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Degeneration Quotes

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Degeneration Quotes

“Between the pleasure of a kiss and of what a man and woman do in bed seems to me only a gradation. A kiss, for instance, is not to be minimized, or its value judged by anyone else. I wonder do these men grade their pleasure in terms of whether their actions produce a child or not, and do they consider them more pleasant if they do. It is a question of pleasure after all, and what's the use debating the pleasure of an ice cream cone versus a football gamme--or a Beethoven quartet versus the Mona Lisa. I'll leave that to the philosophers. But their attitude was that I must be somehow demented or blind (plus a kind of regret, I thought, at the fact that a fairly attractive woman is presumably unavailable to men). [...] The most important point I did not mention and was not thought of by anyone--that the rapport between two men or two women can be absolute and perfect, as it can never be between man and woman, and perhaps some people want just this, as others want that more shifting and uncertain thing that happens between men and women. It was said or at least implied yesterday that my present course would bring me to the depths of human vice and degeneration. Yes, I have sunk a good deal since they took you from me. It is true, if I were to go on like this and be spied upon, attacked, never possessing one person long enough so that knowledge of a person is a superficial thing--that is degeneration. Or to live against one's grain, that is degeneration by definition.”

PleasureAttitudeViceRapportDementedDegenerationPhilosophers
Book:The Price of Salt
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“Every great phenomenon is followed by degeneration, particularly in the realm of art. The model of the great man stimulates vainer natures to imitate him outwardly or to surpass him; in addition, all great talents have the fateful quality of stifling many weaker forces and needs, and seem to devastate the nature around them. The most fortunate instance in the development of art is when several geniuses reciprocally keep each other in check; in this kind of a struggle, weaker and gentle natures are generally also allowed air and light.”

ArtCultureGeniusCompetitionArtistsRivalryDegenerationGenuises
Book:Human, All Too Human: A Book for Free Spirits
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“Завжди існуватимуть жадібні люди. Зрештою вони завжди там, де є (чи мали би бути) гроші. Але жадібні люди шахраюватимуть чи дозволятимуть собі недбало ставитися, лише якщо відчуватимуть, що навряд чи їхній злочин помітять, чи суворо покарають за нього.”

EconomyDeclineCivil SocietyDegenerationCourts
Book:The Great Degeneration
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“The religionists are the enemies of liberty, and the friends of liberty attack religion; the high-minded and the noble advocate bondage, and the meanest and most servile preach independence; honest and enlightened citizens are opposed to all progress, whilst men without patriotism and without principle put themselves forward as the apostles of civilization and intelligence. Has such been the fate of the centuries which have preceded our own? and has man always inhabited a world like the present, where all things are out of their natural connections, where virtue is without genius, and genius without honor; where the love of order is confounded with a taste for oppression, and the holy rites of freedom with a contempt of law; where the light thrown by conscience on human actions is dim, and where nothing seems to be any longer forbidden or allowed, honorable or shameful, false or true?”

ReligionLibertySocietyPostmodernismDegeneration1835
Book:Democracy in America
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“It was inevitable, as soon as legends of miracles became attached to the names of the great mystics, that the credulous masses should applaud imposture more than true devotion; the cult of the saints, against which orthodox Islam ineffectually protested, promoted ignorance and superstition, and confounded charlatanry with lofty speculation. To live scandalously, to act impudently, to speak unintelligibly—this was the easy highroad to fame, wealth, and power.”

IslamCorruptionSufismDegeneration1950Charlatanism
Book:Sufism: An Account of the Mystics of Islam
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“This faith in themselves was in the hearts of our ancestors, this faith in themselves was the motive power that pushed them forward and forward in the march of civilisation, and if there has been degeneration, if there has been defect, mark my words, you will find that degeneration to have started on the day our people lost faith in themselves.”

PeopleIfsHeartHas BeensFaithLostMarkMotiveMarchAncestorDefectsCivilisationDegenerationLost Faith
Book:Swami Vivekananda's Rousing Call to Hindu Nation
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“I am convinced that 1941 will be the crucial year of a great New Order in Europe. The world shall open up for everyone. Privileges for individuals, the tyranny of certain nations and their financial rulers shall fall. And last of all this year will help to provide the foundations of a real understanding among peoples, and with it the certainty of conciliation among nations. . . . Those nations who are still opposed to us will some day recognize the greater enemy within. Then they will join us in a combined front, a front against Jewish exploitation and racial degeneration.”

WorldYearsStillsRealHelpingLastsCertainOrderFallIndividualNationsUnderstandingEnemyGreaterFrontsEuropeFoundationFinancialPrivilegeConvincedTyrannyCertaintyCrucialRulersExploitationDegenerationEnemy Within
Author:Adolf Hitler
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“The daily press is the evil principle of the modern world, and time will only serve to disclose this fact with greater and greater clearness. The capacity of the newspaper for degeneration is sophistically without limit, since it can always sink lower and lower in its choice of readers. At last it will stir up all those dregs of humanity which no state or government can control.”

