{ "type": "topic", "site": { "name": "Leafy Quotes", "language": "en", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com" }, "formats": "Every page has two versions with the same data: JSON (the page address + .json) and markdown (the page address + .md). Append .json or .md to any `url` in this document.", "name": "culture", "slug": "culture", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/culture", "heading": "Quotes about culture", "json": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/culture.json", "markdown": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/culture.md", "quotes_count": 125, "authors_count": 81, "parent": { "name": "society", "slug": "society", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/society", "heading": "Quotes about society" }, "children": [ { "name": "The English", "slug": "the-english", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-english", "heading": "Quotes about The English" } ], "quotes": [ { "id": "02793ed4-ebcf-4e98-a4f6-f39ea8dd2513", "slug": "association-with-women", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/johann-wolfgang-von-goethe/maxims-and-reflections/association-with-women", "text": "Association with women is the basic element of good manners.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Johann Wolfgang von Goethe", "slug": "johann-wolfgang-von-goethe", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/johann-wolfgang-von-goethe" }, "book": { "title": "Maxims and Reflections", "slug": "maxims-and-reflections", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/johann-wolfgang-von-goethe/maxims-and-reflections" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "women", "slug": "women", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/women" }, { "name": "culture", "slug": "culture", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/culture" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Johann_Wolfgang_von_Goethe#Maxims_and_Reflections_(1833)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-26T07:49:14" }, { "id": "b813a754-b5b1-4b57-b9ea-a85aebb0c6d2", "slug": "thats-the-disgusting", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/abi-dare/and-so-i-roar/thats-the-disgusting", "text": "That’s the disgusting reality about the human ability to adapt. At first the shock, the repulsion, is all in 3D — sights and sounds and smells. You recoil and gag and wish for a bath and cry at the devastation. Time passes. You live in it. You spend time in it. You blend, and everything fizzles to normalcy, and that which once repulsed slowly becomes natural, acceptable if you do nothing. That, I realize, is what culture is: doing things a certain way until you get used to it.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Abi Dare", "slug": "abi-dare", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/abi-dare" }, "book": { "title": "And So I Roar", "slug": "and-so-i-roar", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/abi-dare/and-so-i-roar" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "culture", "slug": "culture", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/culture" }, { "name": "habits", "slug": "habits", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/habits" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Abi_Dar%C3%A9#And_So_I_Roar_(2024)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T23:05:22" }, { "id": "7adb128d-462a-4ee0-8db5-95a5e2d8ee2e", "slug": "are-you-familiar", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/matt-hughes/hespira/are-you-familiar", "text": "“Are you familiar with Wallader’s theory that every society is fundamentally organized around one or another of the cardinal sins?” “I believe not,” I said. “He argues that the true seed of every culture, whatever the ideals to which it gives lip service, always turns out to be one of the seven mortal iniquities identified by the ancients: pride, greed, and anger are the most common; lust, gluttony, and envy less so; those based on sloth usually do not last.”", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Matt Hughes", "slug": "matt-hughes", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/matt-hughes" }, "book": { "title": "Hespira", "slug": "hespira", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/matt-hughes/hespira" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 70, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "culture", "slug": "culture", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/culture" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Matthew_Hughes_(writer)#Hespira_(2009)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T23:04:54" }, { "id": "de83be32-5d1c-40b9-918d-70f8923e010d", "slug": "coming-whence-you", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/matt-hughes/fools-errant/coming-whence-you", "text": "Coming whence you do, you doubtless assume that the mores and customs of your own land arise from the workings of simple human nature. But human nature is far from simple, and what appears natural in your own milieu may seem chillingly alien when transported into some foreign sphere.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Matt Hughes", "slug": "matt-hughes", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/matt-hughes" }, "book": { "title": "Fools Errant", "slug": "fools-errant", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/matt-hughes/fools-errant" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 30, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "human nature", "slug": "human-nature", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/human-nature" }, { "name": "culture", "slug": "culture", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/culture" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Matthew_Hughes_(writer)#Fools_Errant_(1994)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T23:04:52" }, { "id": "841a574d-3f59-4c43-9d3a-fcdd5a08b011", "slug": "what-works-evidently", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/daniel-quinn/the-story-of-b/what-works-evidently", "text": "What works, evidently, is cultural diversity. This should not come as a surprise. If culture is viewed as a biological phenomenon, then we should expect to see diversity favored over uniformity. A thousand designs—one for every locale and situation—always works better than one design for all locals and situations. Birds are more likely to survive in ten thousand nest patterns than in one. Mammals are more likely to survive in ten thousand social patterns that in one. And humans are more likely to survive in ten thousand cultures than in one—as we are in the process of proving right now. We’re in the process of making the world unlivable for ourselves—precisely because everyone is being forced to live a single way. There would be no problem if only one person in ten thousand lived the way we live. The problem appears only as we approach the point where only one person in ten thousand is permitted to live any other way than the way we live. In a world of ten thousand cultures, one culture can be completely mad and destructive, and little harm will be done. In a world of one culture—and that one culture completely mad and destructive—catastrophe is inevitable.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Daniel Quinn", "slug": "daniel-quinn", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/daniel-quinn" }, "book": { "title": "The Story of B", "slug": "the-story-of-b", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/daniel-quinn/the-story-of-b" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 219, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "culture", "slug": "culture", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/culture" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Daniel_Quinn#The_Story_of_B_(1996)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T23:04:42" }, { "id": "65bdf813-6cef-4a77-8582-911ffeb4c38a", "slug": "any-culture-will", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/daniel-quinn/the-story-of-b/any-culture-will", "text": "Any culture will become an obscenity when blown up into a universal world culture to which all must belong.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Daniel Quinn", "slug": "daniel-quinn", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/daniel-quinn" }, "book": { "title": "The Story of B", "slug": "the-story-of-b", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/daniel-quinn/the-story-of-b" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 82, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "culture", "slug": "culture", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/culture" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Daniel_Quinn#The_Story_of_B_(1996)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T23:04:41" }, { "id": "a13b01b2-de3a-442a-b924-4db18efe4911", "slug": "literature-must-of-necessity", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/paula-gunn-allen/the-sacred-hoop/literature-must-of-necessity", "text": "Literature must, of necessity, express and articulate the deepest perceptions, relationships, and attitudes of a culture, whether it does so deliberately or accidentally.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Paula Gunn Allen", "slug": "paula-gunn-allen", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/paula-gunn-allen" }, "book": { "title": "The Sacred Hoop", "slug": "the-sacred-hoop", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/paula-gunn-allen/the-sacred-hoop" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "literature", "slug": "literature", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/literature" }, { "name": "culture", "slug": "culture", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/culture" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Paula_Gunn_Allen#Chapter_Two", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T23:04:38" }, { "id": "0a4581cb-fe2d-48bb-8327-821869c8168f", "slug": "the-cultural-bias", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/paula-gunn-allen/the-sacred-hoop/the-cultural-bias", "text": "The cultural bias of the translator inevitably shapes his or her perception of the materials being translated, often in ways that he or she is unaware of. Culture is fundamentally a shaper of perception, after all, and perception is shaped by culture in many subtle ways. In short, it’s hard to see the forest when you’re a tree.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Paula Gunn Allen", "slug": "paula-gunn-allen", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/paula-gunn-allen" }, "book": { "title": "The Sacred Hoop", "slug": "the-sacred-hoop", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/paula-gunn-allen/the-sacred-hoop" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "culture", "slug": "culture", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/culture" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Paula_Gunn_Allen#Chapter_Three", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T23:04:38" }, { "id": "41552d17-dfad-4abd-bed1-7d1368756106", "slug": "losing-a-plant", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/robin-wall-kimmerer/braiding-sweetgrass/losing-a-plant", "text": "Losing a plant can threaten a culture in much the same way as losing a language. [...] The history of the plants is inextricably tied up with the history of the people, with the forces of destruction and creation.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Robin Wall Kimmerer", "slug": "robin-wall-kimmerer", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/robin-wall-kimmerer" }, "book": { "title": "Braiding Sweetgrass", "slug": "braiding-sweetgrass", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/robin-wall-kimmerer/braiding-sweetgrass" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 261, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "nature", "slug": "nature", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/nature" }, { "name": "culture", "slug": "culture", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/culture" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Robin_Wall_Kimmerer#Braiding_Sweetgrass_(2013)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T23:04:32" }, { "id": "3d20dc4b-5a14-4460-807b-c8e4207d9420", "slug": "old-growth-cultures-like", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/robin-wall-kimmerer/braiding-sweetgrass/old-growth-cultures-like", "text": "Old-growth cultures, like , have not been exterminated. The land holds their memory and the possibility of regeneration. They are not only a matter of ethnicity or history, but of relationships born out of reciprocity between land and people.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Robin Wall Kimmerer", "slug": "robin-wall-kimmerer", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/robin-wall-kimmerer" }, "book": { "title": "Braiding Sweetgrass", "slug": "braiding-sweetgrass", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/robin-wall-kimmerer/braiding-sweetgrass" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 291, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "nature", "slug": "nature", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/nature" }, { "name": "culture", "slug": "culture", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/culture" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Robin_Wall_Kimmerer#Braiding_Sweetgrass_(2013)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T23:04:32" }, { "id": "a258eb80-c4a6-477d-bfb5-65690335459b", "slug": "this-was-always", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/neal-stephenson/reamde/this-was-always", "text": "This was always the hard part. If you knew what was normal to the enemy, then everything became easy: you could lull them to sleep by feeding them normal, and you could scare the hell out of them by suddenly taking normal away. But normal to Afghans and Chechens was so different from normal to Russians that it took a bit of work for a man like Sokolov to establish what it was.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Neal Stephenson", "slug": "neal-stephenson", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/neal-stephenson" }, "book": { "title": "Reamde", "slug": "reamde", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/neal-stephenson/reamde" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "war", "slug": "war", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/war" }, { "name": "culture", "slug": "culture", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/culture" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Reamde#Day_2", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T23:03:46" }, { "id": "8f86a9a6-1262-4bf2-ba77-b5a4f6657120", "slug": "its-what-we-do-now", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/william-gibson/all-tomorrows-parties/its-what-we-do-now", "text": "\"It's what we do now instead of bohemias,\" Harwood says. \"Instead of what?\" \"Bohemias. Alternative subcultures. They were a crucial aspect of industrial civilization in the two previous centuries. They were where industrial civilization went to dream. A sort of unconscious R&D, exploring alternate societal strategies…And they did, frequently, have locales with which they became associated. But they became extinct.\" \"Extinct?\" \"We started picking them before they could ripen…as marketing evolved and the mechanisms of recommodification became quicker, more rapacious. Authentic subcultures required backwaters, and time, and there are no more backwaters.\"", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "William Gibson", "slug": "william-gibson", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/william-gibson" }, "book": { "title": "All Tomorrow's Parties", "slug": "all-tomorrows-parties", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/william-gibson/all-tomorrows-parties" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "culture", "slug": "culture", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/culture" }, { "name": "consumerism", "slug": "consumerism", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/consumerism" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Bridge_trilogy#All_Tomorrow's_Parties%E2%80%8E_(1999)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T23:03:42" }, { "id": "e2a94f19-4b47-4b42-97e8-2449475f3a90", "slug": "culture-hides-more", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/edward-t-hall/the-silent-language/culture-hides-more", "text": "Culture hides more than it reveals, and strangely enough what it hides, it hides most effectively from its own participants.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Edward T. Hall", "slug": "edward-t-hall", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/edward-t-hall" }, "book": { "title": "The Silent Language", "slug": "the-silent-language", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/edward-t-hall/the-silent-language" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "culture", "slug": "culture", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/culture" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Edward_T._Hall#The_Silent_Language_(1959)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T23:01:47" }, { "id": "9b7d2090-92ef-4306-8ac8-79835418d470", "slug": "the-real-job", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/edward-t-hall/the-silent-language/the-real-job", "text": "The real job is not to understand foreign culture but to understand our own.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Edward T. Hall", "slug": "edward-t-hall", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/edward-t-hall" }, "book": { "title": "The Silent Language", "slug": "the-silent-language", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/edward-t-hall/the-silent-language" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "self-knowledge", "slug": "self-knowledge", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/self-knowledge" }, { "name": "culture", "slug": "culture", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/culture" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Edward_T._Hall#The_Silent_Language_(1959)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T23:01:47" }, { "id": "de7c492f-45e9-4350-a625-887d547a1a7e", "slug": "c-ontradictions-are-cultures", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/yuval-noah-harari/sapiens/c-ontradictions-are-cultures", "text": "[C]ontradictions are culture’s engines, responsible for... creativity and dynamism... Just as... clashing musical notes... force... music forward.., discord in... thoughts, ideas and values compel us to think, reevaluate and criticise. Consistency is the playground of dull minds.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Yuval Noah Harari", "slug": "yuval-noah-harari", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/yuval-noah-harari" }, "book": { "title": "Sapiens", "slug": "sapiens", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/yuval-noah-harari/sapiens" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "culture", "slug": "culture", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/culture" }, { "name": "creativity", "slug": "creativity", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/creativity" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Yuval_Noah_Harari#Chapter_20:_%22The_end_of_Homo_Sapiens%22", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T23:01:15" }, { "id": "1ff27487-faf0-4f2c-8fbe-a95b4249f7fa", "slug": "myths-and-fictions", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/yuval-noah-harari/sapiens/myths-and-fictions", "text": "Myths and fictions accustom... people... to think in certain ways, to believe in... certain standards, to want certain things, and to observe certain rules. ...[T]hereby ...artificial instincts ...enable millions of strangers to cooperate ...This network of artificial instinct is ...'Culture'.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Yuval Noah Harari", "slug": "yuval-noah-harari", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/yuval-noah-harari" }, "book": { "title": "Sapiens", "slug": "sapiens", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/yuval-noah-harari/sapiens" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "culture", "slug": "culture", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/culture" }, { "name": "mythology", "slug": "mythology", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/mythology" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Yuval_Noah_Harari#Chapter_9:_%22The_Arrow_of_History%22", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T23:01:12" }, { "id": "9f29365f-4e8a-49f3-9b38-1e4d7002a2d6", "slug": "the-painted-engraved", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/richard-e-leakey/origins-reconsidered/the-painted-engraved", "text": "The painted, engraved, and carved images of prehistory are threads from past cultures, and we are foreigners trying to interpret their meaning. Perhaps more than anything else, art can be fully understood only in the context of the culture that produced it.