Political correctness does not legislate tolerance; it only organizes hatred. Jacques Barzun More Quotes by Jacques Barzun More Quotes From Jacques Barzun A culture may be conceived as a network of beliefs and purposes in which any string in the net pulls and is pulled by the others,thus perpetually changing the configuration of the whole. If the cultural element called morals takes on a new shape, we must ask what other strings have pulled it out of line. It cannot be one solitary string, nor even the strings nearby, for the network is three-dimensional at least. Jacques Barzun lines three may Baseball is a kind of collective chess with arms and legs in full play under sunlight. Jacques Barzun legs baseball play Bad writing, it is easily verified, has never kept scholarship from being published. Jacques Barzun bad-writing scholarship writing The mind tends to run along the groove of one's intention and overlook the actual expression. Jacques Barzun expression mind running The one thing that unifies men in a given age is not their individual philosophies but the dominant problem that these philosophies are designed to solve. Jacques Barzun age men philosophy No one has ever used historical examples, near or remote, with the detail, precision, and directness to be found in every page of Shaw. Jacques Barzun details historical example Simple English is no one’s mother tongue. It has to be worked for. Jacques Barzun tongue simple mother Americans began by loving youth, and now, out of adult self-pity, they worship it. Jacques Barzun loving-you adults self The ascetic is often a sensualist who has reached the limit of his capacity. Jacques Barzun limits capacity It seems a long time since the morning mail could be called correspondence. Jacques Barzun fog morning long In producers, loafing is productive; and no creator, of whatever magnitude, has ever been able to skip that stage, any more than a mother can skip gestation. Jacques Barzun creativity able mother Science is, in the best and strictest sense, glorious entertainment Jacques Barzun glorious entertainment A person is not a democrat thanks to his ignorance of literature and the arts, nor an elitist because he or she has cultivated them. The possession of knowledge makes for unjust power over others only if used for that very purpose: a physician or lawyer or clergyman can exploit or humiliate others, or he can be a humanitarian and a benefactor. In any case, it is absurd to conjure up behind anybody who exploits his educated status the existence of an "elite" scheming to oppress the rest of us. Jacques Barzun physicians ignorance art Convince yourself that you are working in clay, not marble, on paper not eternal bronze: Let that first sentence be as stupid as it wishes. Jacques Barzun block stupid writing One great aim of revision is to cut out. In the exuberance of composition it is natural to throw in - as one does in speaking - a number of small words that add nothing to meaning but keep up the flow and rhythm of thought. In writing, not only does this surplusage not add to meaning, it subtracts from it. Read and revise, reread and revise, keeping reading and revising until your text seems adequate to your thought. Jacques Barzun cutting reading writing Of true knowledge at any time, a good part is merely convenient, necessary indeed to the worker, but not to an understanding of his subject: One can judge a building without knowing where to buy the bricks; one can understand a violin sonata without knowing how to score for the instrument. The work may in fact be better understood without a knowledge of the details of its manufacture, of attention to these tends to distract from meaning and effect. Jacques Barzun knowing judging knowledge Great cultural changes begin in affectation and end in routine. Jacques Barzun routine fake-people ends Let us face a pluralistic world in which there are no universal churches, no single remedy for all diseases, no one way to teach or write or sing, no magic diet, no world poets, and no chosen races, but only the wretched and wonderfully diversified human race. Jacques Barzun political race writing Boredom and fatigue are great historical forces. Jacques Barzun boredom force historical Time and rest are needed for absorption. Psychologists confirm that it is really in the summer that our muscles learn to skate and in the winter, how to swim. Jacques Barzun swim summer winter
