33 quotes found
“The function of sociology, as of every science, is to reveal that which is hidden.”
“All theory of modernity in sociology suggests that the more modernity there is, the less religion. In my theory we can realize that this is wrong: atheism is only one belief system among many.”
“If it's far away, it's news, but if it's close at home, it's sociology.”
“One can't love humanity. One can only love people.”
“Nobody likes to see a stupid guy wise up.”
“Ah, art! Ah, life! The pendulum swinging back and forth, from complex to simple, again to complex. From romantic to realistic, back to romantic. ”
“Pity is cruel. Pity destroys.”
“It is always of interest to know what strikes another human being as remarkable.”
“False fears are a plague, a modern plague!”
“Society is much more easily soothed than one's own conscience.”
“We are social creatures to the inmost centre of our being. The notion that one can begin anything at all from scratch, free from the past, or unindebted to others, could not conceivably be more wrong.”
“The laws of history are as absolute as the laws of physics, and if the probabilities of error are greater, it is only because history does not deal with as many humans as physics does atoms, so tha...”
“What, unless biological science is a mass of errors, is the cause of human intelligence and vigour? Hardship and freedom: conditions under which the active, strong, and subtle survive and the weake...”
“The old man in the beard he felt convinced was wrong. He was too busy saving his own soul. Wasn't it better to take part even in the crimes of people you loved, if it was necessary hate as they did...”
“Having wallowed in a delightful orgy of anti-French sentiment, having deplored and applauded the villains themselves, having relished the foibles of bankers, railwaymen, diplomats, and police, the ...”
“They came to study the dreadful vulgarity of this imaginary Mass Man they pretend to hate. But they're fascinated with the snake-pit. ”
“At core, men are afraid women will laugh at them, while at core, women are afraid men will kill them.”
“I believe, Messieurs, in loyalty---to one's friends and one's family and one's caste.”
“Once the primary bonds which gave security to the individual are severed, once the individual faces the world outside of himself as a completely separate entity, two courses re-open to him since he...”
“Any industrial product that comes in per capita quanta beyond a given intensity exercises a radical monopoly over the satisfaction of a need.”