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Richard E. Leakey", "slug": "richard-e-leakey", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/richard-e-leakey" }, "book": { "title": "Origins Reconsidered", "slug": "origins-reconsidered", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/richard-e-leakey/origins-reconsidered" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "art", "slug": "art", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/art" }, { "name": "culture", "slug": "culture", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/culture" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Richard_Leakey#Origins_Reconsidered:_In_Search_of_What_Makes_Us_Human_(1992)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T23:00:05" }, { "id": "acdcd61c-f05f-4ce0-84dc-898cedbc3cc9", "slug": "a-culture-is-a-total", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/walter-rodney/how-europe-underdeveloped-africa/a-culture-is-a-total", "text": "A culture is a total way of life. It embraces what people ate and what they wore; the way they walked and the way they talked; the manner in which they treated death and greeted the newborn. Obviously, unique features came into existence in virtually every locality with regard to all social details. In addition, the continent of Africa south of the great Sahara desert formed a broad community where resemblances were clearly discernible. For example, music and dance had key roles in “uncontaminated” African society. They were ever present at birth, initiation, marriage, death, as well as at times of recreation. Africa is the continent of drums and percussion. African peoples reached the pinnacle of achievement in that sphere.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Walter Rodney", "slug": "walter-rodney", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/walter-rodney" }, "book": { "title": "How Europe Underdeveloped Africa", "slug": "how-europe-underdeveloped-africa", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/walter-rodney/how-europe-underdeveloped-africa" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 34, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "culture", "slug": "culture", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/culture" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Walter_Rodney#How_Europe_Underdeveloped_Africa_(1972)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:59:34" }, { "id": "ca2784e0-b104-4961-9355-cd1b1ef34341", "slug": "culture-is-like", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/richard-morgan/altered-carbon/culture-is-like", "text": "Culture is like a smog. To live within it, you must breathe some of it in and, inevitably, be contaminated.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Richard Morgan", "slug": "richard-morgan", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/richard-morgan" }, "book": { "title": "Altered Carbon", "slug": "altered-carbon", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/richard-morgan/altered-carbon" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 215, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "culture", "slug": "culture", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/culture" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Richard_Morgan#Altered_Carbon_(2002)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:59:31" }, { "id": "fa805368-7e2c-44f6-bb49-cb3e8b5a3811", "slug": "there-is-nothing", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/hubert-selby-jr/requiem-for-a-dream/there-is-nothing", "text": "There is nothing worse than a cultural barbarian with pretensions.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Hubert Selby Jr.", "slug": "hubert-selby-jr", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/hubert-selby-jr" }, "book": { "title": "Requiem for a Dream", "slug": "requiem-for-a-dream", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/hubert-selby-jr/requiem-for-a-dream" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "pride", "slug": "pride", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/pride" }, { "name": "culture", "slug": "culture", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/culture" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Hubert_Selby_Jr.#Requiem_for_a_Dream_(1978)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:58:31" }, { "id": "ccd64d13-4ba4-43f7-ac97-118b4d3b9fe0", "slug": "today-the-culture", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/daniel-a-bell/the-cultural-contradictions-of-capitalism/today-the-culture", "text": "Today, the culture can hardly, if at all, reflect the society in which people live.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Daniel A. Bell", "slug": "daniel-a-bell", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/daniel-a-bell" }, "book": { "title": "The Cultural Contradictions Of Capitalism", "slug": "the-cultural-contradictions-of-capitalism", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/daniel-a-bell/the-cultural-contradictions-of-capitalism" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 95, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "culture", "slug": "culture", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/culture" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Daniel_Bell#The_Cultural_Contradictions_of_Capitalism_(1976)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:58:13" }, { "id": "3ba43c23-cd90-4ffd-b199-016f0b5fa3c3", "slug": "modern-culture-is-defined", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/daniel-a-bell/the-cultural-contradictions-of-capitalism/modern-culture-is-defined", "text": "Modern culture is defined by this extraordinary freedom to ransack the world storehouse and to engorge any and every style it comes upon.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Daniel A. Bell", "slug": "daniel-a-bell", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/daniel-a-bell" }, "book": { "title": "The Cultural Contradictions Of Capitalism", "slug": "the-cultural-contradictions-of-capitalism", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/daniel-a-bell/the-cultural-contradictions-of-capitalism" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 13, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "culture", "slug": "culture", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/culture" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Daniel_Bell#The_Cultural_Contradictions_of_Capitalism_(1976)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:58:13" }, { "id": "8143f5b4-8c4a-4c38-98a3-d946a139fbe4", "slug": "to-speak-a-language", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/frantz-fanon/black-skin-white-masks/to-speak-a-language", "text": "To speak a language is to take on a world, a culture.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Frantz Fanon", "slug": "frantz-fanon", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/frantz-fanon" }, "book": { "title": "Black Skin, White Masks", "slug": "black-skin-white-masks", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/frantz-fanon/black-skin-white-masks" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 38, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "language", "slug": "language", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/language" }, { "name": "culture", "slug": "culture", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/culture" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Frantz_Fanon#Black_Skin,_White_Masks_(1952)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:57:01" }, { "id": "5b513bb1-5eb4-4c54-a23e-14eea80b00a4", "slug": "show-me-what", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/jack-mcdevitt/the-engines-of-god/show-me-what", "text": "Show me what a people admire, and I will tell you everything about them that matters.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Jack Mcdevitt", "slug": "jack-mcdevitt", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/jack-mcdevitt" }, "book": { "title": "The Engines Of God", "slug": "the-engines-of-god", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/jack-mcdevitt/the-engines-of-god" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 398, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "culture", "slug": "culture", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/culture" }, { "name": "values", "slug": "values", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/values" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Jack_McDevitt#The_Engines_of_God_(1994)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:56:57" }, { "id": "4bc82fbe-f315-45ff-ab66-f5f604cdc4b9", "slug": "ecosystems-majorly-shape", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/robert-m-sapolsky/behave/ecosystems-majorly-shape", "text": "Ecosystems majorly shape culture — but then that culture can be exported and persist in radically different places for millennia. Stated most straightforwardly, most of earth’s humans have inherited their beliefs about the nature of birth and death and everything in between and thereafter from preliterate Middle Eastern pastoralists.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Robert M. Sapolsky", "slug": "robert-m-sapolsky", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/robert-m-sapolsky" }, "book": { "title": "Behave", "slug": "behave", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/robert-m-sapolsky/behave" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 313, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "religion", "slug": "religion", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/religion" }, { "name": "culture", "slug": "culture", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/culture" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Robert_Sapolsky#Behave:_The_Biology_of_Humans_at_Our_Best_and_Worst_(2017)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:56:55" }, { "id": "40654fb6-45ae-49b6-b708-aeb565446b99", "slug": "a-nation-with", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/manly-p-hall/the-secret-teachings-of-all-ages/a-nation-with", "text": "A nation with culture is blessed. To live in the world without becoming aware of the meaning of the world is like wandering about in a great library without touching the books. It has always seemed to me that symbolism should be restored to the structure of world education. The young are no longer invited to seek the hidden truths, dynamic and eternal, locked within the shapes and behavior of living beings.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Manly P. Hall", "slug": "manly-p-hall", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/manly-p-hall" }, "book": { "title": "The Secret Teachings of All Ages", "slug": "the-secret-teachings-of-all-ages", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/manly-p-hall/the-secret-teachings-of-all-ages" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "education", "slug": "education", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/education" }, { "name": "culture", "slug": "culture", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/culture" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Manly_P._Hall#The_Secret_Teachings_of_All_Ages_(1928)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:56:54" }, { "id": "b7824caa-a30b-4518-a170-07d272e9500f", "slug": "not-that-any", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/poul-anderson/the-people-of-the-wind/not-that-any", "text": "“Not that any simple principle exists, and not that I couldn’t be wrong. But it seems to me—well, that which we are, our society or culture or what you want to name it, has a life and a right of its own.” He drew breath. “Best beloved,” he said, “if communities didn’t resist encroachments, they’d soon be swallowed by the biggest and greediest. Wouldn’t they? In the end, dead sameness. No challenges, no inspirations from somebody else’s way. What service is it to life if we let that happen?", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Poul Anderson", "slug": "poul-anderson", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/poul-anderson" }, "book": { "title": "The People of the Wind", "slug": "the-people-of-the-wind", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/poul-anderson/the-people-of-the-wind" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 175, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "culture", "slug": "culture", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/culture" }, { "name": "otherness", "slug": "otherness", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/otherness" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Poul_Anderson#The_People_of_the_Wind_(1973)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:56:47" }, { "id": "aa2dcc0d-92be-43c6-863d-5c802fc423f8", "slug": "so-whats-to-be-said", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/john-barth/final-fridays/so-whats-to-be-said", "text": "So what's to be said … for a curriculum devoted to a study of a more-or-less-agreed-upon roster of \"the best that has been thought and said,\" in Matthew Arnold's famous formulation — or at least as representatively much of that Best as the ever-evolving consensus of a good college faculty believes can be fruitfully addressed between undergraduate matriculation and the baccalaureate?Well: what's to be said for it, needless to say, is that it not only edifies and instructs — any good old curriculum does that — but permits discourse within a shared frame of reference richer and more stable than this season's pop music, films, and TV shows, which a colleague of mine used to lament were the only points of cultural reference that he could assume to be shared by his undergraduate students.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "John Barth", "slug": "john-barth", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/john-barth" }, "book": { "title": "Final Fridays", "slug": "final-fridays", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/john-barth/final-fridays" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 185, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "education", "slug": "education", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/education" }, { "name": "culture", "slug": "culture", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/culture" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/John_Barth#Final_Fridays_(2012)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:56:04" }, { "id": "74b85d8c-9ee5-484d-bd24-c239626b1ceb", "slug": "we-have-heard", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/chinua-achebe/things-fall-apart/we-have-heard", "text": "\"We have heard stories about white men who make the powerful guns and the strong drinks and took slaves away across the seas, but no one thought the stories were true.\" [said Obierika] \"There is no story that is not true,\" said Uchendu. \"The world has no end, and what is good among one people is an abomination with others. We have albinos among us. Do you not think that they came to our clan by mistake, that they have strayed from their way to a land where everybody is like them?\"", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Chinua Achebe", "slug": "chinua-achebe", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/chinua-achebe" }, "book": { "title": "Things Fall Apart", "slug": "things-fall-apart", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/chinua-achebe/things-fall-apart" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 130, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "culture", "slug": "culture", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/culture" }, { "name": "diversity", "slug": "diversity", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/diversity" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Chinua_Achebe#Things_Fall_Apart_(1958)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:55:54" }, { "id": "f0b65d36-0eba-4de8-8b14-0933be7ce29b", "slug": "social-production-is-not", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/clay-shirky/cognitive-surplus/social-production-is-not", "text": "Social production is not a panacea; it is just an alternative. Although we are better off being able to use it when it is valuable, it brings its own challenges, just as production via firms and governments does. Even the simplest pooled effort or voluntary participation can be fraught with tension among the individual participants, and between those individuals and the group. Like many aspects of social life, this problem has no solution; the dilemma can be addressed only by various compromises, none of them wholly satisfactory. One way to help a group of participants improve their ability to function together is the creation and maintenance of shared culture.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Clay Shirky", "slug": "clay-shirky", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/clay-shirky" }, "book": { "title": "Cognitive Surplus", "slug": "cognitive-surplus", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/clay-shirky/cognitive-surplus" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "culture", "slug": "culture", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/culture" }, { "name": "cooperation", "slug": "cooperation", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/cooperation" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Clay_Shirky#Cognitive_Surplus_:_Creativity_and_Generosity_in_a_Connected_Age_(2010)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:55:45" }, { "id": "37869297-6999-46fb-952a-c945ab7c8f8f", "slug": "while-a-gigantic", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/gregory-benford/beyond-infinity/while-a-gigantic", "text": "While a gigantic amount has been written or spoken, culture in the end is the fraction that gets remembered.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Gregory Benford", "slug": "gregory-benford", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/gregory-benford" }, "book": { "title": "Beyond Infinity", "slug": "beyond-infinity", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/gregory-benford/beyond-infinity" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 203, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "memory", "slug": "memory", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/memory" }, { "name": "culture", "slug": "culture", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/culture" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Gregory_Benford#Beyond_Infinity_(2004)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:55:25" }, { "id": "1ce32d7b-3b89-432b-a652-b45ae9e1edae", "slug": "that-mood-had", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/gregory-benford/cosm/that-mood-had", "text": "That mood had persisted when she finally got home and, unable to sleep, watched some TV. It was as usual, a cacophony, which combined with the other audio media gave a disposable pop culture that made every moment but the present seem quaint, bloodless, dead.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Gregory Benford", "slug": "gregory-benford", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/gregory-benford" }, "book": { "title": "Cosm", "slug": "cosm", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/gregory-benford/cosm" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 261, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "culture", "slug": "culture", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/culture" }, { "name": "television", "slug": "television", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/television" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Gregory_Benford#Cosm_(1998)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:55:24" }, { "id": "1db3c1e9-93e1-4d94-9195-96609d350e1e", "slug": "culture-is-best", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/clifford-geertz/the-interpretation-of-cultures/culture-is-best", "text": "Culture is best seen not as complexes of concrete behavior patterns — customs, usages, traditions, habit clusters — as has, by and large, been the case up to now, but as a set of control mechanisms — plans, recipes, rules, instructions (what computer engineers call “programs”) — for the governing of behavior.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Clifford Geertz", "slug": "clifford-geertz", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/clifford-geertz" }, "book": { "title": "The Interpretation of Cultures", "slug": "the-interpretation-of-cultures", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/clifford-geertz/the-interpretation-of-cultures" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 44, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "culture", "slug": "culture", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/culture" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Clifford_Geertz#The_Interpretation_of_Cultures_(1973)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:54:54" }, { "id": "7d55e1bb-3e75-4158-8187-4afa6598696c", "slug": "language-is-the", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/david-lodge/small-world/language-is-the", "text": "Language is the net that holds thought trapped within a particular culture. But if one could only strike the ball with sufficient force, with perfect timing, it would perhaps break through the netting, continue on its course, never fall to earth, but go into orbit around the world.