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Ordinary Quotes

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Ordinary Quotes

“Nietzsche inveighs against every sort of historical optimism; but he energetically repudiates the ordinary pessimism, which is the result of degenerate or enfeebled instincts of decadence. He preaches with youthful enthusiasm the triumph of a tragic culture, introduced by an intrepid rising generation, in which the spirit of ancient Greece might be born again. He rejects the pessimism of Schopenhauer, for he already abhors all renunciation; but he seeks a pessimism of healthiness, one derived from strength, from exuberant power, and he believes he has found it in the Greeks.”

“Unlike every other product that is now manufactured for the table, wine exists in as many varieties as there are people who produce it. Variations in technique, climate, grape, soil and culture ensure that wine is, to the ordinary drinker, the most unpredictable of drinks, and to the connoisseur the most intricately informative, responding to its origins like a game of chess to its opening move.”

Source: I Drink Therefore I Am: A Philosopher's Guide to Wine

“The culture of the United States has flooded the world. It's the inevitable result of a powerful culture, art. We've got an instinctive touch when it comes to the popular mind because we've had no aristocracy. It is a democratic country. And we know without knowing it, without bothering to understand it, how to reach ordinary people, sometimes with the most vulgar, worthless junk on the face of the earth, but we know how to do it [laughter].”

“May we, as image makers, shapers of the culture, set our sights on things we value, rituals we engage in that heal and serve. May our images honor the ordinary endeavors of common people, and may they make their way to the eyes of the weary - light to the dark, fire to the chill.”

People Way May Light Eye Values Culture Dark Common Fire Honor Ordinary Sight Heal Endeavor Makers Ritual Weary Chill

Book:A Waist Is a Terrible Thing to Mind: A Wake Up Call

Source: A Waist Is a Terrible Thing to Mind: A Wake Up Call

“Calling something exotic emphasizes its distance from the reader. We don't refer to things as exotic if we think of them as ordinary. We call something exotic if it's so different that we see no way to emulate it or understand how it came to be. We call someone exotic if we aren't especially interested in viewing them as people - just as objects representing their culture.”

People Ifs Thinking Way Different Culture Objects Reader Calling Ordinary Distance Representing Exotic Emulate

Author:N.K. Jemisin

“Warhol came from an ordinary family and he had a profound understanding about capitalism and material culture. He was probably one of the few Western artists - or artists from the United States - that could be considered a true product of his time and brought out that kind of spirit of the culture.”

Kind States Spirit Artist Culture Understanding United United States Materials Products Ordinary Capitalism Profound Western Warhol

Author:Ai Weiwei

“If our culture is to be transformed, it will happen from the bottom up - from ordinary believers practicing apologetics over the backyard fence or around the barbecue grill.”

Ifs Happens Culture Ordinary Bottom Believer Transformed Fence Backyards Barbecue Apologetic

Book:How Now Shall We Live?

Source: How Now Shall We Live?

“Our confused society badly needs a community of contrast, a counterculture of ordinary pilgrims who insist living a different way. Unlike popular culture, we will lavish attention on the least "deserving" in direct opposition to our celebrity culture's emphasis on success, wealth, and beauty.”

“The ordinary American voter does not object to mediocrity. He likes his candidate to be sensible, vigorous, and, above all, what he calls 'magnetic,' and does not value, because he sees no need for, originality or profundity, a fine culture or a wide knowledge.”

Needs Doe Values Culture Objects Fine Ordinary Wide Likes Candidates Voters Mediocrity Sensible Originality Vigorous Magnetic Profundity American Voters

Book:The American Commonwealth: Vol. 1: The National Government

Source: The American Commonwealth: Vol. 1: The National Government

“I think a lot of people who were addicts are actually people who had that strong innate need to experience non-ordinary states of consciousness. But because our society has turned into this destructive culture of these horrible drugs that nullify you, they have that experience in a negative way. And then they lose that capacity forever, to have it in a positive way.”

People Thinking Way Needs States Culture Strong Loses Consciousness Forever Drug Ordinary Capacity Negative Horrible Destructive Our Society Addict Innate States Of Consciousness

Author:Daniel Pinchbeck

“I hate these questions - I don't like talking about this stuff [popular culture], because it's so... to me, it's so ordinary.”

Hate Culture Stuff Talking Ordinary I Hate Popular Culture

Author:Edward Snowden

“I remember when Langston Hughes used to write a column in black newspapers around this character Jesse B. Semple. He always used that as a voice, sometimes in comic ways, of having everyday people's voice come through this common folk hero, who was an ordinary working guy. He would talk about anything from police brutality to the Korean War. Those kinds of expression and identification are no longer prevalent in our popular culture.”

“The lowest form of popular culture - lack of information, misinformation, disinformation, and a contempt for the truth or the reality of most people's lives - has overrun real journalism.”

People Real Reality Today Form Culture Information Ordinary Journalism Contempt Lowest Garbage Popular Culture Misinformation Common Culture

Author:Carl Bernstein

“There are no ordinary people. You have never talked to a mere mortal. Nations, cultures, arts, civilizations - these are mortal, and their life is to ours as the life of a gnat. But it is immortals whom we joke with, work with, marry, snub and exploit - immortal horrors or everlasting splendors. This does not mean that we are to be perpetually solemn. We must play. But our merriment must be of that kind (and it is, in fact, the merriest kind) which exists between people who have, from the outset, taken each other seriously - no flippancy, no superiority, no presumption.”

Source: Christian Reflections

“There are no ordinary people. You have never talked to a mere mortal. Nations, cultures, arts, civilizations--these are mortal, and their life is to ours as the life of a gnat.”

People Art Life Is Culture Nations Civilization Ordinary Mere Mortals Ordinary People Merriment Gnats Circumspection Gods And Goddesses Mere Mortals

Book:Christian Reflections

Source: Christian Reflections

“Modern civilization is largely devoted to the pursuit of the cult of delusion. There is no general information about the nature of mind. It is hardly ever written about by writers or intellectuals; modern philosophers do not speak of it directly; the majority of scientists deny it could possibly be there at all. It plays no part in popular culture: no one sings about it, no one talks about it in plays, and it's not on TV. We are actually educated into believing that nothing is real beyond what we can perceive with our ordinary senses.”

“With almost no time to decide, they [your loved ones] gave the entire country an incalculable gift. They saved the capitol from attack. They saved God knows how many lives. They saved the terrorists from claiming the symbolic victory of smashing the center of American government. And they did it as citizens. They allowed us to survive as a country that could fight terror and still maintain liberty and still welcome people from all over the world from every religion and race and culture as long as they shared our values, because ordinary people given no time at all to decide did the right thing.”