When we affirm that philosophy begins with wonder , we are affirming in effect that sentiment is prior to reason . Richard M. Weaver More Quotes by Richard M. Weaver More Quotes From Richard M. Weaver It is not that things give meaning to words; it is that meaning makes things "things." It does not make things in their subsistence; but it does make things in their discreteness for the understanding. Richard M. Weaver understandingdoegiving The aristocratic mind ... is anti-analytical. It is concerned more with the status of being than with the demonstrable relationship of parts. Richard M. Weaver aristocraticconcernedmind The prevailing conception is that education must be such as will enable one to acquire enough wealth to live on the plane of the bourgeoisie. That kind of education does not develop the aristocratic virtues. It neither encourages reflection nor inspires reverence for the good. Richard M. Weaver bourgeoisiereflectioninspire The word is a sort of deliverance from the shifting world of appearances. The central teaching of the New Testament is that those who accept the word acquire wisdom and at the same time some identification with the eternal. Richard M. Weaver shiftingteachingworld Neuter discourse is a false idol. Richard M. Weaver discourseidols Beneath the surface of repartee and mock seriousness, [Plato's Phaedrus] is asking whether we ought to prefer a neuter form of speech to the kind which is ever getting us aroused over things and provoking an expense of spirit. Richard M. Weaver speechplatoasking Since we want not emancipation from impulse but clarification of impulse, the duty of rhetoric is to bring together action and understanding into a whole that is greater than scientific perception. Richard M. Weaver understandingperceptiontogether In any piece of rhetorical discourse, one rhetorical term overcomes another rhetorical term only by being nearer to the term which stands ultimate. There is some ground for calling a rhetorical education necessarily aristocratic education in that the rhetorician has to deal with an aristocracy of notions. Richard M. Weaver aristocracycallingovercoming ...knowledge of material reality is the knowledge of death. Richard M. Weaver materialsreality Where character forbids self-indulgence, transcendence still hovers around. Richard M. Weaver transcendenceselfcharacter To one completely committed to this realm of becoming, as are the empiricists, the claim to apprehend verities is a sign of psychopathology. Probably we have here but a highly sophisticated expression of the doctrine that ideals are hallucination and that the only normal, sane person is the healthy extrovert, making instant, instinctive adjustments to the stimuli of the material world. Richard M. Weaver becominghealthyexpression Man ... feels lost without the direction-finder provide by progress. Richard M. Weaver progresslostmen Hysterical optimism will prevail until the world again admits the existence of tragedy, and it cannot admit the existence of tragedy until it again distinguishes between good and evil. . . Hysterical optimism as a sin against knowledge. Richard M. Weaver optimismtragedyevil The disappearance of the heroic ideal is always accompanied by the growth of commercialism. There is a cause-and-effect relationship here, for the man of commerce is by the nature of things a relativist; his mind is constantly on the fluctuating values of the marketplace, and there is no surer way to fail than to dogmatize and moralize about things. Richard M. Weaver growthmindmen Chivalry - ...a romantic idealism closely related to Christianity, which makes honor the guiding principle of conduct. Connected with this is the ancient concept of the gentleman. Richard M. Weaver guiding-principlesgentlemanwar The South is the region that history has happened to. Richard M. Weaver regionshappenedsouthern Somehow the notion has been loosed that nature is hostile to man or that her ways are offensive or slovenly, so that every step of progress is measured by how far we have altered these. Nothing short of a recovery of the ancient virtue of pietas can absolve man from this sin. Richard M. Weaver recoveryprogressmen It may be true that only those minds which are habituated to think logically can safely trust their intuitive conclusions, on the theory that the subconscious level will do its kind of work as faithfully as the conscious does its kind. Richard M. Weaver minddoethinking In the popular arena, one can tell ... that the average man ... imagines that an industrious acquisition of particulars will render him a man of knowledge. With what pathetic trust does he recite his facts! He has been told that knowledge is power, and knowledge consists of a great many small things. Richard M. Weaver doeaveragemen The true religion, it is said, is service to mankind; but this service seems to take the form of securing for him an unconditional victory over nature. Now this attitude is impious, for, as has been noted, it violates the belief that creation or nature is fundamentally good, that the ultimate reason for its laws is a mystery, and that acts of defiance such as are daily celebrated by the newspapers are subversive of cosmos. Richard M. Weaver victorylawattitude