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "David Lodge", "slug": "david-lodge", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/david-lodge" }, "book": { "title": "Small World", "slug": "small-world", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/david-lodge/small-world" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 141, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "thinking", "slug": "thinking", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/thinking" }, { "name": "language", "slug": "language", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/language" }, { "name": "culture", "slug": "culture", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/culture" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/David_Lodge#Small_World_(1984)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:54:39" }, { "id": "fee3ea76-a50c-43f1-ad41-b15b5328b10a", "slug": "in-the-interstices", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/adrienne-rich/of-woman-born/in-the-interstices", "text": "In the interstices of language lie powerful secrets of the culture. (p249, \"Motherhood and Daughterhood\")", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Adrienne Rich", "slug": "adrienne-rich", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/adrienne-rich" }, "book": { "title": "Of Woman Born", "slug": "of-woman-born", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/adrienne-rich/of-woman-born" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "language", "slug": "language", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/language" }, { "name": "culture", "slug": "culture", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/culture" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Adrienne_Rich#Of_woman_born:_motherhood_as_experience_and_institution_(1976)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:54:35" }, { "id": "e7b4dfe0-235d-4296-bd4c-c13d0507db90", "slug": "theres-a-curious", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/don-delillo/mao-ii/theres-a-curious", "text": "\"There's a curious knot that binds novelists and terrorists...Years ago I used to think it was possible for a novelist to alter the inner life of the culture. Now bomb-makers and gunmen have taken that territory. They make raids on human consciousness. What writers used to do before we were all incorporated.\"", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Don DeLillo", "slug": "don-delillo", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/don-delillo" }, "book": { "title": "Mao II", "slug": "mao-ii", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/don-delillo/mao-ii" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "writing", "slug": "writing", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/writing" }, { "name": "culture", "slug": "culture", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/culture" }, { "name": "terrorism", "slug": "terrorism", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/terrorism" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Don_DeLillo#Mao_II_(1991)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:54:32" }, { "id": "42d458ed-4178-4475-b311-e3297501c8b5", "slug": "our-culture-peculiarly", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/lionel-trilling/the-liberal-imagination/our-culture-peculiarly", "text": "Our culture peculiarly honors the act of blaming, which it takes as the sign of virtue and intellect.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Lionel Trilling", "slug": "lionel-trilling", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/lionel-trilling" }, "book": { "title": "The Liberal Imagination", "slug": "the-liberal-imagination", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/lionel-trilling/the-liberal-imagination" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "culture", "slug": "culture", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/culture" }, { "name": "criticism", "slug": "criticism", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/criticism" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Lionel_Trilling#The_Liberal_Imagination_(1950)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:54:29" }, { "id": "b9aa0009-b7e9-4324-ba75-3072f6dcf052", "slug": "we-dont-have", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/chuck-palahniuk/fight-club/we-dont-have", "text": "We don't have a great war in our generation, or a great depression, but we do, we have a war of the spirit. We have a great revolution against the culture. The great depression is our lives. We have a spiritual depression.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Chuck Palahniuk", "slug": "chuck-palahniuk", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/chuck-palahniuk" }, "book": { "title": "Fight Club", "slug": "fight-club", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/chuck-palahniuk/fight-club" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "culture", "slug": "culture", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/culture" }, { "name": "emptiness", "slug": "emptiness", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/emptiness" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Fight_Club_(novel)#Chapter_19", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:53:57" }, { "id": "9d03c61a-6440-43ae-9c6b-b22f773025c1", "slug": "our-culture-has", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/chuck-palahniuk/fight-club/our-culture-has", "text": "Our culture has made us all the same. No one is truly white or black or rich, anymore. We all want the same. Individually, we are nothing.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Chuck Palahniuk", "slug": "chuck-palahniuk", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/chuck-palahniuk" }, "book": { "title": "Fight Club", "slug": "fight-club", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/chuck-palahniuk/fight-club" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "conformity", "slug": "conformity", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/conformity" }, { "name": "culture", "slug": "culture", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/culture" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Fight_Club_(novel)#Chapter_17", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:53:57" }, { "id": "30c3d246-1235-4f8f-ad26-184ac772e528", "slug": "once-efficiency-is-universally", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/clement-greenberg/art-and-culture/once-efficiency-is-universally", "text": "Once efficiency is universally accepted as a rule, it becomes an inner compulsion and weighs like a sense of sin, simply because no one can ever be efficient enough, just as no one can ever be virtuous enough. And this new sense of sin only contributes further to the enervation of leisure, for the rich as well as the poor.The difficulty of carrying on a leisure-oriented tradition of culture in a work-oriented society is enough in itself to keep the present crisis in our culture unresolved.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Clement Greenberg", "slug": "clement-greenberg", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/clement-greenberg" }, "book": { "title": "Art and Culture", "slug": "art-and-culture", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/clement-greenberg/art-and-culture" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 31, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "work", "slug": "work", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/work" }, { "name": "culture", "slug": "culture", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/culture" }, { "name": "rest", "slug": "rest", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/rest" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Clement_Greenberg#Art_and_Culture:_Critical_Essays,_(1961)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:53:14" }, { "id": "8ce0dc90-3179-4f89-9838-8cea03253d8c", "slug": "we-are-in-transylvania", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/bram-stoker/dracula/we-are-in-transylvania", "text": "We are in Transylvania, and Transylvania is not England. Our ways are not your ways, and there shall be to you many strange things.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Bram Stoker", "slug": "bram-stoker", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/bram-stoker" }, "book": { "title": "Dracula", "slug": "dracula", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/bram-stoker/dracula" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "culture", "slug": "culture", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/culture" }, { "name": "otherness", "slug": "otherness", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/otherness" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Bram_Stoker#Dracula_(1897)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:53:03" }, { "id": "adc7bed2-c07c-4691-b0e2-1a4f440fe2cb", "slug": "does-the-vacuousness", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/samuel-p-huntington/the-clash-of-civilizations-and-the-remaking-of-world-order/does-the-vacuousness", "text": "Does the vacuousness of Western universalism and the reality of global cultural diversity lead inevitably and irrevocably to moral and cultural relativism? If universalism legitimates imperialism, does relativism legitimate repression? Once again, the answer to these questions is yes and no. Cultures are relative; morality is absolute. Cultures, as Michael Walzer has argued, are “thick”; they prescribe institutions and behavior patterns to guide humans in the paths which are right in a particular society. Above, beyond, and growing out of this maximalist morality, however, is a “thin” minimalist morality that embodies “reiterated features of particular thick or maximal moralities.” Minimal moral concepts of truth and justice are found in all thick moralities and cannot be divorced from them. There are also minimal moral “negative injunctions, most likely, rules against murder, deceit, torture, oppression, and tyranny.” What people have in common is “more the sense of a common enemy [or evil] than the commitment to a common culture.” Human society is “universal because it is human, particular because it is a society.” At times we march with others; mostly we march alone. Yet a “thin” minimal morality does derive from the common human condition, and “universal dispositions” are found in all cultures. Instead of promoting the supposedly universal features of one civilization, the requisites for cultural coexistence demand a search for what is common to most civilizations. In a multicivilizational world, the constructive course is to renounce universalism, accept diversity, and seek commonalities.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Samuel P. Huntington", "slug": "samuel-p-huntington", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/samuel-p-huntington" }, "book": { "title": "The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of World Order", "slug": "the-clash-of-civilizations-and-the-remaking-of-world-order", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/samuel-p-huntington/the-clash-of-civilizations-and-the-remaking-of-world-order" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 319, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "morality", "slug": "morality", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/morality" }, { "name": "culture", "slug": "culture", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/culture" }, { "name": "tolerance", "slug": "tolerance", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/tolerance" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Samuel_P._Huntington#The_Clash_of_Civilizations_and_the_Remaking_of_World_Order_(1996)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:52:50" }, { "id": "23733b35-178a-4194-ad21-189c5f950c34", "slug": "nothing-else-chavez", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/richard-rodriguez/darling/nothing-else-chavez", "text": "Nothing else Chavez wrote during his life had such haunting power for me as that public prayer for a life of suffering; no utterance sounded so Mexican. Other cultures in the world assume the reality of suffering as something to be overcome. Mexico assumes the inevitability of suffering. That knowledge informs the folk music of Mexico, the bitter humor of Mexican proverb. To be a man is to suffer for others—you’re going to suffer anyway.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Richard Rodriguez", "slug": "richard-rodriguez", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/richard-rodriguez" }, "book": { "title": "Darling", "slug": "darling", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/richard-rodriguez/darling" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "suffering", "slug": "suffering", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/suffering" }, { "name": "culture", "slug": "culture", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/culture" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Richard_Rodriguez#Darling:_A_Spiritual_Autobiography_(2013)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:52:48" }, { "id": "374ed8b7-a542-4809-a661-f91c6a004b72", "slug": "the-nazis-hated", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/christopher-isherwood/christopher-and-his-kind/the-nazis-hated", "text": "The Nazis hated culture itself, because it is essentially international and therefore subversive of nationalism. What they called Nazi culture was a local, perverted, nationalistic cult, by which a few major artists and many minor ones were honored for their Germanness, not their talent.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Christopher Isherwood", "slug": "christopher-isherwood", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/christopher-isherwood" }, "book": { "title": "Christopher and His Kind", "slug": "christopher-and-his-kind", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/christopher-isherwood/christopher-and-his-kind" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 65, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "culture", "slug": "culture", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/culture" }, { "name": "nationalism", "slug": "nationalism", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/nationalism" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Christopher_Isherwood#Christopher_and_His_Kind_(1976)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:52:28" }, { "id": "10ef0e7b-621a-47f0-a1c6-715a54709758", "slug": "technology-has-become", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/kevin-kelly/new-rules-for-the-new-economy/technology-has-become", "text": "Technology has become our culture, our culture technology.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Kevin Kelly", "slug": "kevin-kelly", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/kevin-kelly" }, "book": { "title": "New Rules for the New Economy", "slug": "new-rules-for-the-new-economy", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/kevin-kelly/new-rules-for-the-new-economy" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "culture", "slug": "culture", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/culture" }, { "name": "technological progress", "slug": "technological-progress", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/technological-progress" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Kevin_Kelly_(editor)#New_Rules_for_the_New_Economy:_10_Radical_Strategies_for_a_Connected_World_(1999)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:52:17" }, { "id": "91e0bff6-ce6a-4ea3-b5c7-8bfabcd87f86", "slug": "art-is-not", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/banksy/wall-and-piece/art-is-not", "text": "\"Art is not like other culture because its success is not made by its audience. The public fill concert halls and cinemas everyday, we read novels by the millions, and buy records by the billions. 'We the people' affect the making and quality of most of our culture, but not our art.\"", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Banksy", "slug": "banksy", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/banksy" }, "book": { "title": "Wall and Piece", "slug": "wall-and-piece", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/banksy/wall-and-piece" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "art", "slug": "art", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/art" }, { "name": "culture", "slug": "culture", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/culture" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Banksy#Wall_and_Piece_(2007)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:52:11" }, { "id": "c7ceb50b-f540-41e3-bfb5-5afc8110a17f", "slug": "as-we-shall", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/jared-diamond/the-world-until-yesterday/as-we-shall", "text": "As we shall see in this book's chapters, traditional societies are far more diverse in many of their cultural practices than are modern industrial societies. [...] Yet psychologists base most of their generalizations about human nature on studies of our own narrow and atypical slice of human diversity. [...] That is, as social scientists Joseph Henrich, Steven Heine, and Ara Norenzayan express it, most of our understanding of human psychology is based on subjects who may be described by the acronym WEIRD: from Western, educated, industrialized, rich, and democratic societies. [...] Hence if we wish to generalize about human nature, we need to broaden greatly our study sample from the usual WEIRD subjects [...] to the whole range of traditional societies.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Jared Diamond", "slug": "jared-diamond", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/jared-diamond" }, "book": { "title": "The World Until Yesterday", "slug": "the-world-until-yesterday", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/jared-diamond/the-world-until-yesterday" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "human nature", "slug": "human-nature", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/human-nature" }, { "name": "culture", "slug": "culture", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/culture" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Jared_Diamond#The_World_Until_Yesterday:_What_Can_We_Learn_from_Traditional_Societies%3F_(2012)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:52:07" }, { "id": "1636e4a8-5d99-41e0-a9da-b952ce918db5", "slug": "the-societies-to-which", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/jared-diamond/the-world-until-yesterday/the-societies-to-which", "text": "The societies to which most readers of this book belong represent a narrow slice of human cultural diversity. Societies from that slice achieved world dominance not because of a general superiority, but for specific reasons: their technological, political, and military advantages derived from their early origins of agriculture, due in turn to their productive local wild domesticable plant and animal species. Despite those particular advantages, modern industrial societies didn’t also develop superior approaches to raising children, treating the elderly, settling disputes, avoiding non-communicable diseases, and other societal problems. Thousands of traditional societies developed a wide array of different approaches to those problems.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Jared Diamond", "slug": "jared-diamond", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/jared-diamond" }, "book": { "title": "The World Until Yesterday", "slug": "the-world-until-yesterday", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/jared-diamond/the-world-until-yesterday" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "civilization", "slug": "civilization", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/civilization" }, { "name": "culture", "slug": "culture", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/culture" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Jared_Diamond#The_World_Until_Yesterday:_What_Can_We_Learn_from_Traditional_Societies%3F_(2012)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:52:07" }, { "id": "7bb2102c-d115-4567-b151-e403af8d3bad", "slug": "the-weakness-of-the", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/peter-farb/word-play/the-weakness-of-the", "text": "The weakness of the Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis... the impossibility of generalizing about entire cultures and then attributing these generalizations to the language spoken ...is to leave numerous facts about culture unexplained. The great religions of the world... have flourished among diverse peoples who speak languages with sharply different grammars. ...Cultures as diverse as the Aztec Empire of Mexico and the Ute hunting bands of the Great Basin spoke very closely related tongues.