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Spectacles Quotes

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Spectacles Quotes

“One of the stories I love is how Gutenberg’s printing press set off this interesting chain reaction, where all of a sudden people across Europe noticed for the first time that they were farsighted, and needed spectacles to read books (which they hadn’t really noticed before books became part of everyday life); which THEN created a market for lens makers, which then created pools of expertise in crafting lenses, which then led people to tinker with those lenses and invent the telescope and microscope, which then revolutionized science in countless ways.”

PeopleWayFirstsBookStoriesLove IsInterestingNeededFirst TimeEuropePressesEverydayReactionsChainsMakersPoolEveryday LifeLensesExpertisePrintingTelescopesMicroscopesSpectaclesPrinting PressChain ReactionsGutenberg
Author:Steven Johnson
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“Las Vegas suggests that the thirst for places, for cities and gardens and wilderness, is unslaked, that people will still seek out the experience of wandering about in the open air to examine the architecture, the spectacles, and the stuff for sale, will still hanker after surprises and strangers. That the city as a whole is one of the most pedestrian-unfriendly places in the world suggests something of the problems to be faced, but that its attraction is a pedestrian oasis suggests the possibility of recovering the spaces in which walking is viable.”

PeopleWorldStillsWholeProblemStuffSpaceCitiesAirPossibilityWalkingGardenSurpriseStrangerAttractionArchitectureWanderWildernessThirstVegasLas VegasPlaces In The WorldRecoveringOasisSpectaclesPedestriansUnfriendly
Author:Rebecca Solnit
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“He was the man who of all modern, and perhaps ancient poets, had the largest and most comprehensive soul. . . . He was naturally learn'd; he needed not the spectacles of books to read Nature; he looked inwards, and found her there. . . . He is many times flat, insipid; his comic wit degenerating in to clenches, his serious swelling into bombast. But he is always great, when some occasion is presented to him.”

MenBookSoulFoundModernHe ManSeriousPoetNeededAncientWitComicOccasionsFlatsComprehensiveSpectaclesSwellingInsipid
Author:John Dryden
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“After they had accustomed themselves at Rome to the spectacles of the slaughter of animals, they proceeded to those of the slaughter of men, to the gladiators.”

MenLifeDeathAnimalRomeAccustomedSlaughterSpectacles
Book:Works, Comprising His Essays, Letters, and Journey Through Germany and Italy: With Notes from All the Commentators, Biographical and Bibliographical Notices &c., &c
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“You have two kinds of shows on Broadway - revivals and the same kind of musicals over and over again, all spectacles. You get your tickets for 'The Lion King' a year in advance, and essentially a family comes as if to a picnic, and they pass on to their children the idea that that's what the theater is - a spectacular musical you see once a year, a stage version of a movie. It has nothing to do with theater at all. It has to do with seeing what is familiar. We live in a recycled culture.”

IfsYearsKindChildrenTwoIdeasShowsCultureSeeingStageKingsTheaterMusicalTheatreFamiliarVersionsLionsTicketsBroadwayRevivalSpectacularPicnicsSpectaclesRecycledLion King
Author:Stephen Sondheim
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“The man who cannot wonder, who does not habitually wonder (and worship), were he President of innumerable Royal Societies, and carried the whole Mecanique Celeste and Hegel's Philosophy, and the epitome of all Laboratories and Observatories with their results, in his single head, is but a Pair of Spectacles behind which there is no Eye. Let those who have Eyes look through him, then he may be useful.”

PersonsEyeBehindsWonderAwarenessEnthusiasmPairsSpectacles
Author:Thomas Carlyle
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“In societies where modern conditions of productions prevail, all of life presents itself as an immense accumulation of spectacles. Everything that was directly lived has moved away into representation. The images detached from every aspect of life fuse in a common stream in which the unity of this life can no longer be re-established. Reality considered partially unfolds, in its own general unity as a pseudo-world apart, an object of mere contemplation . . . The spectacle is not a collection of images, but a social relation among people, mediated by images.”

PeopleWorldRealitySocialCommonSocietyModernConditionsObjectsAspectRelationMovedUnityMereProductionsThis LifeContemplationStreamsCollectionsImmenseRepresentationAccumulationDetachedPseudoAspects Of LifeFuseSpectaclesSocial RelationsWorlds Apart
Book:Society Of The Spectacle
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“We should, I believe, beware of the pitfalls described by Taine: 'Imagine a man who sets out on a voyage equipped with a pair of spectacles that magnify things to an extraordinary degree. A hair on his hand, a spot on the tablecloth, the shifting fold of a coat, all will attract his attention; at this rate, he will not go far, he will spend his day taking six steps and will never get out of his room.' We have to get out of this room.”

MenShouldBelieveHandsI BelieveRoomsAttentionStepsImagineHairDegreesSixAmbitionExtraordinaryRateSpotsPairsShould ICoatsShiftingFoldsVoyagesSpectaclesPitfalls
Author:Robert Kennedy
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“Estate agents. You can't live with them, you can't live with them. The first sign of these nasty purulent sores appeared round about 1894. With their jangling keys, nasty suits, revolting beards, moustaches and tinted spectacles, estate agents roam the land causing perturbation and despair. If you try and kill them, you're put in prison: if you try and talk to them, you vomit. There's only one thing worse than an estate agent but at least that can be safely lanced, drained and surgically dressed. Estate agents. Love them or loathe them, you'd be mad not to loathe them.”

IfsTryingFirstsHomeOne ThingLandKeysDespairMadPrisonRoundsSuitsAgentsNastyEstatesBeardLoatheDrainedSpectaclesMoustacheEstate Agents
Author:Stephen Fry
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