“Faith exalts the human heart, by removing it from the market-place, making it sacred and unexchangeable. Under the jurisdiction of religion our deeper feelings are sacralised, so as to become raw material for the ethical life: the life lived in judgement. When faith declines, however, the sacred is unprotected from marauders; the heart can be captured and put on sale. When this happens the human heart becomes kitsch. The clichéd kiss, the doe-eyed smile, the Christmas-card sentiments advertise what cannot be advertised without ceasing to be. They therefore commit the salesman to nothing; they can be bought and sold without emotional hardship, since the emotion, being a fantasy product, no longer exists in its committed and judgement-bearing form.”
Quote by Roger Scruton
Work
Browse quotes and source details for this work. more
Author
Roger Scruton, born on February 27, 1944, is a renowned British philosopher. His research areas include aesthetics, political philosophy, and moral philosophy, which have had a profound impact on the philosophical world. more
You May Also Like
“The overall best is created when what is created is created just for the sheer fun of creating.”
“The entrepreneur is the god of innovation.”
“To see with the eye of an entrepreneur is to see the usefulness in everything.”
“Writing is just building a new world – one character, one place, one maniac at a time.”
“... hindsight is always through bifocals: it peers specifically instead of seeing whole.”
“But hindsight is always through bifocals: it peers specifically instead of seeing whole.”