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Peter Farb", "slug": "peter-farb", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/peter-farb" }, "book": { "title": "Word Play", "slug": "word-play", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/peter-farb/word-play" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "language", "slug": "language", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/language" }, { "name": "culture", "slug": "culture", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/culture" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Peter_Farb#Word_Play_(1974)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:52:05" }, { "id": "413f15df-b5f6-4ffd-8400-ea132711a150", "slug": "whorf-asked-do-the", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/peter-farb/word-play/whorf-asked-do-the", "text": "Whorf asked... Do the Hopi and European cultures... conceptualize reality in different ways? And his answer was that they do. Whereas European cultures are organized in terms of space and time, the Hopi culture, Whorf believed, emphasizes events. To speakers of European languages, time is a commodity that occurs between fixed points and can be measured. Time is said to be wasted or saved... their economic systems emphasize wages paid for the amount of time worked, rent for the time a dwelling is occupied, interest for the time money is loaned. Hopi culture... instead thinks... The span of time the growing takes is not the important thing, but rather the way in which the event of growth follows the event of planting. The Hopi is concerned that the sequence of events in the construction of a building be in the correct order, not that it takes a certain amount of time to complete the job.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Peter Farb", "slug": "peter-farb", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/peter-farb" }, "book": { "title": "Word Play", "slug": "word-play", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/peter-farb/word-play" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "time", "slug": "time", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/time" }, { "name": "language", "slug": "language", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/language" }, { "name": "culture", "slug": "culture", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/culture" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Peter_Farb#Word_Play_(1974)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:52:05" }, { "id": "ebbe430c-363a-4957-b209-70790c92d977", "slug": "everything-in-our", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/neil-postman/amusing-ourselves-to-death/everything-in-our", "text": "Everything in our background has prepared us to know and resist a prison when the gates begin to close around us . . . But what if there are no cries of anguish to be heard? Who is prepared to take arms against a sea of amusements? To whom do we complain, and when, and in what tone of voice, when serious discourse dissolves into giggles? What is the antidote to a culture's being drained by laughter?", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Neil Postman", "slug": "neil-postman", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/neil-postman" }, "book": { "title": "Amusing Ourselves to Death", "slug": "amusing-ourselves-to-death", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/neil-postman/amusing-ourselves-to-death" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 156, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "humor", "slug": "humor", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/humor" }, { "name": "culture", "slug": "culture", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/culture" }, { "name": "play", "slug": "play", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/play" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Neil_Postman#Amusing_Ourselves_to_Death:_Public_Discourse_in_the_Age_of_Show_Business_(1985)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:51:39" }, { "id": "e2718644-427d-4224-87bd-cef696ed7b0e", "slug": "what-ideas-are", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/neil-postman/amusing-ourselves-to-death/what-ideas-are", "text": "What ideas are convenient to express inevitably becomes the important content of a culture.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Neil Postman", "slug": "neil-postman", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/neil-postman" }, "book": { "title": "Amusing Ourselves to Death", "slug": "amusing-ourselves-to-death", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/neil-postman/amusing-ourselves-to-death" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 6, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "culture", "slug": "culture", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/culture" }, { "name": "ideas", "slug": "ideas", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/ideas" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Neil_Postman#Amusing_Ourselves_to_Death:_Public_Discourse_in_the_Age_of_Show_Business_(1985)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:51:39" }, { "id": "2bef0c60-ba68-4f3f-8a3c-6be751b86e0c", "slug": "in-a-technocracy", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/neil-postman/technopoly/in-a-technocracy", "text": "In a technocracy, tools play a central role in the thought-world of the culture. Everything must give way, in some degree, to their development. The social and symbolic worlds become increasingly subject to the requirements of that development. Tools are not integrated into the culture; they attack the culture. They bid to become the culture. As a consequence, tradition, social mores, myth, politics, ritual, and religion have to fight for their lives...", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Neil Postman", "slug": "neil-postman", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/neil-postman" }, "book": { "title": "Technopoly", "slug": "technopoly", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/neil-postman/technopoly" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "culture", "slug": "culture", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/culture" }, { "name": "tradition", "slug": "tradition", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/tradition" }, { "name": "technological progress", "slug": "technological-progress", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/technological-progress" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Neil_Postman#Technopoly:_the_Surrender_of_Culture_to_Technology_(1992)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:51:39" }, { "id": "1bbfc673-e34b-4b87-a4ad-eb48a7235a0f", "slug": "the-clearest-way", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/neil-postman/amusing-ourselves-to-death/the-clearest-way", "text": "The clearest way to see through a culture is to attend to its tools for conversation.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Neil Postman", "slug": "neil-postman", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/neil-postman" }, "book": { "title": "Amusing Ourselves to Death", "slug": "amusing-ourselves-to-death", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/neil-postman/amusing-ourselves-to-death" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 8, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "conversation", "slug": "conversation", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/conversation" }, { "name": "culture", "slug": "culture", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/culture" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Neil_Postman#Amusing_Ourselves_to_Death:_Public_Discourse_in_the_Age_of_Show_Business_(1985)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:51:39" }, { "id": "cec35da7-29e7-4871-9f62-c0946f812718", "slug": "childhood-is-analogous", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/neil-postman/the-disappearance-of-childhood/childhood-is-analogous", "text": "Childhood is analogous to language learning. It has a biological basis but cannot be realized unless a social environment triggers and nurtures it, that is, has need of it. If a culture is dominated by a medium that requires the segregation of the young in order that they learn unnatural, specialized, and complex skills and attitudes, then childhood, in one form or another, will emerge, articulate and indispensable.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Neil Postman", "slug": "neil-postman", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/neil-postman" }, "book": { "title": "The Disappearance of Childhood", "slug": "the-disappearance-of-childhood", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/neil-postman/the-disappearance-of-childhood" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "language", "slug": "language", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/language" }, { "name": "childhood", "slug": "childhood", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/childhood" }, { "name": "culture", "slug": "culture", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/culture" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Neil_Postman#The_Disappearance_of_Childhood_(1982)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:51:38" }, { "id": "bb1e8a1b-5682-497b-9ae6-ed989df43f9d", "slug": "children-are-the", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/neil-postman/the-disappearance-of-childhood/children-are-the", "text": "Children are the living messages we send to a time we will not see. From a biological point of view it is inconceivable that any culture will forget that it needs to reproduce itself. But it is quite possible for a culture to exist without a social idea of children. Unlike infancy, childhood is a social artifact, not a biological category.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Neil Postman", "slug": "neil-postman", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/neil-postman" }, "book": { "title": "The Disappearance of Childhood", "slug": "the-disappearance-of-childhood", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/neil-postman/the-disappearance-of-childhood" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "children", "slug": "children", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/children" }, { "name": "childhood", "slug": "childhood", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/childhood" }, { "name": "culture", "slug": "culture", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/culture" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Neil_Postman#The_Disappearance_of_Childhood_(1982)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:51:38" }, { "id": "e550a633-c773-423c-80f2-fb0a014eefcf", "slug": "if-america-is-a-melting", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/shashi-tharoor/nehru/if-america-is-a-melting", "text": "If America is a melting pot, then to me India is a thali -- a collection of sumptuous dishes in different bowls. Each may not mix with the next, but they combine on your palate to produce a satisfying repast.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Shashi Tharoor", "slug": "shashi-tharoor", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/shashi-tharoor" }, "book": { "title": "Nehru", "slug": "nehru", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/shashi-tharoor/nehru" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "culture", "slug": "culture", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/culture" }, { "name": "otherness", "slug": "otherness", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/otherness" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Shashi_Tharoor#Nehru:_The_Invention_of_India", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:51:29" }, { "id": "56e16e88-8db9-4342-91ad-dc303c96ab99", "slug": "mr-weathereye-had", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/sheri-s-tepper/the-margarets/mr-weathereye-had", "text": "Mr. Weathereye had always said that civility could not possibly be resented by any civilized person; that if resentment were offered, it was a sure sign of loutdom.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Sheri S. Tepper", "slug": "sheri-s-tepper", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/sheri-s-tepper" }, "book": { "title": "The Margarets", "slug": "the-margarets", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/sheri-s-tepper/the-margarets" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 132, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "culture", "slug": "culture", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/culture" }, { "name": "respect", "slug": "respect", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/respect" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Sheri_S._Tepper#The_Margarets_(2007)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:51:28" }, { "id": "37e14efb-9770-474c-8227-ad68d74d9008", "slug": "it-did-not", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/sheri-s-tepper/the-margarets/it-did-not", "text": "It did not take long to find out that Earth was no different from Phobos. People on Earth engaged in ritual repetition; most of them thought as little as possible; most of them occupied themselves with things and events that were not very important. Amusement stage dramas were the same as the ones I had seen on Phobos. All music had been so extensively filtered, corrected, and augmented by technology that it all sounded alike. Singing voices were improved by electronic means, as were the faces, the bodies, and the dramatic ability of actors and actresses. No one was plain; no one was allowed to be ugly; no one was very different from anyone else. In school, the stupid students got the same grades as the smart ones except for the tiny secret marks the educational archivists made in their records – in case a VIP needed a truthful reference.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Sheri S. Tepper", "slug": "sheri-s-tepper", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/sheri-s-tepper" }, "book": { "title": "The Margarets", "slug": "the-margarets", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/sheri-s-tepper/the-margarets" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 86, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "media", "slug": "media", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/media" }, { "name": "conformity", "slug": "conformity", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/conformity" }, { "name": "culture", "slug": "culture", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/culture" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Sheri_S._Tepper#The_Margarets_(2007)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:51:28" }, { "id": "0f7d2019-b0f8-4019-976c-838d6a5652c6", "slug": "it-is-far", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/sheri-s-tepper/the-fresco/it-is-far", "text": "It is far more important to establish a civil and orderly society than it is to pander to abusive cultural and religious artifacts.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Sheri S. Tepper", "slug": "sheri-s-tepper", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/sheri-s-tepper" }, "book": { "title": "The Fresco", "slug": "the-fresco", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/sheri-s-tepper/the-fresco" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 293, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "religion", "slug": "religion", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/religion" }, { "name": "society", "slug": "society", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/society" }, { "name": "culture", "slug": "culture", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/culture" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Sheri_S._Tepper#The_Fresco_(2000)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:51:26" }, { "id": "e80ecac0-3a7b-46f4-b3d1-2a155897d82f", "slug": "all-societies-maintain", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/sheri-s-tepper/six-moon-dance/all-societies-maintain", "text": "“All societies maintain themselves by forcing personal behavior into a mold or pattern which the society calls its ‘culture.’ The patterns are imposed by natural or political conditions; for example, either recurrent drought or recurrent persecution can result in similar patterns. Most patterns require changes in behavior, and that requires changes in belief systems, or vice versa, sort of chicken and egg as to which comes first. “So a few thousand years go by and the climate changes, or the politics, but the people still follow the same taboos because by now they believe their deity ordered them to do it. Long-practiced behaviors that started as a response to conditions, always fossilize into ‘traditional values,’ that is, the only ‘right way’ to do things. At that point people no longer use the system in order to survive, the system uses them in order to survive. That’s something people often don’t understand. Systems are parasitical, they have a life of their own, and they, too, evolve and change and try to survive. The one factor that is true of all cultures, without exception, is that it never represents the free desires of the people who are jammed into it even when people are conditioned from childhood to accept uniformation.” “Really?” asked Ellin. “Never?” Questioner grinned at her. “Only mavericks live in accordance with their desires, and even they don’t often get away with it. They are usually labeled as troublemakers and gotten rid of.”", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Sheri S. Tepper", "slug": "sheri-s-tepper", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/sheri-s-tepper" }, "book": { "title": "Six Moon Dance", "slug": "six-moon-dance", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/sheri-s-tepper/six-moon-dance" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 286, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "society", "slug": "society", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/society" }, { "name": "culture", "slug": "culture", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/culture" }, { "name": "tradition", "slug": "tradition", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/tradition" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Sheri_S._Tepper#Six_Moon_Dance_(1998)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:51:25" }, { "id": "26b78482-ff8a-4445-90fd-9634b443745a", "slug": "man-has-always", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/sheri-s-tepper/sideshow/man-has-always", "text": "Man has always tortured in the name of his gods and committed atrocities in the name of his culture.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Sheri S. Tepper", "slug": "sheri-s-tepper", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/sheri-s-tepper" }, "book": { "title": "Sideshow", "slug": "sideshow", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/sheri-s-tepper/sideshow" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 438, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "religion", "slug": "religion", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/religion" }, { "name": "culture", "slug": "culture", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/culture" }, { "name": "cruelty", "slug": "cruelty", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/cruelty" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Sheri_S._Tepper#Sideshow_(1992)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:51:23" }, { "id": "8847fe47-fa1c-4ac2-956c-0448078603eb", "slug": "at-exactly-the", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/amitav-ghosh/the-great-derangement-from-bestselling-author-and-winner-of-the-2018-jnanpith-award/at-exactly-the", "text": "at exactly the time when it has become clear that global warming is in every sense a collective predicament, humanity finds itself in the thrall of a dominant culture in which the idea of the collective has been exiled from politics, economics, and literature alike.