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Quote by Jacques Barzun

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From Dawn to Decadence: 500 Years of Western Cultural Life, 1500 to the Present

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Jacques Barzun
Jacques Barzun

Jacques Barzun was an American historian, born on November 30, 1907, and passed away on October 25, 2012. He was renowned for his profound insights into Western culture, literature, and history, and is considered one of the most important cultural critics of the 20th century. more

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“And so, it seems to me, it is with our prisons. They are filled with criminals which our virtuous State has made what they are by its iniquitous laws, its grinding monopolies, and the horrible social conditions that result from them. We enact many laws that manufacture criminals, and then a few that punish them. Is it too much to expect that the new social conditions which must follow the abolition of all interference with the production and distribution of wealth will in the end so change the habits and propensities of men that our jails and prisons, our policemen and our soldiers,—in a word, our whole machinery and outfit of defence,—will be superfluous? That, at least, is the Anarchists' belief. It sounds Utopian, but it really rests on severely economic grounds.”

CrimePunishmentUtopianAbolitionPrisons
Book:The Individualist Anarchists: Anthology of Liberty, 1881-1908
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“Tolstoy was not associated with any revolutionary group but his writings had a tremendous influence. A continuous stream of Utopians, rebels and cranks passed in and out of his doors. When I was a guest at Yasnaya Polyana, his country estate, I was shocked by the depth of his despondency, and after he had forecast, with a foresight given only to genius, the bloody upheavals to come, I left his presence deeply regretting that age, moral distress and spiritual loneliness rendered him incapable of looking joyfully forward to what many believed would be the birth of a great and enduring democratic Russian Republic.”

LiteratureDemocracyRevolutionUtopianMisfitsDisillusionRussian RevolutionRebelsTolstoyLeo Tolstoy
Book:Revolution Why, How, When?
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“Margaret: Can I - can I just say something for the future? Leo: Yeah. Margaret: I can sign the President's name. I have his signature down pretty good. Leo: You can sign the President's name? Margaret: Yeah. Leo: On a document removing him from power and handing it to someone else? Margaret: Yeah! Or... do you think the White House Counsel would say that was a bad idea? Leo: I think the White House Counsel would say it was a coup d'etat! Margaret: Well. I'd probably end up doing some time for that. Leo: I would think. And what the hell were you doing practicing the President's signature? Margaret: It was just for fun.”

Writing
Author:Aaron Sorkin
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“Hiçbir şey ilgimi çekmiyordu, her şeyden tiksiniyordum, yaşamak bende kasıntı yapıyordu, nefes almak sinirlerimi ayağa kaldırıyordu, etrafıma bakınca içimden kafamı duvarlara vurmak geliyordu, insanları izlemek midemi bulandırıyordu, sözlerine maruz kalmak cildimi egzamayla kaplıyordu, çirkinliklerine şahit olmak beni sarsıyordu, insanlarla sık sık karşılaşmak soluğumu kesiyordu, hele onlara dokunmak, bunu sadece düşünmek bile beni bayıltabilirdi. Kısacası tüm varoluşumu bu rahatsızlığım üzerine kurgulamıştım.”

DepresyonPesimistşIşmanlayamayan SumocuBunalımKötümserlik
Author:Éric-Emmanuel Schmitt
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