Every view of the world that becomes extinct, every culture that disappears, diminishes a possibility of life.
—Octavio Paz (1914–98) Mexican Poet, Diplomat
A faith in culture is as bad as a faith in religion; both expressions imply a turning away from those very things which culture and religion are about. Culture as a collective name for certain very valuable activities is a permissible word; but culture hypostatized, set up on its own, made into a faith, a cause, a banner, a platform, is unendurable. For none of the activities in question cares a straw for that faith or cause. It is like a return to early Semitic religion where names themselves were regarded as powers.
—C. S. Lewis (1898-1963) Irish-born British Academic, Author, Literary Scholar
Culture means the perfect and equal development of man on all sides.
—John Burroughs (1837–1921) American Naturalist, Writer
If you see in any given situation only what everybody else can see, you can be said to be so much a representative of your culture that you are a victim of it.
—S. I. Hayakawa (1906–92) Canadian-born American Academic, Elected Rep, Politician
The end of culture is right living.
—W. Somerset Maugham (1874–1965) British Novelist, Short-Story Writer, Playwright
Culture is on the horns of this dilemma: if profound and noble it must remain rare, if common it must become mean
—George Santayana (1863–1952) Spanish-American Poet, Philosopher
It is the mark of the cultured man that he is aware of the fact that equality is an ethical and not a biological principle
—Ashley Montagu (1905–1999) British-American Anthropologist
Culture of the mind must be subservient to the heart.
—Mohandas K. Gandhi (1869–1948) Indian Hindu Political leader
Culture is the habit of being pleased with the best and knowing why.
—Henry van Dyke Jr. (1852–1933) American Author, Educator, Clergyman
As the soil, however rich it may be, cannot be productive without cultivation, so the mind without culture can never produce good fruit.
—Seneca the Younger (Lucius Annaeus Seneca) (c.4 BCE–65 CE) Roman Stoic Philosopher, Statesman, Tragedian
In any culture, subculture, or family in which belief is valued above thought, and self-surrender is valued above self-expression, and conformity is valued above integrity, those who preserve their self-esteem are likely to be heroic exceptions
—Nathaniel Branden (1930–2014) American Psychotherapist
Publicity is the life of this culture, in so far as without publicity capitalism could not survive, and at the same time publicity is its dream.
—John Berger (1926–2017) English Art Critic, Novelist
Letting a hundred flowers blossom and a hundred schools of thought contend is the policy for promoting the progress of the arts and the sciences and a flourishing culture in our land.
—Mao Zedong (1893–1976) Chinese Statesman
Here in the U.S., culture is not that delicious panacea which we Europeans consume in a sacramental mental space and which has its own special columns in the newspapers—and in people’s minds. Culture is space, speed, cinema, technology. This culture is authentic, if anything can be said to be authentic.
—Jean Baudrillard (1929–2007) French Sociologist, Philosopher
Culture, far from giving us freedom, only develops, as it advances, new necessities; the fetters of the physical close more tightly around us, so that the fear of loss quenches even the ardent impulse toward improvement, and the maxims of passive obedience are held to be the highest wisdom of life.
—Friedrich Schiller (1759–1805) German Poet, Dramatist
One ought, every day at least, to hear a little song, read a good poem, see a fine picture, and, if it were possible, to speak a few reasonable words in order that worldly cares may not obliterate the sense of the beautiful which God has implanted in the human soul.
—Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749–1832) German Poet
As the end of the century approaches, all our culture is like the culture of flies at the beginning of winter. Having lost their agility, dreamy and demented, they turn slowly about the window in the first icy mists of morning. They give themselves a last wash and brush-up, their oscillated eyes roll, and they fall down the curtains.
—Jean Baudrillard (1929–2007) French Sociologist, Philosopher
High culture is nothing but a child of that European perversion called history, the obsession we have with going forward, with considering the sequence of generations a relay race in which everyone surpasses his predecessor, only to be surpassed by his successor. Without this relay race called history there would be no European art and what characterizes it: a longing for originality, a longing for change. Robespierre, Napoleon, Beethoven, Stalin, Picasso, they’re all runners in the relay race, they all belong to the same stadium.
—Milan Kundera (b.1929) Czech Novelist
We are in the process of creating what deserves to be called the idiot culture. Not an idiot sub-culture, which every society has bubbling beneath the surface and which can provide harmless fun; but the culture itself. For the first time, the weird and the stupid and the coarse are becoming our cultural norm, even our cultural ideal.
—Carl Bernstein (1944–73) American Journalist, Writer
Culture: the cry of men in face of their destiny.
—Albert Camus (1913–60) Algerian-born French Philosopher, Dramatist, Essayist, Novelist, Author
Men are not suffering from the lack of good literature, good art, good theatre, good music, but from that which has made it impossible for these to become manifest. In short, they are suffering from the silent shameful conspiracy (the more shameful since it is unacknowledged) which has bound them together as enemies of art and artists.
—Henry Miller (1891–1980) American Novelist
It is of the essence of imaginative culture that it transcends the limits both of the naturally possible and of the morally acceptable.
