Herbert Read quotes - page 2

The characteristic political attitude of today is not one of positive belief, but of despair. (Herbert Read)
I can imagine no society which does not embody some method of arbitration. View quote
Herbert Read
In the evolution of mankind there has always been a certain degree of social coherence. View quote
Herbert Read
Creeds and castes, and all forms of intellectual and emotional grouping, belong to the past. View quote
Herbert Read
The sense of historical continuity, and a feeling for philosophical rectitude cannot, however, be compromised. View quote
Herbert Read
If the individual is a unit in a corporate mass, his life is not merely brutish and short, but dull and mechanical. View quote
Herbert Read
It is already clear, after twenty years of socialism in Russia, that if you do not provide your society with a new religion, it will gradually revert to the old one. View quote
Herbert Read
The point I am making is that in the more primitive forms of society the individual is merely a unit; in more developed forms of society he is an independent personality. View quote
Herbert Read
The modern poet has no essential alliance with regular schemes of any sorts. He reserves the right to adapt his rhythm to his mood, to modulate his metre as he progresses. Far from seeking freedom and irresponsibility (implied by the unfortunate term free verse) he seeks a stricter discipline of exact concord of thought and feeling. View quote
Herbert Read
Sentir mon Cœur is a privilege only granted to the exceptional man - the one who has the ability to find words that exactly (or, to himself, convincingly) express his feelings. ... The value of words help to define the feeling itself. ... The common failure is to allow habitual words and phrases, flowing spontaneously from the memory, to determine and deform the feelings. View quote
Herbert Read
That is why I believe that art is so much more significant than either economics or philosophy. It is the direct measure of man's spiritual vision. (Herbert Read)
Art is an indecent exposure of the consciousness. View quote
Herbert Read
Simplicity is not a goal, but one arrives at simplicity in spite of oneself, as one approaches the real meaning of things. View quote
Herbert Read
Works of art must persist as objects of contemplation. View quote
Herbert Read
Freud has shown one thing very clearly: that we only forget our infancy by burying it in the unconscious; and that the problems of this difficult period find their solution under a disguised form in adult life. View quote
Herbert Read
I know of no better name than Anarchism. View quote
Herbert Read
I am not going to claim that modern anarchism has any direct relation to Roman jurisprudence; but I do claim that it has its basis in the laws of nature rather than in the state of nature. View quote
Herbert Read
We may be sure that out of the ruins of our capitalist civilization a new religion will emerge, just as Christianity emerged from the ruins of the Roman civilization. View quote
Herbert Read
It was Nietzsche who first made us conscious of the significance of the individual as a term in the evolutionary process-in that part of the evolutionary process which has still to take place. View quote
Herbert Read
But the further step, by means of which a civilization is given its quality or culture, is only attained by a process of cellular division, in the course of which the individual is differentiated, made distinct from and independent of the parent group. View quote
Herbert Read
These groups within a society can he distinguished according as to whether, like an army or an orchestra, they function as a single body; or whether they are united merely to defend their common interests and otherwise function as separate individuals. (Herbert Read)
The principle of equity first came into evidence in Roman jurisprudence and was derived by analogy from the physical meaning of the word. View quote
Herbert Read
The assumption is that the right kind of society is an organic being not merely analogous to an organic being, but actually a living structure with appetites and digestions, instincts and passions, intelligence and reason. View quote
Herbert Read
There are a few people, but a diminishing number, who still believe that Marxism, as an economic system, off era a coherent alternative to capitalism, and socialism has, indeed, triumphed in one country. View quote
Herbert Read
The only sin is ugliness, and if we believed this with all our being, all other activities of the human spirit could be left to take care of themselves. View quote
Herbert Read