Jacques Barzun

Teaching is not a lost art, but the regard for it is a lost tradition. ↗

— Jacques Barzun

#lost #lost art #regard #teaching #tradition

Convince yourself that you are working in clay, not marble, on paper not eternal bronze: Let that first sentence be as stupid as it wishes. ↗

— Jacques Barzun

#writing #first-sentence

The book, like the bicycle, is a perfect form. ↗

— Jacques Barzun

#life

Except among those whose education has been in the minimalist style, it is understood that hasty moral judgments about people in the past are a form of injustice. ↗

— Jacques Barzun

#history #insult #education

[The prince] dare not let ethics keep him from doing whatever evil must be done to preserve himself and the state. ↗

— Jacques Barzun

#the-prince #life

[...] the state is not immoral but amoral; half of it exists outside morality ↗

— Jacques Barzun

#the-prince #life

A man who has both feet planted firmly in the air can be safely called a liberal as opposed to the conservative, who has both feet firmly planted in his mouth. ↗

— Jacques Barzun

#both #called #conservative #feet #firmly

Music is intended and designed for sentient beings that have hopes and purposes and emotions. ↗

— Jacques Barzun

#beings #designed #emotions #hopes #intended

After being boxed in by man and his constructions in Europe and the East, the release into space is exhilarating. The horizon is a huge remote circle, and no hills intervene. ↗

— Jacques Barzun

#being #boxed #circle #constructions #east

If it were possible to talk to the unborn, one could never explain to them how it feels to be alive, for life is washed in the speechless real. ↗

— Jacques Barzun

#could #explain #feels #how #life