The core of common culture is religion. Tribes survive and flourish because they have gods, who fuse many wills into a single will, and demand and reward the sacrifices on which social life depends. Roger Scruton More Quotes by Roger Scruton More Quotes From Roger Scruton Classical buildings endure because they are loved, admired and accepted, and enjoy an innate adaption to human needs and purposes. Roger Scruton buildingpurposeneeds There are no chords in modernist architecture, only lines - lines that may come to an end, but that achieve no closure Roger Scruton linesarchitecturemay Marriage does not exist for the benefit of the present generation but for the benefit of the next Roger Scruton benefitsgenerationsdoe Art has the ability to redeem life by finding beauty even in the worst aspect of things. Roger Scruton aspectsurvivalart To teach virtue we must educate the emotions, and this means learning "what to feel" in the various circumstances that prompt them. Roger Scruton virtueemotionmean A civilization is a social entity that manifests religious, political , legal, and customary uniformity over an extended period, and which confers on its members the benefits of socially accumulated knowledge. Roger Scruton politicalreligiouscivilization Science proposes something and then does everything it can to disprove it. Religion is not like that. It proposes something and does everything it can to keep it from being disproved. Roger Scruton proposeatheistdoe The consolation of imaginary things is not imaginary consolation. Roger Scruton imaginary-thingsimaginaryconsolation A philosopher who says, 'There are no truths, only interpretations,' risks the retort: 'Is that true, or only an interpretation?' Roger Scruton retortsphilosopherrisk The conservative response to modernity is to embrace it, but to embrace it critically, in full consciousness that human achievements are rare and precarious, that we have no God-given right to destroy our inheritance, but must always patiently submit to the voice of order, and set an example of orderly living. Roger Scruton achievementvoiceorder When truth cannot make itself known in words, it will make itself known in deeds. Roger Scruton knowndeedstruth There’s a real question as to what beauty is and why it’s important to us. Many pseudo-philosophers try to answer these questions and tell us they’re not really answerable. I draw on art and literature, and music in particular, because music is a wonderful example of something that’s in this world but not of this world. Great works of music speak to us from another realm even though they speak to us in ordinary physical sounds. Roger Scruton realtryingart Freedom can reside only in a point of view, a way of looking upon the system of necessity.Surely this is the one freedom that we may attain to: not to be released from physical reality, but to understand reality and ourselves as part of it, and so be reconciled to what we are. Roger Scruton viewsmayreality Being unpopular is never easy; but being unpopular in a good cause is a shield against despair. Roger Scruton shieldsdespaircauses The abstract, unreal freedom of the liberal intellect was really nothing more than childish disobedience, amplified into anarchy. Roger Scruton intellectanarchyabstract Creativity is not enough... the skill of the true artist is to show the real in the light of the ideal and so transfigure it. Roger Scruton creativityartistreal The relation of the soul to the body is like that of a house to its bricks. The soul is a principle of organisation, which governs the flesh and endows it with meaning. It is no more separable from the flesh than is the house from its bricks, even if the soul may survive the gradual replacement of every bodily part. Roger Scruton principlessoulhouse In our democratic culture people often think it is threatening to judge another person's taste. Some are even offended by the suggestion that there is a difference between good and bad taste, or that it matters what you look at or read or listen to. Roger Scruton differencesjudgingthinking To speak of beauty is to enter another and more exalted realm-a realm sufficiently apart from our everyday concerns as to be mentioned only with a certain hesitation. People who are always in praise and pursuit of the beautiful are an embarrassment, like people who make a constant display of their religious faith. Somehow, we feel such things should be kept for our exalted moments, and not paraded in company, or allowed to spill out over dinner. Roger Scruton religiousbeautifulpeople The art establishment has turned away from the old curriculum which puts beauty and craft at the top of the agenda. Roger Scruton agendascraftsart
