“If I were to give a summary of the tendency of our times, I would say, Quantity. The multitude, the mass spirit, dominates everywhere, destroying quality. Our entire life--production, politics, and education--rests on quantity, on numbers. The worker who once took pride in the thoroughness and quality of his work, has been replaced by brainless, incompetent automatons, who turn out enormous quantities of things, valueless to themselves, and generally injurious to the rest of mankind. Thus quantity, instead of adding to life's comforts and peace, has merely increased man's burden.” IfsMenGivingHas BeensSpiritTurnsNumbersQualityMankindPrideComfortMassWorkersProductionsBurdenEnormousTendenciesOur TimeDestroyingQuantityReplacedMultitudesIncompetentSummaryValuelessThoroughnessBrainlessEnormous Quantities Book:Anarchism and Other Essays Source: Anarchism and Other Essays
“For centuries, the mystics of spirit had existed by running a protection racket - by making life on earth unbearable, then charging you for consolation and relief, by forbidding all the virtues that make existence possible, then riding on the shoulders of your guilt, by declaring production and joy to be sins, then collecting blackmail from the sinners.” RunningEarthJoySpiritReligionSinExistenceVirtueCenturyGuiltProductionsProtectionShouldersReliefSinnerRidingConsolationUnbearableCollectingDeclaringRacketChargingBlackmail Book:For the New Intellectual: The Philosophy of Ayn Rand (50th Anniversary Edition) Source: For the New Intellectual: The Philosophy of Ayn Rand (50th Anniversary Edition)
“The division between the useful arts and the fine arts must not be understood in too absolute a manner. In the humblest work of the craftsmen, if art is there, there is a concern for beauty, through a kind of indirect repercussion that the requirements of the creativity of the spirit exercise upon the production of an object to serve human needs.” IfsNeedsHumansKindArtSpiritCreativityObjectsFineExerciseUnderstoodArt IsConcernAbsolutesProductionsCraftsDivisionRequirementsFine ArtsRepercussionsHuman NeedsIndirectCraftsman Author:Jacques Maritain