The longing for Europe has been all but extinguished in the young. Allan Bloom More Quotes by Allan Bloom More Quotes From Allan Bloom The students [of the 60's] substituted conspicuous compassion for their parents' conspicuous consumption. Allan Bloom parentcompassionstudents The sirens sing sotto voce these days, and the young already have enough wax in their ears to pass them by without danger. Allan Bloom sirensenoughears Most of all I admire Mozart's capacity to be both deep and rational, a combination often said to be impossible. Allan Bloom capacityimpossiblesaid The expectation of substantive unity between natural science and social science has faded.... Gone is the cosmic intention of placing man in the universe. Allan Bloom unityexpectationsmen Various kinds of self-forgetting, usually accompanied by illusions and myths, make it possible to live without the intransigent facing of death-in the sense of always thinking about it and what it means for life and the things dear in life-which is characteristic of a serious life. Allan Bloom selfmeanthinking Social science and humanities ... have a mutual contempt for one another, the former looking down on the latter as unscientific, the latter regarding the former as philistine. ... The difference comes down to the fact that social science really wants to be predictive, meaning that man is predictable, while the humanities say that he is not. Allan Bloom differenceshumanitymen Locke had illegitimately selected those parts of man he needed for his social contract and suppressed all the rest, a theoretically unsatisfactory procedure and a practically costly one. The bourgeois is the measure of the price paid, he who most of all cannot afford to look to his real self, who denies the existence of the thinly boarded-over basement in him, who is most made over for the purposes of a society that does not even promise him perfection or salvation but merely buys him off. Allan Bloom realselfmen Americans ... do not naturally apply the term "bourgeois" to themselves, or to anyone else for that matter. They do like to call themselves middle class, but that does not carry with it any determinate spiritual content. ... The term "middle class" does not have any of the many opposites that bourgeois has, such as aristocrat, saint, hero, or artist - all good. Allan Bloom artistherospiritual Continental thinkers have been obsessed with bourgeois man as representing the worst and most contemptible failure of modernity, which must at all costs be overcome. Nihilism in its most palpable sense means that the bourgeois has won, that the future, all foreseeable futures, belong to him, that all heights above him and all depths beneath him are illusory and that life is not worth living on these terms. Allan Bloom nihilismmenmean There are two threats to reason, the opinion that one knows the truth about the most important things and the opinion that there is no truth about them. Both of these opinions are fatal to philosophy; the first asserts that the quest for truth is unnecessary, while the second asserts that it is impossible. The Socratic knowledge of ignorance, which I take to be the beginning point of all philosophy, defines the sensible middle ground between two extremes. Allan Bloom ignorancephilosophytwo Bacon, Locke, Descartes, Hume, and all the others knew they were giving rights to vulgarity. But in so doing in addition to caring for man's well-being they were providing rights for themselves. Allan Bloom caringrightsmen The first discipline modernity's originators imposed upon themselves was that of self-restraint, learning to live with vulgarity. Their high expectations for effectiveness were made possible by low expectations of what was to be. Allan Bloom effectivenessselfexpectations A new language always reflects a new point of view, and the gradual unconscious popularization of new words, or of old words used in new ways, is a sure sign of a profound change in people's articulation of the world. Allan Bloom viewsprofoundpeople I never considered myself a writer. I'm a teacher. In a way, I feel kind of... kind of guilty for all the people who are writers who hope to be on the best-seller list someday, who live for that and don't get it, and it came to me as a kind of free gift, like God coming to Abraham and announcing, 'I've chosen you!' Allan Bloom myselfhopegodteacher There is no real teacher who in practice does not believe in the existence of the soul, or in a magic that acts on it through speech. Allan Bloom magicsoulteacherbelieve Reason cannot establish values, and its belief that it can is the stupidiest and most pernicious illusion. Allan Bloom illusionvaluesbeliefreason The real community of man is the community of those who seek the truth, of the potential knowers. Allan Bloom mancommunityrealtruth The way I knew I was right about something was the kids got angry. That's very important: you touch that anger. Allan Bloom youangryangerway Shakespeare did not consider himself the legislator of mankind. He faithfully records man's problems and does not evidently propose to solve them. Allan Bloom himselfproblemsheman Shakespeare's naturalness is attested to by the strange fact that he is the only classical author who remains popular. The critical termites are massed and eating away at the foundations, trying to topple him. Whether they will succeed will be a test of his robustness. Allan Bloom willsucceedstrangeeating