—Northrop Frye
Partial culture runs to the ornate, extreme culture to simplicity.
—Christian Nestell Bovee (1820–1904) American Writer, Aphorist
Culture is the widening of the mind and of the spirit.
—Jawaharlal Nehru (1889–1964) Indian Head of State
No culture can live if it attempts to be exclusive.
—Mohandas K. Gandhi (1869–1948) Indian Hindu Political leader
A man should be just cultured enough to be able to look with suspicion upon culture at first, not second hand.
—Samuel Butler
Culture is to know the best that has been said and thought in the world.
—Matthew Arnold (1822–88) English Poet, Critic
For corporations to be bedfellows with the arts is good business for both. The architecture that houses a company is a more visible statement than the president’s in the annual report. Ditto interiors, particularly of offices and sometimes, dramatically, in plants. For solvent businesses, support of community cultural undertakings in music, drama, dance creates great goodwill. Also, the existence of such activities is often important to the executives and their families that companies want to keep or attract to keep.
—Malcolm S. Forbes (1919–1990) American Publisher, Businessperson
Mrs. Ballinger is one of the ladies who pursue Culture in bands, as though it were dangerous to meet it alone.
—Edith Wharton (1862–1937) American Novelist, Short-story Writer
Our attitude toward our own culture has recently been characterized by two qualities, braggadocio and petulance. Braggadocio—empty boasting of American power, American virtue, American know-how—has dominated our foreign relations now for some decades. Here at home—within the family, so to speak—our attitude to our culture expresses a superficially different spirit, the spirit of petulance. Never before, perhaps, has a culture been so fragmented into groups, each full of its own virtue, each annoyed and irritated at the others.
—Daniel J. Boorstin (1914–2004) American Historian, Academic, Attorney, Writer
Our culture has become something that is completely and utterly in love with its parent. It’s become a notion of boredom that is bought and sold, where nothing will happen except that people will become more and more terrified of tomorrow, because the new continues to look old, and the old will always look cute.
—Malcolm Mclaren (1946–2010) British Impresario, Musician
That is true culture which helps us to work for the social betterment of all.
—Henry Ward Beecher (1813–87) American Clergyman, Writer
Great culture is often betokened by great simplicity.
—Dorothee Luzy Dotinville (1747–1830) French Dancer, Actress
Culture is the arts elevated to a set of beliefs.
—Thomas Wolfe (1900–38) American Novelist
Culture, then, is a study of perfection, and perfection which insists on becoming something rather than in having something, in an inward condition of the mind and spirit, not in an outward set of circumstances.
—Matthew Arnold (1822–88) English Poet, Critic
Culture is one thing and varnish is another.
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–82) American Philosopher
Culture is both an intellectual phenomenon and a moral one.
—Matthew Arnold (1822–88) English Poet, Critic
If everybody is looking for it, then nobody is finding it. If we were cultured, we would not be conscious of lacking culture. We would regard it as something natural and would not make so much fuss about it. And if we knew the real value of this word we would be cultured enough not to give it so much importance.
—Pablo Picasso (1881–1973) Spanish Painter, Sculptor, Artist
Without culture, and the relative freedom it implies, society, even when perfect, is but a jungle. This is why any authentic creation is a gift to the future.
—Albert Camus (1913–60) Algerian-born French Philosopher, Dramatist, Essayist, Novelist, Author
The foundation of culture, as of character, is at last the moral sentiment.
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–82) American Philosopher
Culture is an instrument wielded by teachers to manufacture teachers, who, in their turn, will manufacture still more teachers.
—Simone Weil (1909–1943) French Philosopher, Political Activist
For the rest, whatever we have got has been by infinite labor, and search, and ranging through every corner of nature; the difference is that instead of dirt and poison, we have rather chosen to fill our hives with honey and wax, thus furnishing mankind with the two noblest of things, which are sweetness and light.
—Jonathan Swift (1667–1745) Irish Satirist
Language is the road map of a culture. It tells you where its people come from and where they are going.
—Rita Mae Brown (b.1944) American Writer, Feminist
Culture is the name for what people are interested in, their thoughts, their models, the books they read and the speeches they hear, their table-talk, gossip, controversies, historical sense and scientific training, the values they appreciate, the quality of life they admire. All communities have a culture. It is the climate of their civilization.
—Walter Lippmann (1889–1974) American Journalist, Political Commentator, Writer
Culture, with us, ends in headache
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–82) American Philosopher
Men of culture are the true apostles of equality.
—Matthew Arnold (1822–88) English Poet, Critic
Preservation of one’s own culture does not require contempt or disrespect for other cultures.
—Cesar Chavez (1927–93) American Labor Leader
In the room the women come and go talking of Michelangelo.
—T. S. Eliot (1888–1965) American-born British Poet, Dramatist, Literary Critic
Culture is properly described as the love of perfection; it is a study of perfection.
—Matthew Arnold (1822–88) English Poet, Critic
Culture, the acquainting ourselves with the best that has been known and said in the world, and thus with the history of the human spirit.
—Matthew Arnold (1822–88) English Poet, Critic