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Quote by Allan Bloom

“The importance of these [college] years for an American cannot be overestimated. They are civilization's only chance to get to him.”

Quote by Allan Bloom

Book:Closing of the American Mind

Work

Closing of the American Mind

A seminal work analyzing the impact of modern intellectual movements on American society and culture. more

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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“We are like ignorant shepherds living on a site where great civilizations once flourished.”

Civilization Ignorant Site Fragments Living On Shepherds

Book:Closing of the American Mind

Source: Closing of the American Mind

“We need history, not to tell us what happened or to explain the past, but to make the past alive so that it can explain us and make a future possible.”

Needs Past Alive Happened

Book:Closing of the American Mind

Source: Closing of the American Mind

“Human nature must not be altered in order to have a problem-free world. Man is not just a problem-solving being, as behaviorists would wish us to believe, but a problem-recognizing and -accepting being.”

Men World Believe Humans Problem Order Wish Accepting Human Nature Problem Solving Being Human Recognizing Altered Free World Problem Free

Author:Allan Bloom

“Freedom of the mind requires not only, or not even especially the absence of legal constraints but the presence of alternative thoughts.”

Mind Liberty Absence Alternatives Constraints

Author:Allan Bloom

“All literature up to today is sexist. The Muses never sang to the poets about liberated women. It's the same old chanson from the Bible and Homer through Joyce and Proust.”

Men Today Literature Poet Men And Women Muse Liberated Sexist Joyce Proust Liberated Woman

Book:Closing of the American Mind

Source: Closing of the American Mind

“There is a perennial and unobtrusive view that morality consists in such things as telling the truth, paying one's debts, respecting one's parents and doing no voluntary harm to anyone. Those are all things easy to say and hard to do; they do not attract much attention, and win little honor in the world.”

World Littles Hard Winning Easy Parent Views Attention Honor Morality All Things Debt Harm Telling The Truth

Author:Allan Bloom

“Openness, as currently conceived, is a way of making surrender to whatever is most powerful, or worship of vulgar success, look principled.”

Way Looks Powerful Worship Surrender Most Powerful Openness Vulgar Principled

Book:Closing of the American Mind

Source: Closing of the American Mind

“Professors of Greek forget or are unaware that Thomas Aquinas, who did not know Greek, was a better interpreter of Aristotle than any of them have proved to be, not only because he was smarter but because he took Aristotle more seriously.”

Knows Forget Philosopher Greek Professors Smarter Interpreter

Author:Allan Bloom

“The facile economic and psychological debunking of the theoretical life cannot do away with its irreducible beauties.”

Economic Philosopher Psychological Theoretical

Book:Closing of the American Mind

Source: Closing of the American Mind

“A serious life means being fully aware of the alternatives, thinking about them with all the intensity one brings to bear on life-and-death questions, in full recognition that every choice is a great risk with necessary consequences that are hard to bear.”

Thinking Mean Hard Choices Risk Serious Bears Consequence Recognition Alternatives Life And Death Intensity Seriousness Life Means Great Risk Serious Life

Book:Closing of the American Mind

Source: Closing of the American Mind