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Amitav Ghosh", "slug": "amitav-ghosh", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/amitav-ghosh" }, "book": { "title": "The Great Derangement: From bestselling author and winner of the 2018 Jnanpith Award", "slug": "the-great-derangement-from-bestselling-author-and-winner-of-the-2018-jnanpith-award", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/amitav-ghosh/the-great-derangement-from-bestselling-author-and-winner-of-the-2018-jnanpith-award" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "ecology", "slug": "ecology", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/ecology" }, { "name": "culture", "slug": "culture", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/culture" }, { "name": "community", "slug": "community", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/community" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Amitav_Ghosh#The_Great_Derangement:_Climate_Change_and_the_Unthinkable_(2016)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:51:17" }, { "id": "637af477-5765-43b2-a973-2651b7dbd11d", "slug": "i-wanted-my-children", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/amy-tan/the-joy-luck-club/i-wanted-my-children", "text": "I wanted my children to have the best combination: American circumstances and Chinese character. How could I know these things do not mix?", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Amy Tan", "slug": "amy-tan", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/amy-tan" }, "book": { "title": "The Joy Luck Club", "slug": "the-joy-luck-club", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/amy-tan/the-joy-luck-club" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "identity", "slug": "identity", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/identity" }, { "name": "culture", "slug": "culture", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/culture" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Amy_Tan#The_Joy_Luck_Club_(1989)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:51:03" }, { "id": "8e15086b-65d2-42ec-9cf3-004876a6b799", "slug": "youre-safe-because", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/chuck-palahniuk/invisible-monsters/youre-safe-because", "text": "You're safe because you're trapped inside your culture.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Chuck Palahniuk", "slug": "chuck-palahniuk", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/chuck-palahniuk" }, "book": { "title": "Invisible Monsters", "slug": "invisible-monsters", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/chuck-palahniuk/invisible-monsters" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "culture", "slug": "culture", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/culture" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Invisible_Monsters#Quotes", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:50:49" }, { "id": "3cc4fc1a-598b-4032-a31e-8857d2d9ea4a", "slug": "and-if-you", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/chuck-palahniuk/invisible-monsters/and-if-you", "text": "\"And if you can find any way out of our culture, then that's a trap too. Just wanting to get out of the trap reinforces the trap.\"", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Chuck Palahniuk", "slug": "chuck-palahniuk", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/chuck-palahniuk" }, "book": { "title": "Invisible Monsters", "slug": "invisible-monsters", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/chuck-palahniuk/invisible-monsters" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "freedom", "slug": "freedom", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/freedom" }, { "name": "culture", "slug": "culture", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/culture" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Invisible_Monsters#Quotes", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:50:48" }, { "id": "39a60e66-aa9d-417d-9cfe-f321b2932697", "slug": "cultural-contamination-that", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/david-brin/glory-season/cultural-contamination-that", "text": "Cultural contamination that is directed outward is always seen as “enlightenment.”", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "David Brin", "slug": "david-brin", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/david-brin" }, "book": { "title": "Glory Season", "slug": "glory-season", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/david-brin/glory-season" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 364, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "culture", "slug": "culture", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/culture" }, { "name": "colonialism", "slug": "colonialism", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/colonialism" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/David_Brin#Glory_Season_(1993)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:50:45" }, { "id": "05aa21c9-8e9e-4eed-be4f-7da41a019889", "slug": "the-monks-of-the", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/walter-m-miller-jr/a-canticle-for-leibowitz/the-monks-of-the", "text": "The monks of the earliest days had not counted on the human ability to generate a new cultural inheritance in a couple of generations if an old one is utterly destroyed, to generate it by virtue of lawgivers and prophets, geniuses or maniacs; through a Moses, or through a Hitler, or an ignorant but tyrannical grandfather, a cultural inheritance may be acquired between dusk and dawn, and many have been so acquired. But the new \"culture\" was an inheritance of darkness, wherein \"simpleton\" meant the same thing as \"citizen\" meant the same thing as \"slave.\" The monks waited. It mattered not at all to them that the knowledge they saved was useless, that much of it was not really knowledge now, was as inscrutable to the monks in some instances as it would be to an illiterate wild-boy from the hills; this knowledge was empty of content, its subject matter long since gone. Still, such knowledge had a symbolic structure that was peculiar to itself, and at least the symbol-interplay could be observed. To observe the way a knowledge-system is knit together is to learn at least a minimum knowledge-of-knowledge, until someday — someday, or some century — an Integrator would come, and things would be fitted together again. So time mattered not at all. The Memorabilia was there, and it was given to them by duty to preserve, and preserve it they would if the darkness in the world lasted ten more centuries, or even ten thousand years...", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Walter M. Miller Jr.", "slug": "walter-m-miller-jr", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/walter-m-miller-jr" }, "book": { "title": "A Canticle for Leibowitz", "slug": "a-canticle-for-leibowitz", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/walter-m-miller-jr/a-canticle-for-leibowitz" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "knowledge", "slug": "knowledge", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/knowledge" }, { "name": "culture", "slug": "culture", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/culture" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Walter_M._Miller_Jr.#Fiat_Homo", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:50:41" }, { "id": "39f262fc-d2aa-4cb7-a404-87a066a7882e", "slug": "if-the-culture", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/mitch-albom/tuesdays-with-morrie/if-the-culture", "text": "\"If the culture doesn't work, don't buy it.\"", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Mitch Albom", "slug": "mitch-albom", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/mitch-albom" }, "book": { "title": "Tuesdays with Morrie", "slug": "tuesdays-with-morrie", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/mitch-albom/tuesdays-with-morrie" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "conformity", "slug": "conformity", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/conformity" }, { "name": "culture", "slug": "culture", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/culture" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Mitch_Albom#Tuesdays_with_Morrie_(1997)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:49:36" }, { "id": "dc77e6c6-d44a-40d5-8f6d-8ff46a644d2a", "slug": "most-of-western", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/camille-paglia/sexual-personae/most-of-western", "text": "Most of western culture is a distortion of reality. But reality should be distorted; that is, imaginatively amended. The Buddhist acquiescence to nature is neither accurate about nature nor just to human potential.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Camille Paglia", "slug": "camille-paglia", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/camille-paglia" }, "book": { "title": "Sexual Personae", "slug": "sexual-personae", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/camille-paglia/sexual-personae" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 13, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "imagination", "slug": "imagination", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/imagination" }, { "name": "culture", "slug": "culture", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/culture" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Camille_Paglia#Sexual_Personae:_Art_and_Decadence_from_Nefertiti_to_Emily_Dickinson_(1990)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:49:16" }, { "id": "b9269e59-56be-4880-9435-c3471d838ed2", "slug": "woman-was-an-idol", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/camille-paglia/sexual-personae/woman-was-an-idol", "text": "Woman was an idol of belly-magic. She seemed to swell and give birth by her own law. From the beginning of time, woman has seemed an uncanny being. Man honored but feared her. She was the black maw that had spat him forth and would devour him anew. Men, bonding together, invented culture as a defense against female nature. Sky-cult was the most sophisticated step in this process, for its switch of the creative locus from earth to sky is a shift from belly-magic to head-magic. And from this defensive head-magic has come the spectacular glory of male civilization, which has lifted woman with it. The very language and logic modern woman uses to assail patriarchal culture were the invention of men.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Camille Paglia", "slug": "camille-paglia", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/camille-paglia" }, "book": { "title": "Sexual Personae", "slug": "sexual-personae", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/camille-paglia/sexual-personae" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 9, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "women", "slug": "women", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/women" }, { "name": "culture", "slug": "culture", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/culture" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Camille_Paglia#Sexual_Personae:_Art_and_Decadence_from_Nefertiti_to_Emily_Dickinson_(1990)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:49:16" }, { "id": "40e393b5-0c83-46ed-9100-c97c34ad1e78", "slug": "western-culture-is-in-its", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/john-derbyshire/we-are-doomed/western-culture-is-in-its", "text": "Western culture is in its twilight; there is a dark age ahead; and while college-humanities fads and \"secular-progressive values\" have certainly done much damage, they are symptoms, not causes - fragments of junk sucked into a vacuum. The fundamental reason why so much of our culture is shit - either literally, like Signor Manzoni's masterwork, or figuratively - is exhaustion, cultural exhaustion.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "John Derbyshire", "slug": "john-derbyshire", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/john-derbyshire" }, "book": { "title": "We Are Doomed", "slug": "we-are-doomed", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/john-derbyshire/we-are-doomed" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "civilization", "slug": "civilization", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/civilization" }, { "name": "culture", "slug": "culture", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/culture" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/John_Derbyshire#We_Are_Doomed:_Reclaiming_Conservative_Pessimism_(2009)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:48:28" }, { "id": "6f19ea45-bccf-4d1f-bec4-0f7d4c7ef078", "slug": "the-law-should", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/lawrence-lessig/free-culture/the-law-should", "text": "The law should regulate in certain areas of culture — but it should regulate culture only where that regulation does good. Yet lawyers rarely test their power, or the power they promote, against this simple pragmatic question: \"Will it do good?\" When challenged about the expanding reach of the law, the lawyer answers, \"Why not?\" We should ask, \"Why?\" Show me why your regulation of culture is needed. Show me how it does good. And until you can show me both, keep your lawyers away.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Lawrence Lessig", "slug": "lawrence-lessig", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/lawrence-lessig" }, "book": { "title": "Free Culture", "slug": "free-culture", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/lawrence-lessig/free-culture" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "law", "slug": "law", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/law" }, { "name": "culture", "slug": "culture", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/culture" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Lawrence_Lessig#Free_Culture_(2004)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:48:26" }, { "id": "bb4fcbc4-708e-45e8-a37a-40af1c8a2fb2", "slug": "a-simple-idea", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/lawrence-lessig/free-culture/a-simple-idea", "text": "A simple idea blinds us, and under the cover of darkness, much happens that most of us would reject if any of us looked. So uncritically do we accept the idea of property in ideas that we don't even notice how monstrous it is to deny ideas to a people who are dying without them. So uncritically do we accept the idea of property in culture that we don't even question when the control of that property removes our ability, as a people, to develop our culture democratically. Blindness becomes our common sense. And the challenge for anyone who would reclaim the right to cultivate our culture is to find a way to make this common sense open its eyes. So far, common sense sleeps. There is no revolt. Common sense does not yet see what there could be to revolt about.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Lawrence Lessig", "slug": "lawrence-lessig", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/lawrence-lessig" }, "book": { "title": "Free Culture", "slug": "free-culture", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/lawrence-lessig/free-culture" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "culture", "slug": "culture", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/culture" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Lawrence_Lessig#Free_Culture_(2004)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:48:25" }, { "id": "52e69633-3eb0-4ffa-ab5d-86a98106de97", "slug": "there-has-never", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/lawrence-lessig/free-culture/there-has-never", "text": "There has never been a time in history when more of our \"culture\" was as \"owned\" as it is now. And yet there has never been a time when the concentration of power to control the uses of culture has been as unquestioningly accepted as it is now.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Lawrence Lessig", "slug": "lawrence-lessig", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/lawrence-lessig" }, "book": { "title": "Free Culture", "slug": "free-culture", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/lawrence-lessig/free-culture" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "power", "slug": "power", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/power" }, { "name": "culture", "slug": "culture", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/culture" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Lawrence_Lessig#Free_Culture_(2004)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:48:25" }, { "id": "246cf866-52c2-4b5a-af6c-bb2546fbf1e9", "slug": "we-will-not", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/lawrence-lessig/free-culture/we-will-not", "text": "We will not reclaim a free culture by individual action alone. It will also take important reforms of laws. We have a long way to go before the politicians will listen to these ideas and implement these reforms. But that also means that we have time to build awareness around the changes that we need.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Lawrence Lessig", "slug": "lawrence-lessig", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/lawrence-lessig" }, "book": { "title": "Free Culture", "slug": "free-culture", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/lawrence-lessig/free-culture" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "culture", "slug": "culture", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/culture" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Lawrence_Lessig#Free_Culture_(2004)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:48:25" }, { "id": "0bd4b9b4-9a04-42c2-9ffa-c2b0225507c4", "slug": "of-all-the", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/lawrence-lessig/free-culture/of-all-the", "text": "Of all the creative work produced by humans anywhere, a tiny fraction has continuing commercial value. For that tiny fraction, the copyright is a crucially important legal device. For that tiny fraction, the copyright creates incentives to produce and distribute the creative work. For that tiny fraction, the copyright acts as an \"engine of free expression.\" But even for that tiny fraction, the actual time during which the creative work has a commercial life is extremely short. As I've indicated, most books go out of print within one year. The same is true of music and film. Commercial culture is sharklike. It must keep moving. And when a creative work falls out of favor with the commercial distributors, the commercial life ends.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Lawrence Lessig", "slug": "lawrence-lessig", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/lawrence-lessig" }, "book": { "title": "Free Culture", "slug": "free-culture", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/lawrence-lessig/free-culture" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "culture", "slug": "culture", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/culture" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Lawrence_Lessig#Free_Culture_(2004)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:48:25" }, { "id": "28a59ec1-abb4-4ca8-9618-9aeaffbebd28", "slug": "but-then-our", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/samuel-r-delany/tales-of-neveryon/but-then-our", "text": "But then, our way is the natural way ordained by god herself, whereas I have no idea whose set of social accidents and economic anomalies have contoured the ways of your odd and awkward land.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Samuel R. Delany", "slug": "samuel-r-delany", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/samuel-r-delany" }, "book": { "title": "Tales of Neveryon", "slug": "tales-of-neveryon", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/samuel-r-delany/tales-of-neveryon" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 177, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "irony", "slug": "irony", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/irony" }, { "name": "culture", "slug": "culture", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/culture" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Samuel_R._Delany#Tales_of_Nev%C3%A8r%C3%BFon_(1979)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:48:19" }, { "id": "aa2335b5-aaa4-4e2d-99e8-e3e82146a752", "slug": "writing-printing-and", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/jane-jacobs/dark-age-ahead/writing-printing-and", "text": "Writing, printing, and the Internet give a false sense of security about the permanence of culture.