WorldStatesFactsGovernmentLastsHumanityChoicesEvilPrinciplesGreaterModernReaderLimitsCapacityPressesNewspapersModern WorldDregsClearnessDegeneration
Author:Soren Kierkegaard
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“It is not till it is discovered that high individual incomes will not purchase the mass of mankind immunity from cholera, typhus, and ignorance, still less secure them the positive advantages of educational opportunity and economic security, that slowly and reluctantly, amid prophecies of moral degeneration and economic disaster, society begins to make collective provision for needs which no ordinary individual, even if he works overtime all his life, can provide himself.”

IfsNeedsStillsOpportunityIndividualJusticeMoralEconomicMankindSecurityIgnoranceDiversityMassOrdinaryAdvantageSocial JusticeEducationalDisasterIncomeSecureCollectivesProphecyProvisionImmunityCholeraDegenerationEconomic SecurityTyphus
Author:R. H. Tawney
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“Ageing destroys youth, sickness destroys health, degeneration of life destroys all excellent qualities and death destroys life. Even if you are a great runner, you cannot run away from death. you cannot stop death with your wealth, through your magic performances or recitation of mantras or even medicines. Therefore, it is wise to prepare for your death.”

IfsRunningDeathWealthQualityWiseMagicDyingYouthPerformancesMedicineExcellentSicknessRunning AwayRunnersAgeingMantrasDegenerationRecitation
Author:Dalai Lama
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“Human beings are compelled to live within a lie, but they can be compelled to do so only because they are in fact capable of living in this way. Therefore not only does the system alienate humanity, but at the same time alienated humanity supports this system as its own involuntary master plan, as a degenerate image of its own degeneration, as a record of people's own failure as individuals.”

PeopleWayHumansDoeFactsLyingHumanityIndividualHuman BeingsSupportRecordsPlansMastersCapableCompelledAlienationDegeneratesInvoluntaryDegeneration
Book:The Power of the Powerless: Citizens Against the State in Central Eastern Europe: Citizens Against the State in Central Eastern Europe
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“It is thought that the virus is a degeneration from a more complex life form. It may at one time have been capable of independent life. Now has fallen to the borderline between living and dead matter. It can exhibit living qualities only in a host, by using the life of another-the renunciation of life itself, a falling towards inorganic, inflexible machine, towards dead matter”

MayHas BeensMatterFormFallQualityCapableMachinesIndependentComplexesFallenHostOne TimeVirusesExhibitsRenunciationBorderlineDegenerationIndependent Life
Book:Word Virus: The William S. Burroughs Reader
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“The injurious agent in cigarettes comes principally from the burning paper wrapper. The substance thereby formed is called "acrolein." It has a violent action on the nerve centers, producing degeneration of the cells of the brain, which is quite rapid among boys. Unlike most narcotics, this degeneration is permanent and uncontrollable. I employ no person who smokes cigarettes.”

PersonsActionScienceBrainBoysPaperViolentAgentsCellsBurningSmokeSubstancePermanentNervesCigaretteRapidsUncontrollableNarcoticsDegeneration
Author:Thomas A. Edison
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“Every attempt to employ mathematical methods in the study of chemical questions must be considered profoundly irrational and contrary to the spirit of chemistry.... if mathematical analysis should ever hold a prominent place in chemistry -- an aberration which is happily almost impossible -- it would occasion a rapid and widespread degeneration of that science.”

IfsShouldSpiritStudyImpossibleMethodContraryOccasionsMathematicalAnalysisChemistryChemicalsIrrationalRapidsProminentAberrationDegenerationMathematical Analysis
Author:Auguste Comte
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“It would be wrong to assume that one must stay with a research programme until it has exhausted all its heuristic power, that one must not introduce a rival programme before everybody agrees that the point of degeneration has probably been reached.”

Would BeResearchAgreeAssumingIntroducingExhaustedRivalsProgrammesDegenerationHeuristics
Book:The Methodology of Scientific Research Programmes: Volume 1: Philosophical Papers
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“Hysteria and degeneration have always existed; but they formerly showed themselves sporadically, and had no importance in the life of the whole community. It was only the vast fatigue which was experienced by the generation on which the multitudes of discoveries and innovations burst abruptly, imposing on it organic exigencies greatly surpassing its strength, which created favourable conditions under which these maladies could gain ground enormously, and become a danger to civilization.”

WholeCommunityGenerationsConditionsDangerCivilizationDiscoveryGainsImportanceInnovationMultitudesFatigueImposingHysteriaMaladySurpassingDegeneration
Book:Degeneration
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“In a world where so much seems to be hidden by the smoke of falsity and moral degeneration, we Americans must grasp firmly the ideals which have made this country great. We must reaffirm the basic human values that have guided our forefathers. A revival of old-fashioned patriotism and a grateful acknowledgment of what our country has done for us would be good for all our souls.”

WorldHumansMadeSoulCountryDoneSeemsWould BeValuesMoralIdealsGratefulBe GoodOur CountrySmokeOld FashionedRevivalForefathersHuman ValuesAcknowledgmentFalsityDegeneration
Author:Manton S. Eddy
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