“Music may appeal to crude and coarse feelings or to refined and noble ones; and in so far as it does the latter it awakens the higher nature and works an effect, though but a transitory effect, of a beneficial kind. But the primary purpose of music is neither instruction nor culture but pleasure; and this is an all-sufficient purpose.” KindMayDoeFeelingsPurposeCulturePleasureEffectsHigherMusic IsNoblePrimariesAppealsSufficientLatterInstructionBeneficialRefinedCrudeTransitoryCoarse Book:Works Source: Works
“The culture industry perpetually cheats its consumers of what it perpetually promises. The promissory note which, with its plots and staging, it draws on pleasure is endlessly prolonged; the promise, which is actually all the spectacle consists of, is illusory: all it actually confirms is that the real point will never be reached, that the diner must be satisfied with the menu.” RealCulturePleasureIndustryPromiseDrawsNotesSatisfiedConsumersPlotCheatIllusoryMenusDinersStaging Book:Dialectic of Enlightenment Source: Dialectic of Enlightenment
“human beings seem to hold on more tenaciously to a cultural identity that is learned through suffering than to one that has been acquired through pleasure and delight.” HumansHas BeensSeemsSufferingCultureHuman BeingsPleasureIdentityDelightCultural Identity Book:Culture and Commitment Source: Culture and Commitment
“After the pleasure of possessing books there is hardly anything more pleasant than that of speaking of them, and of communicating to the public the innocent richness of thought which we have acquired by the culture of letters.” BookCulturePleasureLettersCommunicateInnocentPleasantRichnessPossessing Author:Charles Nodier
“The time has also come to recognize the painful truth that traditional Judeo-Christian moral values of pain and pleasure in human relationships have contributed substantially to child abuse and to the prevalence of physical violence in Western civilization.... The religious system upon which our culture is based holds that pain, suffering and deprivation are moral and necessary to save one's soul and make one a 'good person.' The crucifixion and scourging of Christ are examples.” HumansChildrenPersonsSoulChristianPainSufferingValuesCultureChristReligiousPleasureMoralViolenceExampleCivilizationAbuseWesternPainfulScaryTraditionalChild AbuseGood PersonHuman RelationsHuman RelationshipsDeprivationWestern CivilizationCrucifixionPain And PleasureMoral ValuesPhysical ViolencePain SufferingPainful Truth Author:James W. Prescott
“Man... is an inextricable tangle of culture and biology. And not being simple, he is not simply good; he has... a kind of hell within him from which rise everlastingly the impulses which threaten his civilization. He has the faculty of imagining for himself more in the way of pleasure and satisfaction than he can possibly achieve. Everything that he gains he pays for in more than equal coin; compromise and the compounding with defeat constitute his best way of getting through the world. His best qualities are the result of a struggle whose outcome is tragic. Yet he is a creature of love.” MenWorldWayKindCultureSimplePleasureResultsPayQualityStruggleHellAchieveCivilizationCreaturesEqualGainsDefeatSatisfactionBest WayCompromiseImpulseOutcomesTragicBiologyFacultyCoins Author:Lionel