Ivan Illich quotes - page 2

The compulsion to do good is an innate American trait. Only North Americans seem to believe that they always should, may, and actually can choose somebody with whom to share their blessings. Ultimately this attitude leads to bombing people into the acceptance of gifts. (Ivan Illich)
School divides life into two segments, which are increasingly of comparable length. As much as anything else, schooling implies custodial care for persons who are declared undesirable elsewhere by the simple fact that a school has been built to serve them. View quote
Ivan Illich
It came to signify their union in one Holy Spirit, the community that takes shape in God's breath. View quote
Ivan Illich
Traditionally the gaze was conceived as a way of fingering, of touching. The old Greeks spoke about looking as a way of sending out my psychopodia, my soul's limbs, to touch your face and establish a relationship between the two of us. View quote
Ivan Illich
I wanted to find out where the idea came from that all over the world people have to be assembled in specific groups of not less than fifteen, otherwise it's not a class, not more than forty, otherwise they are underprivileged, for yearly, not less than 800 hours, otherwise they don't get enough, not more than 1,100 hours, otherwise it's considered a prison, for four-year periods by somebody else who has undergone this for a longer time. View quote
Ivan Illich
His response is clear: abandon all that which has been branded by Caesar; but then, enjoy the knowledge that everything, everything else is God's, and therefore is to be used by you. View quote
Ivan Illich
Most learning is not the result of instruction. It is rather the result of unhampered participation in a meaningful setting. Most people learn best by being "with it," yet school makes them identify their personal, cognitive growth with elaborate planning and manipulation. View quote
Ivan Illich
Discreet silence about the issue I am raising seemed preferable to creating a misunderstanding. Then... I suddenly realized that there is indeed a very simple word that says what I cherished and tried to nourish, and that word is peace. View quote
Ivan Illich
In the Christian liturgy of the first century, the osculum assumed a new function. It became one of two high points in the celebration of the Eucharist. View quote
Ivan Illich
Inevitably modern technology has polarized society. It has polluted the environment. View quote
Ivan Illich
The appropriation of the environment by the few was clearly recognized as an intolerable abuse. (Ivan Illich)
The Latin osculum is neither very old nor frequent. It is one of three words that can be translated by the English, "kiss." View quote
Ivan Illich
Friendship in the Greek tradition, in the Roman tradition, in the old tradition, was always viewed as the highest point which virtue can reach. View quote
Ivan Illich
The enclosure of the commons inaugurates a new ecological order: Enclosure did not just physically transfer the control over grasslands from the peasants to the lord. Enclosure marked a radical change in the attitudes of society towards the environment. View quote
Ivan Illich
The current search for new educational funnels must be reversed into the search for their institutional inverse: educational webs which heighten the opportunity for each one to transform each moment of his living into one of learning, sharing, and caring. View quote
Ivan Illich
I do think that if I had to choose one word to which hope can be tied it is hospitality. View quote
Ivan Illich
Universal education through schooling is not feasible. It would be no more feasible if it were attempted by means of alternative institutions built on the style of present schools. View quote
Ivan Illich
Here is the right word. Hospitality was a condition consequent on a good society in politics, politaea, and by now might be the starting point of politaea, of politics. But this is difficult because hospitality requires a threshold over which I can lead you - and TV, internet, newspaper, the idea of communication, abolished the walls and therefore also the friendship, the possibility of leading somebody over the door. View quote
Ivan Illich
The impending loss of spirit, of soul, of what I call atmosphere, could go unnoticed. Only persons who face one another in trust can allow its emergence. The bouquet of friendship varies with each breath, but when it is there it needs no name. For a long time I believed that there was no one noun for it, and no verb for its creation. View quote
Ivan Illich
People called commons those parts of the environment for which customary law exacted specific forms of community respect. View quote
Ivan Illich
It is astonishing what the devil says: I have all power, it has been given to me, and I am the one to hand it on - submit, and it is yours. Jesus of course does not submit. (Ivan Illich)
I will clarify a distinction that I consider fundamental to political ecology. I shall distinguish the environment as commons from the environment as resource. View quote
Ivan Illich
The shared breath, the con-spiratio are the "peace" understood as the community that arises from it. View quote
Ivan Illich
The message is so simple: Jesus jokes about Caesar. He shrugs off his control. View quote
Ivan Illich
Homo economicus was surreptitiously taken as the emblem and analogue for all living beings. A mechanistic anthropomorphism has gained currency. View quote
Ivan Illich