The self is the modern substitute for the soul.”

Soul Self Modern Substitutes

Author:Allan Bloom

“It is easy today to deny God's creativity as a thing of the benighted past, overcome by science, but man's creativity, a thing much more improbable and nothing but an imitation of God's, exercises a strange attraction.”

Men Today Past Easy Creativity Strange Exercise Overcoming Deny Attraction Imitation Improbable

Book:Closing of the American Mind

Source: Closing of the American Mind

“Education in our times must try to find whatever there is in students that might yearn for completion, and to reconstruct the learning that would enable them autonomously to seek that completion.”

Trying Might Education Students Our Time Completion Reconstruction

Book:Closing of the American Mind

Source: Closing of the American Mind

“I am not a conservative — neo or paleo. Conservatism is a respectable outlook... I just do not happen to be that animal.”

Happens Animal Conservative Outlook Conservatism Respectable

Author:Allan Bloom

“The substance of my being has been informed by the books I learned to care for.”

Has Beens Book Care Substance

Book:Closing of the American Mind

Source: Closing of the American Mind

“Law may prescribe that the male nipples be made equal to the female ones, but they still will not give milk.”

Giving May Made Stills Law Equal Female Males Milk Nipples

Book:Closing of the American Mind

Source: Closing of the American Mind