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Jane Jacobs", "slug": "jane-jacobs", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/jane-jacobs" }, "book": { "title": "Dark Age Ahead", "slug": "dark-age-ahead", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/jane-jacobs/dark-age-ahead" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "technology", "slug": "technology", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/technology" }, { "name": "culture", "slug": "culture", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/culture" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Jane_Jacobs#Dark_Age_Ahead_(2004)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:47:48" }, { "id": "3591cb2d-35fb-454b-b198-3cb584a3f377", "slug": "the-salient-mystery", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/jane-jacobs/dark-age-ahead/the-salient-mystery", "text": "The salient mystery of Dark Ages sets the stage for mass amnesia. People living in vigorous cultures typically treasure those cultures and resist any threat to them. How and why can a people so totally discard a formerly vital culture that it becomes vitally lost?", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Jane Jacobs", "slug": "jane-jacobs", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/jane-jacobs" }, "book": { "title": "Dark Age Ahead", "slug": "dark-age-ahead", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/jane-jacobs/dark-age-ahead" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "history", "slug": "history", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history" }, { "name": "culture", "slug": "culture", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/culture" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Jane_Jacobs#Dark_Age_Ahead_(2004)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:47:48" }, { "id": "4f1d0508-b482-4dc7-a3a0-3d5f4c1fee09", "slug": "anthropology-is-never", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/orson-scott-card/speaker-for-the-dead/anthropology-is-never", "text": "Anthropology is never an exact science; the observer never experiences the same culture as the participant.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Orson Scott Card", "slug": "orson-scott-card", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/orson-scott-card" }, "book": { "title": "Speaker for the Dead", "slug": "speaker-for-the-dead", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/orson-scott-card/speaker-for-the-dead" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "science", "slug": "science", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/science" }, { "name": "culture", "slug": "culture", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/culture" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Speaker_for_the_Dead#Quotes", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:47:43" }, { "id": "afab936d-5836-40b7-b808-96e50eb3a5a2", "slug": "in-its-relation", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/herbert-marcuse/one-dimensional-man/in-its-relation", "text": "In its relation to the reality of daily life, the high culture of the past was many things—opposition and adornment, outcry and resignation. But it was also the appearance of the realm of freedom: the refusal to behave.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Herbert Marcuse", "slug": "herbert-marcuse", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/herbert-marcuse" }, "book": { "title": "One-Dimensional Man", "slug": "one-dimensional-man", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/herbert-marcuse/one-dimensional-man" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 71, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "freedom", "slug": "freedom", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/freedom" }, { "name": "culture", "slug": "culture", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/culture" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Herbert_Marcuse#One-Dimensional_Man_(1964)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:47:39" }, { "id": "f0bdbd8a-cf35-4b79-addd-ce4e83ae74e9", "slug": "society-is-eliminating", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/herbert-marcuse/one-dimensional-man/society-is-eliminating", "text": "Society is eliminating the prerogatives and privileges of feudal. aristocratic culture together with its content. The fact that the transcending truths of the fine arts, the aesthetics of life and thought, were accessible only to the few wealthy and educated was the fault of a repressive society. But this fault is not corrected by paperbacks, general education, long-playing records, and the abolition of formal dress in the theater and concert hall. The cultural privileges expressed the injustice of freedom, the contradiction between ideology and reality, the separation of intellectual from material productivity; but they also provided a protected realm in which the tabooed truths could survive in abstract integrity—remote from the society which suppressed them.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Herbert Marcuse", "slug": "herbert-marcuse", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/herbert-marcuse" }, "book": { "title": "One-Dimensional Man", "slug": "one-dimensional-man", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/herbert-marcuse/one-dimensional-man" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 64, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "education", "slug": "education", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/education" }, { "name": "culture", "slug": "culture", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/culture" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Herbert_Marcuse#One-Dimensional_Man_(1964)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:47:38" }, { "id": "d2997285-f035-4bbf-a4c8-c6e3ecab2c34", "slug": "man-today-can", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/herbert-marcuse/one-dimensional-man/man-today-can", "text": "Man today can do more than the culture heros and half-gods; he has solved many insoluble problems. But he has also betrayed the hope and destroyed the truth which were preserved in the sublimations of higher culture. To be sure, the higher culture was always in contradiction with social reality, and only a privileged minority enjoyed its blessings and represented its ideals. The two antagonistic spheres of society have always coexisted; the higher culture has always been accommodating, while the reality was rarely disturbed by its ideals and its truth. Today's novel feature is the flattening out of the antagonism between culture and social reality through the obliteration of the oppositional, alien, and transcendent elements in the higher culture by virtue of which it constituted another dimension of reality. This liquidation of two-dimensional culture takes place not through the denial and rejection of the “cultural values,” but through their wholesale incorporation into the established order, through their reproduction and display on a massive scale.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Herbert Marcuse", "slug": "herbert-marcuse", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/herbert-marcuse" }, "book": { "title": "One-Dimensional Man", "slug": "one-dimensional-man", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/herbert-marcuse/one-dimensional-man" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 56, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "human nature", "slug": "human-nature", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/human-nature" }, { "name": "culture", "slug": "culture", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/culture" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Herbert_Marcuse#One-Dimensional_Man_(1964)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:47:38" }, { "id": "b576558e-497d-4248-b727-47411fecf719", "slug": "they-great-works", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/herbert-marcuse/one-dimensional-man/they-great-works", "text": "They [great works of literature] are invalidated not because of their literary obsolescence. Some of these images pertain to contemporary literature and survive in its most advanced creations. What has been invalidated is their subversive force, their destructive content—their truth. In this transformation, they find their home in everyday living. The alien and alienating oeuvres of intellectual culture become familiar goods and services. Is their massive reproduction and consumption only a change in quantity, namely, growing appreciation and understanding, democratization of culture? The truth of literature and art has always been granted (if it was granted at all) as one of a “higher” order, which should not and indeed did not disturb the order of business. What has changed in the contemporary period is the difference between the two orders and their truths. The absorbent power of society depletes the artistic dimension by assimilating its antagonistic contents. In the realm of culture, the new totalitarianism manifests itself precisely in a harmonizing pluralism, where the most contradictory works and truths peacefully coexist in indifference. Prior to the advent of this cultural reconciliation, literature and art were essentially alienation, sustaining and protecting the contradiction—the unhappy consciousness of the divided world, the defeated possibilities, the hopes unfulfilled, and the promises betrayed. They were a rational, cognitive force, revealing a dimension of man and nature which was repressed and repelled in reality.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Herbert Marcuse", "slug": "herbert-marcuse", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/herbert-marcuse" }, "book": { "title": "One-Dimensional Man", "slug": "one-dimensional-man", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/herbert-marcuse/one-dimensional-man" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 60, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "literature", "slug": "literature", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/literature" }, { "name": "culture", "slug": "culture", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/culture" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Herbert_Marcuse#One-Dimensional_Man_(1964)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:47:38" }, { "id": "b5504684-03d6-427d-a098-ad178cae6f51", "slug": "the-neo-conservative-critics", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/herbert-marcuse/one-dimensional-man/the-neo-conservative-critics", "text": "The neo-conservative critics of leftist critics of mass culture ridicule the protest against Bach as background music in the kitchen, against Plato and Hegel, Shelley and Baudelaire, Marx and Freud in the drugstore. Instead, they insist on recognition of the fact that the classics have left the mausoleum and come to life again, that people are just so much more educated. True, but coming to life as classics, they come to life as other than themselves; they are deprived of their antagonistic force, of the estrangement which was the very dimension of their truth.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Herbert Marcuse", "slug": "herbert-marcuse", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/herbert-marcuse" }, "book": { "title": "One-Dimensional Man", "slug": "one-dimensional-man", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/herbert-marcuse/one-dimensional-man" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 64, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "culture", "slug": "culture", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/culture" }, { "name": "consumerism", "slug": "consumerism", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/consumerism" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Herbert_Marcuse#One-Dimensional_Man_(1964)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:47:38" }, { "id": "118ca81e-318d-4bc1-9126-f92afd609c9a", "slug": "as-the-great", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/herbert-marcuse/one-dimensional-man/as-the-great", "text": "As the great words of freedom and fulfillment are pronounced by campaigning leaders and politicians, on the screens and radios and stages, they turn into meaningless sounds which obtain meaning only in the context of propaganda, business, discipline, and relaxation. This assimilation of the ideal with reality testifies to the extent to which the ideal has been surpassed. It is brought down from the sublimated realm of the soul or the spirit or the inner man, and translated into operational terms and problems. Here are the progressive elements of mass culture. The perversion is indicative of the fact that advanced industrial society is confronted with the possibility of a materialization of ideals. The capabilities of this society are progressively reducing the sublimated realm in which the condition of man was represented, idealized, and indicted. Higher culture becomes part of the material culture. In this transformation, it loses the greater part of its truth.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Herbert Marcuse", "slug": "herbert-marcuse", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/herbert-marcuse" }, "book": { "title": "One-Dimensional Man", "slug": "one-dimensional-man", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/herbert-marcuse/one-dimensional-man" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 57, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "culture", "slug": "culture", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/culture" }, { "name": "propaganda", "slug": "propaganda", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/propaganda" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Herbert_Marcuse#One-Dimensional_Man_(1964)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:47:38" }, { "id": "0f8ea184-b976-41e1-92f2-df346b25f78d", "slug": "the-higher-culture", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/herbert-marcuse/one-dimensional-man/the-higher-culture", "text": "The higher culture of the West—whose moral, aesthetic, and intellectual values industrial society still professes—was a pre-technological culture in a functional as well as chronological sense. Its validity was derived from the experience of a world which no longer exists and which cannot be recaptured because it is in a strict sense invalidated by technological society. Moreover, it remained to a large degree a feudal culture, even when the bourgeois period gave it some of its most lasting formulations. It was feudal not only because of its confinement to privileged minorities, not only because of its inherent romantic element (which will be discussed presently), but also because its authentic works expressed a conscious, methodical alienation from the entire sphere of business and industry, and from its calculable and profitable order.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Herbert Marcuse", "slug": "herbert-marcuse", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/herbert-marcuse" }, "book": { "title": "One-Dimensional Man", "slug": "one-dimensional-man", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/herbert-marcuse/one-dimensional-man" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 58, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "technology", "slug": "technology", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/technology" }, { "name": "culture", "slug": "culture", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/culture" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Herbert_Marcuse#One-Dimensional_Man_(1964)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:47:38" }, { "id": "a0c0c92b-8878-4c9a-944f-347053a20956", "slug": "our-culture-runs", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/edward-abbey/down-the-river/our-culture-runs", "text": "Our culture runs on coffee and gasoline, the first often tasting like the second.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Edward Abbey", "slug": "edward-abbey", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/edward-abbey" }, "book": { "title": "Down the River", "slug": "down-the-river", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/edward-abbey/down-the-river" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "humor", "slug": "humor", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/humor" }, { "name": "culture", "slug": "culture", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/culture" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Edward_Abbey#Down_the_River_(1982)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:47:32" }, { "id": "6a82d025-5b61-431c-a987-26b54a187c37", "slug": "to-make-the", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/edward-abbey/desert-solitaire/to-make-the", "text": "To make the distinction unmistakably clear: Civilization is the vital force in human history; culture is that inert mass of institutions and organizations which accumulate around and tend to drag down the advance of life; Civilization is Giordano Bruno facing death by fire; culture is the Cardinal Bellarmino, after ten years of inquisition, sending Bruno to the stake in the Campo di Fiori; Civilization is Sartre; culture Cocteau; Civilization is mutual aid and self-defense; culture is the judge, the lawbook and the forces of Law & Ordure (sic); Civilization is uprising, insurrection, revolution; culture is the war of state against state, or of machines against people, as in Hungary and Vietnam; Civilization is tolerance, detachment and humor, or passion, anger, revenge; culture is the entrance examination, the gas chamber, the doctoral dissertation and the electric chair; Civilization is the Ukrainian peasant Nestor Makhno fighting the Germans, then the Reds, then the Whites, then the Reds again; culture is Stalin and the Fatherland; Civilization is Jesus turning water into wine; culture is Christ walking on the waves; Civilization is a youth with a Molotov cocktail in his hand; culture is the Soviet tank or the L.A. cop that guns him down; Civilization is the wild river; culture, 592,000 tons of cement; Civilization flows; culture thickens and coagulates, like tired, sick, stifled blood.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Edward Abbey", "slug": "edward-abbey", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/edward-abbey" }, "book": { "title": "Desert Solitaire", "slug": "desert-solitaire", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/edward-abbey/desert-solitaire" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 308, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "civilization", "slug": "civilization", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/civilization" }, { "name": "culture", "slug": "culture", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/culture" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Edward_Abbey#Desert_Solitaire_(1968)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:47:31" }, { "id": "14313962-5d95-4fb1-85b4-0c330ba65981", "slug": "hip-is-the", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/norman-mailer/advertisements-for-myself/hip-is-the", "text": "Hip is the sophistication of the wise primitive in a giant jungle.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Norman Mailer", "slug": "norman-mailer", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/norman-mailer" }, "book": { "title": "Advertisements for Myself", "slug": "advertisements-for-myself", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/norman-mailer/advertisements-for-myself" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "culture", "slug": "culture", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/culture" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Norman_Mailer#Advertisements_for_Myself_(1959)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:47:13" }, { "id": "a70714aa-a11e-44dd-a94f-ffaa65abba00", "slug": "the-doctor-who", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/john-mortimer/where-theres-a-will/the-doctor-who", "text": "The doctor who makes a friend of his patients, the lawyer who defends death penalty cases in distant countries for no fee, the schoolteacher who opens a child's eyes to a new world of books and poetry — such people do nothing that can be measured in marketplaces. The greatest painters, composers and writers don't offer you choices, they present you with what only they can do, and you must take it or leave it. So when such subjects as the values of the marketplace are discussed, you will probably not have much to contribute. You can repeat a poem in your head and wait until the conversation is over. But if anyone starts talking about \"level playing fields,\" get up and steal quietly from the room.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "John Mortimer", "slug": "john-mortimer", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/john-mortimer" }, "book": { "title": "Where There's a Will", "slug": "where-theres-a-will", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/john-mortimer/where-theres-a-will" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "work", "slug": "work", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/work" }, { "name": "culture", "slug": "culture", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/culture" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/John_Mortimer#Where_There's_a_Will:_Thoughts_on_the_Good_Life_(2003)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:46:44" }, { "id": "4100e8df-dd71-46d0-9b7e-3b11da30739a", "slug": "culture-is-the", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/shulamith-firestone/the-dialectic-of-sex-the-case-for-feminist-revolution/culture-is-the", "text": "Culture is the attempt by man to realize the conceivable in the possible. Man’s consciousness of himself within his environment distinguishes him from the lower animals, and turns him into the only animal capable of culture. This consciousness, his highest faculty, allows him to project mentally states of being that do not exist at the moment. Able to construct a past and future, he becomes a creature of time – a historian and a prophet. More than this, he can imagine objects and states of being that have never existed and may never exist in the real world – he becomes a maker of art. Thus, for example, though the ancient Greeks did not know how to fly, still they could imagine it. The myth of Icarus was the formulation in fantasy of their conception of the state ‘flying’. But man was not only able to project the conceivable into fantasy. He also learned to impose it on reality: by accumulating knowledge, learning experience, about that reality and how to handle it, he could shape it to his liking. This accumulation of skills for controlling the environment, technology, is another means to reaching the same end, the realization of the conceivable in the possible.