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Quotes from The Fortunes of Permanence: Culture and Anarchy in an Age of Amnesia — Roger Kimball

born 1953 United States

← All quotes by Roger Kimball

3 quotes

Some people regard the astonishing collapse of manners and civility in our society as a superficial event. They are wrong. The fate of decorum expresses the fate of a culture’s dignity, its attitude toward its animating values.

The Fortunes of Permanence: Culture and Anarchy in an Age of Amnesia (2012)

"History,” Bagehot wrote, “is strewn with the wrecks of nations which have gained a little progressiveness at the cost of a great deal of hard manliness, and have thus prepared themselves for destruction as soon as the movements of the world gave a chance for it.”

The Fortunes of Permanence: Culture and Anarchy in an Age of Amnesia (2012)

The true democrat wishes to share the great works of culture with all who are able to appreciate them; the egalitarian, recognizing that genuine excellence is rare, declares greatness a fraud and sets about obliterating distinctions.

The Fortunes of Permanence: Culture and Anarchy in an Age of Amnesia (2012)

Attribution

Quotes and notes from Wikiquote: Roger Kimball (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0.