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
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-British Academic, Author, Literary Scholar
Great culture is often betokened by great simplicity.
—Dorothee Luzy Dotinville (1747–1830) French Dancer, Actress
Culture, with us, ends in headache
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–82) American Philosopher
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
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
Men of culture are the true apostles of equality.
—Matthew Arnold (1822–88) English Poet, Critic
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
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: the cry of men in face of their destiny.
—Albert Camus (1913–60) Algerian-born French Philosopher, Dramatist, Novelist
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 to know the best that has been said and thought in the world.
—Matthew Arnold (1822–88) English Poet, Critic
Culture is both an intellectual phenomenon and a moral one.
—Matthew Arnold (1822–88) English Poet, Critic
Culture means the perfect and equal development of man on all sides.
—John Burroughs (1837–1921) American Naturalist, Writer
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
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
In the room the women come and go talking of Michelangelo.
—T. S. Eliot (1888–1965) American-British Poet, Dramatist, Literary Critic
Every view of the world that becomes extinct, every culture that disappears, diminishes a possibility of life.
—Octavio Paz (1914–98) Mexican Poet, Diplomat
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
That is true culture which helps us to work for the social betterment of all.
—Henry Ward Beecher (1813–87) American Clergyman, Writer
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, Novelist
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
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
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
A culture is made—or destroyed—by its articulate voices.
—Ayn Rand (1905–82) Russian-born American Novelist, Philosopher
The ideas of the ruling class are in every epoch the ruling ideas, i.e., the class which is the ruling material force of society, is at the same time its ruling intellectual force.
—Karl Marx (1818–1883) German Philosopher, Economist
No culture can live if it attempts to be exclusive.
—Mohandas K. Gandhi (1869–1948) Indian Hindu Political leader
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
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
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