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Shulamith Firestone", "slug": "shulamith-firestone", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/shulamith-firestone" }, "book": { "title": "The Dialectic of Sex: The Case for Feminist Revolution", "slug": "the-dialectic-of-sex-the-case-for-feminist-revolution", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/shulamith-firestone/the-dialectic-of-sex-the-case-for-feminist-revolution" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 172, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "imagination", "slug": "imagination", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/imagination" }, { "name": "culture", "slug": "culture", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/culture" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Shulamith_Firestone#Chapter_Nine", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:46:39" }, { "id": "3077cda7-7c50-46d2-872a-ca376328933b", "slug": "women-and-love", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/shulamith-firestone/the-dialectic-of-sex-the-case-for-feminist-revolution/women-and-love", "text": "Women and love are underpinnings. Examine them and you threaten the very structure of culture.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Shulamith Firestone", "slug": "shulamith-firestone", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/shulamith-firestone" }, "book": { "title": "The Dialectic of Sex: The Case for Feminist Revolution", "slug": "the-dialectic-of-sex-the-case-for-feminist-revolution", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/shulamith-firestone/the-dialectic-of-sex-the-case-for-feminist-revolution" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 126, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "love", "slug": "love", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/love" }, { "name": "women", "slug": "women", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/women" }, { "name": "culture", "slug": "culture", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/culture" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Shulamith_Firestone#Chapter_Six", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:46:39" }, { "id": "0b29debc-ad47-4b60-9744-180a34c74dbf", "slug": "the-more-local", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/wendell-berry/what-are-people-for/the-more-local", "text": "The more local and settled a culture, the better it stays put, the less the damage. It is the foreigner whose road of excess leads to a desert … a man with a machine and inadequate culture … is a pestilence. He shakes more than he can hold.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Wendell Berry", "slug": "wendell-berry", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/wendell-berry" }, "book": { "title": "What Are People For?", "slug": "what-are-people-for", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/wendell-berry/what-are-people-for" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "ecology", "slug": "ecology", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/ecology" }, { "name": "culture", "slug": "culture", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/culture" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Wendell_Berry#What_Are_People_For%3F_(1990)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:46:21" }, { "id": "909db8b3-3b7e-4642-89ff-0716c770c6e8", "slug": "there-are-cultures", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/jean-baudrillard/cool-memories/there-are-cultures", "text": "There are cultures that can only picture their origins and not their ends. Some are obsessed by both. Two other positions are possible: only picturing one's end - our own culture; picturing neither beginning nor end - the coming culture.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Jean Baudrillard", "slug": "jean-baudrillard", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/jean-baudrillard" }, "book": { "title": "Cool Memories", "slug": "cool-memories", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/jean-baudrillard/cool-memories" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "culture", "slug": "culture", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/culture" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Jean_Baudrillard#Cool_Memories_(1987,_trans._1990)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:45:58" }, { "id": "9deb4a59-ffb0-43f5-999f-848c16d1fd75", "slug": "it-wounded-him", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/james-joyce/a-portrait-of-the-artist-as-a-young-man/it-wounded-him", "text": "It wounded him to think that he would never be but a shy guest at the feast of the world's culture and that the monkish learning, in terms of which he was striving to forge out an esthetic philosophy, was held no higher by the age he lived in than the subtle and curious jargons of heraldry and falconry.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "James Joyce", "slug": "james-joyce", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/james-joyce" }, "book": { "title": "A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man", "slug": "a-portrait-of-the-artist-as-a-young-man", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/james-joyce/a-portrait-of-the-artist-as-a-young-man" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 189, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "culture", "slug": "culture", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/culture" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/A_Portrait_of_the_Artist_as_a_Young_Man#Quotes", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:45:54" }, { "id": "3c00b5f7-e2cb-4631-8025-e506ab04a447", "slug": "people-claiming-that", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/kim-stanley-robinson/blue-mars/people-claiming-that", "text": "People claiming that some fundamental right is foreign to their culture—that stinks no matter who says it, fundamentalists, patriarchs, Leninists, metanats, I don’t care who. They aren’t going to get away with it here, not if I can help it.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Kim Stanley Robinson", "slug": "kim-stanley-robinson", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/kim-stanley-robinson" }, "book": { "title": "Blue Mars", "slug": "blue-mars", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/kim-stanley-robinson/blue-mars" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 128, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "culture", "slug": "culture", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/culture" }, { "name": "human rights", "slug": "human-rights", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/human-rights" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Kim_Stanley_Robinson#Blue_Mars_(1996)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:44:45" }, { "id": "866f96b0-7897-4243-812c-e4d744e59adf", "slug": "yes-shakespeare-foremost", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/stephen-jay-gould/eight-little-piggies/yes-shakespeare-foremost", "text": "Yes, Shakespeare foremost and forever (Darwin too). But also teach about the excellence of pygmy bushcraft and Fuegian survival in the world's harshest climate. Dignity and inspiration come in many guises. Would anyone choose the tinhorn patriotism of over the eloquence of Chief Joseph in defeat?", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Stephen Jay Gould", "slug": "stephen-jay-gould", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/stephen-jay-gould" }, "book": { "title": "Eight Little Piggies", "slug": "eight-little-piggies", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/stephen-jay-gould/eight-little-piggies" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 274, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "education", "slug": "education", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/education" }, { "name": "culture", "slug": "culture", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/culture" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Stephen_Jay_Gould#Eight_Little_Piggies_(1993)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:44:34" }, { "id": "8250fc3b-1559-474b-a13a-c328e2a2147c", "slug": "why-do-countries", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/robertson-davies/the-salterton-trilogy/why-do-countries", "text": "Why do countries have to have literatures? Why does a country like Canada, so late upon the international scene, feel that it must rapidly acquire the trappings of older countries – music of its own, pictures of its own, books of its own – and why does it fuss and stew, and storm the heavens with its outcries when it does not have them?", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Robertson Davies", "slug": "robertson-davies", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/robertson-davies" }, "book": { "title": "The Salterton Trilogy", "slug": "the-salterton-trilogy", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/robertson-davies/the-salterton-trilogy" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "literature", "slug": "literature", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/literature" }, { "name": "culture", "slug": "culture", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/culture" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Salterton_Trilogy#Leaven_of_Malice", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:44:15" }, { "id": "f0666400-a165-4f35-86e2-f2c9af7f6b2e", "slug": "half-the-battle", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/robert-a-heinlein/time-enough-for-love/half-the-battle", "text": "Half the battle with any culture is knowing its taboos.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Robert A. Heinlein", "slug": "robert-a-heinlein", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/robert-a-heinlein" }, "book": { "title": "Time Enough For Love", "slug": "time-enough-for-love", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/robert-a-heinlein/time-enough-for-love" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 215, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "culture", "slug": "culture", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/culture" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Time_Enough_for_Love#Quotes", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:44:00" }, { "id": "8291d679-29c9-43fe-b680-59eab52a5523", "slug": "religious-ideas-have", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/sigmund-freud/the-future-of-an-illusion/religious-ideas-have", "text": "Religious ideas have sprung from the same need as all the other achievements of culture: from the necessity for defending itself against the crushing supremacy of nature.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Sigmund Freud", "slug": "sigmund-freud", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/sigmund-freud" }, "book": { "title": "The Future of an Illusion", "slug": "the-future-of-an-illusion", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/sigmund-freud/the-future-of-an-illusion" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "religion", "slug": "religion", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/religion" }, { "name": "culture", "slug": "culture", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/culture" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Sigmund_Freud#The_Future_of_an_Illusion_(1927)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:43:48" }, { "id": "5f2637a7-a886-4973-acc3-518a28846d17", "slug": "compulsory-bad-taste", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/christopher-hitchens/and-yet/compulsory-bad-taste", "text": "Compulsory bad taste isn’t a good cultural sign either.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Christopher Hitchens", "slug": "christopher-hitchens", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/christopher-hitchens" }, "book": { "title": "And Yet", "slug": "and-yet", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/christopher-hitchens/and-yet" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "culture", "slug": "culture", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/culture" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Christopher_Hitchens#And_Yet...:_Essays_(2015)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:43:06" }, { "id": "d42d4b5b-c84a-4ba3-b5ac-23e06acc913e", "slug": "by-an-axiom", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/jack-vance/marune-alastor-933/by-an-axiom", "text": "By an axiom of cultural anthropology, the more isolated a community, the more idiosyncratic become its customs and conventions. This of course is not necessarily disadvantageous.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Jack Vance", "slug": "jack-vance", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/jack-vance" }, "book": { "title": "Marune: Alastor 933", "slug": "marune-alastor-933", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/jack-vance/marune-alastor-933" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 245, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "culture", "slug": "culture", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/culture" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Jack_Vance#Marune:_Alastor_933_(1975)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:43:02" }, { "id": "76db80a3-f5b3-4517-91cb-21922ddb115b", "slug": "every-human-mind", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/daniel-dennett/kinds-of-minds/every-human-mind", "text": "Every human mind you've ever looked at … is a product not just of natural selection but of cultural redesign of enormous proportions.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Daniel Dennett", "slug": "daniel-dennett", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/daniel-dennett" }, "book": { "title": "Kinds Of Minds", "slug": "kinds-of-minds", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/daniel-dennett/kinds-of-minds" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "thinking", "slug": "thinking", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/thinking" }, { "name": "culture", "slug": "culture", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/culture" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Daniel_Dennett#Kinds_of_Minds_(1996)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:42:29" }, { "id": "cc71dd8d-7170-41eb-974a-52692bfb28d8", "slug": "when-comparing-the", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/daniel-dennett/darwins-dangerous-idea/when-comparing-the", "text": "When comparing the time scales of genetic and cultural evolution, it is useful to bear in mind that we today — every one of us — can easily understand many ideas that were simply unthinkable by the geniuses in our grandparents' generation!", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Daniel Dennett", "slug": "daniel-dennett", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/daniel-dennett" }, "book": { "title": "Darwin's Dangerous Idea", "slug": "darwins-dangerous-idea", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/daniel-dennett/darwins-dangerous-idea" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "thinking", "slug": "thinking", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/thinking" }, { "name": "culture", "slug": "culture", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/culture" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Daniel_Dennett#Darwin's_Dangerous_Idea_(1995)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:42:28" }, { "id": "87f6bf98-9ddd-4510-b718-cb47d7fd9216", "slug": "people-ache-to-believe", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/daniel-dennett/darwins-dangerous-idea/people-ache-to-believe", "text": "People ache to believe that we human beings are vastly different from all other species — and they are right! We are different. We are the only species that has an extra medium of design preservation and design communication: culture. … We have language, the primary medium of culture... In a few short millennia — a mere instant in biological time — we have already used our new exploration vehicles to transform not only our planet but the very process of design development that created us.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Daniel Dennett", "slug": "daniel-dennett", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/daniel-dennett" }, "book": { "title": "Darwin's Dangerous Idea", "slug": "darwins-dangerous-idea", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/daniel-dennett/darwins-dangerous-idea" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "human nature", "slug": "human-nature", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/human-nature" }, { "name": "culture", "slug": "culture", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/culture" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Daniel_Dennett#Darwin's_Dangerous_Idea_(1995)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:42:28" }, { "id": "ba7487b4-12fa-4914-9c63-be81baaf79b0", "slug": "father-latour-judged", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/willa-cather/death-comes-for-the-archbishop/father-latour-judged", "text": "Father Latour judged that, just as it was the white man's way to assert himself in any landscape, to change it, make it over a little (at least to leave some mark of memorial of his sojourn), it was the Indian's way to pass through a country without disturbing anything; to pass and leave no trace, like fish through the water, or birds through the air. It was the Indian manner to vanish into the landscape, not to stand out against it. The Hopi villages that were set upon rock mesas were made to look like the rock on which they sat, were imperceptible at a distance.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Willa Cather", "slug": "willa-cather", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/willa-cather" }, "book": { "title": "Death Comes for the Archbishop", "slug": "death-comes-for-the-archbishop", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/willa-cather/death-comes-for-the-archbishop" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "nature", "slug": "nature", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/nature" }, { "name": "culture", "slug": "culture", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/culture" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Willa_Cather#Death_Comes_for_the_Archbishop_(1927)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:42:04" }, { "id": "c3256772-2a29-47dc-9606-e260e69ac1e5", "slug": "if-we-judge", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/claude-levi-strauss/tristes-tropiques/if-we-judge", "text": "If we judge the achievements of other social groups in relation to the kind of objectives we set ourselves, we have at times to acknowledge their superiority; but in doing so we acquire the right to judge them, and hence to condemn all their other objectives which do not coincide with those we approve of. We implicitly acknowledge that our society with its customs and norms enjoys a privileged position, since an observer belonging to another social group would pass different verdicts on the same examples. This being so, how can the study of anthropology claim to be scientific? To reestablish an objective approach, we must abstain from making judgments of this kind. We must accept the fact that each society has made a certain choice, within the range of existing human possibilities, and that the various choices cannot be compared with each other: they are all equally valid. But in this case a new problem arises; while in the first instance we were in danger of falling into obscurantism, in the form of a blind refusal of everything foreign to us, we now run the risk of accepting a kind of eclecticism which would prevent us denouncing any feature of a given culture — not even cruelty, injustice and poverty, against which the very society suffering these ills may be protesting. And since these abuses also exist in our society, what right have we to combat them at home, if we accept them as inevitable when they occur elsewhere?", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Claude Lévi-Strauss", "slug": "claude-levi-strauss", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/claude-levi-strauss" }, "book": { "title": "Tristes Tropiques", "slug": "tristes-tropiques", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/claude-levi-strauss/tristes-tropiques" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 385, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "culture", "slug": "culture", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/culture" }, { "name": "tolerance", "slug": "tolerance", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/tolerance" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Claude_L%C3%A9vi-Strauss#Tristes_Tropiques_(1955)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:41:57" }, { "id": "b6f3c308-14a3-4fc1-a3c0-459161492f8d", "slug": "a-culture-is-made", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/ayn-rand/the-voice-of-reason/a-culture-is-made", "text": "A culture is made — or destroyed — by its articulate voices.