Skip to content

Our rulers at the present day, with their machines and their preachers, are all occupied in putting into our heads the preposterous notion that activity rather than contemplation is the object of life.

— John Cowper Powys In Defence of Sensuality (1930)

Another quote →

Topics

More quotes by John Cowper Powys

Ambition is the grand enemy of all peace.

The Meaning of Culture (1929)

The eternal conflict between love and malice is the eternal contest between life and death. And this contest is what the complex vision reveals, as it moves from darkness to darkness.

The Complex Vision (1920)

The love that interferes and knows not how to leave alone is a love alien to Nature's ways.

The Meaning of Culture (1929)

The permanent mental attitude which the sensitive intelligence derives from philosophy is an attitude that combines extreme reverence with limitless skepticism.

The Meaning of Culture (1929)

Man is the animal who weeps and laughs — and writes. If the first Prometheus brought fire from heaven in a fennel-stalk, the last will take it back — in a book.

The Pleasures of Literature (1938)

All John Cowper Powys quotes →

You may also like

You have to start with the truth. The truth is the only way that we can get anywhere. Because any decision-making that is based upon lies or ignorance can't lead to a good conclusion.

Julian Assange

Change based on principle is progress. Constant change without principle becomes chaos.

Dwight D. Eisenhower

The History of Electricity is a field full of pleasing objects, according to all the genuine and universal principles of taste, deduced from a knowledge of human nature.

Joseph Priestley The History and Present State of Electricity (1767)

Just remember, you can do anything you set your mind to, but it takes action, perseverance, and facing your fears.

Gillian Anderson

Attribution

Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: John Cowper Powys (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.