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
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 means the perfect and equal development of man on all sides.
—John Burroughs (1837–1921) American Naturalist, Writer
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
Culture is one thing and varnish is another.
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–82) American Philosopher
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
Culture is properly described as the love of perfection; it is a study of perfection.
—Matthew Arnold (1822–88) English Poet, Critic
Culture, with us, ends in headache.
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–82) American Philosopher
Culture is to know the best that has been said and thought in the world.
—Matthew Arnold (1822–88) English Poet, Critic
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
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
Preservation of one’s own culture does not require contempt or disrespect for other cultures.
—Cesar Chavez (1927–93) American Labor Leader
Culture is the widening of the mind and of the spirit.
—Jawaharlal Nehru (1889–1964) Indian Head of State
The end of culture is right living.
—W. Somerset Maugham (1874–1965) British Novelist, Short-Story Writer, Playwright
Every view of the world that becomes extinct, every culture that disappears, diminishes a possibility of life.
—Octavio Paz (1914–98) Mexican Poet, Diplomat
Culture is the habit of being pleased with the best and knowing why.
—Henry van Dyke Jr. (1852–1933) American Author, Educator, Clergyman
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
What would it be like to have not only color vision but culture vision, the ability to see the multiple worlds of others.
—Mary Catherine Bateson (1939–2021) American Cultural Anthropologist, Author
Culture is both an intellectual phenomenon and a moral one.
—Matthew Arnold (1822–88) English Poet, Critic
No culture can live if it attempts to be exclusive.
—Mohandas K. Gandhi (1869–1948) Indian Hindu Political leader
Partial culture runs to the ornate, extreme culture to simplicity.
—Christian Nestell Bovee (1820–1904) American Writer, Aphorist
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
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
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
Culture is the arts elevated to a set of beliefs.
—Thomas Wolfe (1900–38) American Novelist
In the room the women come and go talking of Michelangelo.
—T. S. Eliot (1888–1965) American-British Poet, Dramatist, Literary Critic
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
A culture is made—or destroyed—by its articulate voices.
—Ayn Rand (1905–82) Russian-born American Novelist, Philosopher
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
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
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