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Ayn Rand", "slug": "ayn-rand", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/ayn-rand" }, "book": { "title": "The Voice of Reason", "slug": "the-voice-of-reason", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/ayn-rand/the-voice-of-reason" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "culture", "slug": "culture", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/culture" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Ayn_Rand#The_Voice_of_Reason_(1989)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:41:53" }, { "id": "b1b61bbb-2d0e-4452-a2f5-21a9a420ccba", "slug": "the-rudeness-of-many", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/william-s-burroughs/queer/the-rudeness-of-many", "text": "The rudeness of many Americans depressed him, a rudeness based on a solid ignorance of the whole concept of manners, and on the proposition that for social purposes, all people are more or less equal and interchangeable.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "William S. Burroughs", "slug": "william-s-burroughs", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/william-s-burroughs" }, "book": { "title": "Queer", "slug": "queer", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/william-s-burroughs/queer" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "America", "slug": "america", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/america" }, { "name": "equality", "slug": "equality", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/equality" }, { "name": "culture", "slug": "culture", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/culture" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/William_S._Burroughs#Queer:_A_Novel_(1985)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:41:47" }, { "id": "3c3cb64a-2b7f-4fe4-8abe-9e8a17c75b59", "slug": "ideas-cultures-and", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/edward-w-said/orientalism/ideas-cultures-and", "text": "Ideas, cultures, and histories cannot seriously be understood or studied without their force, or more precisely their configurations of power, also being studied.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Edward W. Said", "slug": "edward-w-said", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/edward-w-said" }, "book": { "title": "Orientalism", "slug": "orientalism", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/edward-w-said/orientalism" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "power", "slug": "power", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/power" }, { "name": "history", "slug": "history", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history" }, { "name": "culture", "slug": "culture", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/culture" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Edward_Said#Orientalism_(1978)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:41:21" }, { "id": "20b9e25b-6ba4-457d-a276-17e0e071c676", "slug": "the-orient-that", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/edward-w-said/orientalism/the-orient-that", "text": "The Orient that appears in Orientalism, then, is a system of representations framed by a whole set of forces that brought the Orient into Western learning, Western consciousness, and later, Western empire. ... The Orient is the stage on which the whole East is confined. On this stage will appear the figures whose role it is to represent the larger whole from which they emanate. The Orient then seems to be, not an unlimited extension beyond the familiar European world, but rather a closed field, a theatrical stage affixed to Europe.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Edward W. Said", "slug": "edward-w-said", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/edward-w-said" }, "book": { "title": "Orientalism", "slug": "orientalism", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/edward-w-said/orientalism" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "culture", "slug": "culture", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/culture" }, { "name": "colonialism", "slug": "colonialism", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/colonialism" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Edward_Said#Orientalism_(1978)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:41:21" }, { "id": "01e0dad6-a9ce-4999-ae95-918d87df7947", "slug": "when-strangers-meet", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/frank-herbert/heretics-of-dune/when-strangers-meet", "text": "When strangers meet, great allowances should be made for differences of custom and training.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Frank Herbert", "slug": "frank-herbert", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/frank-herbert" }, "book": { "title": "Heretics of Dune", "slug": "heretics-of-dune", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/frank-herbert/heretics-of-dune" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "culture", "slug": "culture", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/culture" }, { "name": "tolerance", "slug": "tolerance", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/tolerance" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Dune#Heretics_of_Dune_(1984)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:40:54" }, { "id": "f7f4aa87-dc02-484c-a290-4af732d1773a", "slug": "laws-are-always", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/alexis-de-tocqueville/democracy-in-america/laws-are-always", "text": "Laws are always unstable unless they are founded on the manners of a nation; and manners are the only durable and resisting power in a people.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Alexis de Tocqueville", "slug": "alexis-de-tocqueville", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/alexis-de-tocqueville" }, "book": { "title": "Democracy in America", "slug": "democracy-in-america", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/alexis-de-tocqueville/democracy-in-america" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "law", "slug": "law", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/law" }, { "name": "culture", "slug": "culture", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/culture" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Alexis_de_Tocqueville#Democracy_in_America,_Volume_I_(1835)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:40:38" }, { "id": "593959fd-0b83-4d31-8aa2-64b6ccb58c46", "slug": "nothing-seems-at-first", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/alexis-de-tocqueville/democracy-in-america/nothing-seems-at-first", "text": "Nothing seems at first sight less important than the outward form of human actions, yet there is nothing upon which men set more store: they grow used to everything except to living in a society which has not their own manners.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Alexis de Tocqueville", "slug": "alexis-de-tocqueville", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/alexis-de-tocqueville" }, "book": { "title": "Democracy in America", "slug": "democracy-in-america", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/alexis-de-tocqueville/democracy-in-america" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "culture", "slug": "culture", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/culture" }, { "name": "habits", "slug": "habits", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/habits" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Alexis_de_Tocqueville#Democracy_in_America,_Volume_II_(1840)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:40:38" }, { "id": "fc0c4443-d6bb-40c8-96d0-40ea93e6ff28", "slug": "uncle-toms-cabin", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/robert-m-pirsig/zen-and-the-art-of-motorcycle-maintenance/uncle-toms-cabin", "text": "Uncle Tom's Cabin was no literary masterpiece but it was a culture-bearing book. It came at a time when the entire culture was about to reject slavery. People seized upon it as a portrayal of their own new values and it became an overwhelming success. The success of Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance seems the result of this culture-bearing phenomenon. The involuntary shock treatment described here is against the law today. It is a violation of human liberty. The culture has changed.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Robert M. Pirsig", "slug": "robert-m-pirsig", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/robert-m-pirsig" }, "book": { "title": "Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance", "slug": "zen-and-the-art-of-motorcycle-maintenance", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/robert-m-pirsig/zen-and-the-art-of-motorcycle-maintenance" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "literature", "slug": "literature", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/literature" }, { "name": "culture", "slug": "culture", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/culture" }, { "name": "slavery", "slug": "slavery", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/slavery" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Robert_M._Pirsig#Afterword_(1984)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:40:34" }, { "id": "7a3f7536-48d1-4b6b-b300-ea566b259784", "slug": "a-culture-bearing-book", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/robert-m-pirsig/zen-and-the-art-of-motorcycle-maintenance/a-culture-bearing-book", "text": "A culture-bearing book, like a mule, bears the culture on its back. No one should sit down to write one deliberately. Culture-bearing books occur almost accidentally, like a sudden change in the stock market. There are books of high quality that are an part of the culture, but that is not the same. They are a part of it. They aren't carrying it anywhere. They may talk about insanity sympathetically, for example, because that's the standard cultural attitude. But they don't carry any suggestion that insanity might be something other than sickness or degeneracy.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Robert M. Pirsig", "slug": "robert-m-pirsig", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/robert-m-pirsig" }, "book": { "title": "Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance", "slug": "zen-and-the-art-of-motorcycle-maintenance", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/robert-m-pirsig/zen-and-the-art-of-motorcycle-maintenance" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "literature", "slug": "literature", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/literature" }, { "name": "culture", "slug": "culture", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/culture" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Robert_M._Pirsig#Afterword_(1984)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:40:34" }, { "id": "2e1a4a11-4108-43b2-8b36-ca26486ae439", "slug": "the-mythos-over-logos-argument", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/robert-m-pirsig/zen-and-the-art-of-motorcycle-maintenance/the-mythos-over-logos-argument", "text": "The mythos-over-logos argument points to the fact that each child is born as ignorant as any caveman. What keeps the world from reverting to the Neandertal with each generation is the continuing, ongoing mythos, transformed into logos but still mythos, the huge body of common knowledge that unites our minds as cells are united in the body of man. To feel that one is not so united, that one can accept or discard this mythos as one pleases, is not to understand what the mythos is.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Robert M. Pirsig", "slug": "robert-m-pirsig", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/robert-m-pirsig" }, "book": { "title": "Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance", "slug": "zen-and-the-art-of-motorcycle-maintenance", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/robert-m-pirsig/zen-and-the-art-of-motorcycle-maintenance" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "knowledge", "slug": "knowledge", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/knowledge" }, { "name": "culture", "slug": "culture", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/culture" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Robert_M._Pirsig#Zen_and_the_Art_of_Motorcycle_Maintenance_(1974)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:40:33" }, { "id": "f37d7183-76c5-4b62-84e4-13395773d7f4", "slug": "in-recent-times", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/robert-m-pirsig/zen-and-the-art-of-motorcycle-maintenance/in-recent-times", "text": "In recent times we have seen a huge split develop between a classic culture and a romantic counterculture—two worlds growingly alienated and hateful toward each other with everyone wondering if it will always be this way, a house divided against itself.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Robert M. Pirsig", "slug": "robert-m-pirsig", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/robert-m-pirsig" }, "book": { "title": "Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance", "slug": "zen-and-the-art-of-motorcycle-maintenance", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/robert-m-pirsig/zen-and-the-art-of-motorcycle-maintenance" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "hatred", "slug": "hatred", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/hatred" }, { "name": "culture", "slug": "culture", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/culture" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Robert_M._Pirsig#Zen_and_the_Art_of_Motorcycle_Maintenance_(1974)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:40:32" }, { "id": "9d6c58e2-b4db-4e80-8c95-22524b24129b", "slug": "san-francisco-isnt", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/neil-gaiman/american-gods/san-francisco-isnt", "text": "\"San Francisco isn’t in the same country as Lakeside anymore than New Orleans is in the same country as New York or Miami is in the same country as Minneapolis.\" \"Is that so?\" said Shadow, mildly. \"Indeed it is. They may share certain cultural signifiers—money, a federal government, entertainment—it’s the same land, obviously—but the only things that give it the illusion of being one country are the greenback, The Tonight Show, and McDonald’s.\"", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Neil Gaiman", "slug": "neil-gaiman", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/neil-gaiman" }, "book": { "title": "American Gods", "slug": "american-gods", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/neil-gaiman/american-gods" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "culture", "slug": "culture", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/culture" }, { "name": "homeland", "slug": "homeland", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/homeland" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/American_Gods#Chapter_11", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:40:10" }, { "id": "3076c247-cd08-4269-b4f6-74a7c0dafb50", "slug": "the-gentle-minde", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/edmund-spenser/the-faerie-queene/the-gentle-minde", "text": "The gentle minde by gentle deeds is knowne. For a man by nothing is so well bewrayd, As by his manners.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Edmund Spenser", "slug": "edmund-spenser", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/edmund-spenser" }, "book": { "title": "The Faerie Queene", "slug": "the-faerie-queene", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/edmund-spenser/the-faerie-queene" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "character", "slug": "character", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/character" }, { "name": "culture", "slug": "culture", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/culture" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Edmund_Spenser#Book_VI", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:39:57" }, { "id": "43e7b79b-5c6d-405a-8280-0d4bf62b5134", "slug": "commerce-and-the", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/jean-jacques-rousseau/emile-or-on-education/commerce-and-the", "text": "Commerce and the arts which blend and mingle the nations at the same time prevent them from studying each other. If they know how to make a profit out of their neighbours, what more do they need to know?", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Jean Jacques Rousseau", "slug": "jean-jacques-rousseau", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/jean-jacques-rousseau" }, "book": { "title": "Emile; or On Education", "slug": "emile-or-on-education", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/jean-jacques-rousseau/emile-or-on-education" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "culture", "slug": "culture", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/culture" }, { "name": "trade", "slug": "trade", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/trade" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Emile,_or_On_Education#Book_V", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:39:38" }, { "id": "42baf03c-cbc7-439f-9889-c6ac0e18ccdf", "slug": "the-philosophy-of-the", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/miguel-de-unamuno/tragic-sense-of-life/the-philosophy-of-the", "text": "The philosophy of the soul of my people appears to me as an expression of an inward tragedy analogous to the tragedy of the soul of Don Quixote, as the expression of conflict between what the world is as scientific reason shows it to be and what we wish that it might be, as our religious faith affirms it to be. And in this philosophy is to be found the explanation of what is usually said about us — namely, that we are fundamentally irreducible to Kultur — or in other words, that we refuse to submit to it. No, Don Quixote does not resign himself either to the world, or to science or logic, or to art or esthetics, or to morality or ethics.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Miguel de Unamuno", "slug": "miguel-de-unamuno", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/miguel-de-unamuno" }, "book": { "title": "Tragic Sense of Life", "slug": "tragic-sense-of-life", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/miguel-de-unamuno/tragic-sense-of-life" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "identity", "slug": "identity", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/identity" }, { "name": "culture", "slug": "culture", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/culture" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Miguel_de_Unamuno#Conclusion_:_Don_Quixote_in_the_Contemporary_European_Tragi-Comedy", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:39:23" }, { "id": "3593702e-3f0d-4ec1-a44b-4be34a3dfc34", "slug": "piety-is-not", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/johann-wolfgang-von-goethe/maxims-and-reflections/piety-is-not", "text": "Piety is not an end but a means to attain by the greatest peace of mind the highest degree of culture.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Johann Wolfgang von Goethe", "slug": "johann-wolfgang-von-goethe", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/johann-wolfgang-von-goethe" }, "book": { "title": "Maxims and Reflections", "slug": "maxims-and-reflections", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/johann-wolfgang-von-goethe/maxims-and-reflections" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "faith", "slug": "faith", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/faith" }, { "name": "culture", "slug": "culture", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/culture" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Johann_Wolfgang_von_Goethe#Maxims_and_Reflections_(1833)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:39:18" } ] }