#decline

For instance? Well, for instance, what it means to be a man. In a city. In a century. In transition. In a mass. Transformed by science. Under organized power. Subject to tremendous controls. In a condition caused by mechanization. After the late failure of radical hopes. In a society that was no community and devalued the person. Owing to the multiplied power of numbers which made the self negligible. Which spent military billions against foreign enemies but would not pay for order at home. Which permitted savagery and barbarism in its own great cities. At the same time, the pressure of human millions who have discovered what concerted efforts and thoughts can do. As megatons of water shape organisms on the ocean floor. As tides polish stones. As winds hollow cliffs. The beautiful supermachinery opening a new life for innumerable mankind. Would you deny them the right to exist? Would you ask them to labor and go hungry while you yourself enjoyed old-fashioned Values? You—you yourself are a child of this mass and a brother to all the rest. or else an ingrate, dilettante, idiot. There, Herzog, thought Herzog, since you ask for the instance, is the way it runs. ↗

— Saul Bellow

#machinery #modernism #obscurity #science #beauty

The decline of manners, the cynical pursuit without shame or restraint of personal advantage and of money characterizes our times, not without exceptions, of course, but more than we ought to be comfortable with. ↗

— J. Irwin Miller

#characterizes #comfortable #course #cynical #decline

Well, we've made some changes on this tour. We're no longer sleeping in the parking lots and swimming in the fountains. We've been staying in hotels most of the way, though I will say some hotels have declined to take us because we're just having too much fun. ↗

— Bill Walton

#been #changes #declined #fountains #fun

Ever since the destruction of Baghdad by the Mongols in 1258, the Muslim world has been in slow decline relative to the west. With Napoleon's invasion of Egypt and the creeping British annexation of Muslim India, that decline took on a malign aspect. ↗

— James Buchan

#baghdad #been #british #creeping #decline

Its highest point was The Worst Journey in the World. Then you see this decline, and this harking back, using the 19th-century form when we're not in the 19th century. That way of writing a book about the world out there - you just can't do it anymore. ↗

— Robyn Davidson

#19th-century #about #anymore #back #book

The truth is women use contraception not only as a way to prevent unintended pregnancies, but also to improve their health and the health of their families. Increased access to contraception is directly linked to declines in maternal and infant mortality. ↗

— Felicity Huffman

#also #contraception #declines #directly #families

We decline the claim to power by parties which want to own their followers body and soul, and which want to put themselves over and above the whole nation. ↗

— Franz von Papen

#body #claim #decline #followers #nation

The first attempt at a response: there must have been a fall, a decline, and the road to salvation can only be the return of the sensible finite into the intelligible infinite. ↗

— Hans Urs von Balthasar

#been #decline #fall #finite #first

I don't believe in myths of decline or myths of progress, even as regards the literary scene. ↗

— Harold Bloom

#decline #even #i #literary #myths

But friends invited me to a private screening of Emmanuelle and said I'd learn a few things. But I know all the swear words. I just don't use them. So I declined. ↗

— Irene Dunne

#few #few things #friends #i #invited