Sir Herbert Edward Read Quotes

• You might think that it would he the natural desire of every man to develop as an independent personality, but this does not seem to be true.

  Sir Herbert Edward Read

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in Desire

• What I do deny is that you can build any enduring society without some such mystical ethos.

  Sir Herbert Edward Read

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in Build

• We may be sure that out of the ruins of our capitalist civilization a new religion will emerge, just as Christianity emerged from the ruins of the Roman civilization.

  Sir Herbert Edward Read

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in Sure

• To realize that new world we must prefer the values of freedom and equality above all other values – above personal wealth, technical power and nationalism.

  Sir Herbert Edward Read

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in World, Values

• These groups within a society can he distinguished according as to whether, like an army or an orchestra, they function as a single body; or whether they are united merely to defend their common interests and otherwise function as separate individuals.

  Sir Herbert Edward Read

  Topics in Society

• There are a few people, but a diminishing number, who still believe that Marxism, as an economic system, off era a coherent alternative to capitalism, and socialism has, indeed, triumphed in one country.

  Sir Herbert Edward Read

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in People

• The worth of a civilization or a culture is not valued in the terms of its material wealth or military power, but by the quality and achievements of its representative individuals – its philosophers, its poets and its artists.

  Sir Herbert Edward Read

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in Civilization, Culture

• The slave may be happy, but happiness is not enough.

  Sir Herbert Edward Read

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in Happiness

• The sensitive artist knows that a bitter wind is blowing.

  Sir Herbert Edward Read

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in Artist

• The sense of historical continuity, and a feeling for philosophical rectitude cannot, however, be compromised.

  Sir Herbert Edward Read

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in Continuity, Feeling

• The principle of equity first came into evidence in Roman jurisprudence and was derived by analogy from the physical meaning of the word.

  Sir Herbert Edward Read

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in Evidence

• The point I am making is that in the more primitive forms of society the individual is merely a unit; in more developed forms of society he is an independent personality.

  Sir Herbert Edward Read

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in Point

• The only sin is ugliness, and if we believed this with all our being, all other activities of the human spirit could be left to take care of themselves.

  Sir Herbert Edward Read

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in Sin, Ugliness

• The most general law in nature is equity-the principle of balance and symmetry which guides the growth of forms along the lines of the greatest structural efficiency.

  Sir Herbert Edward Read

  Topics in Nature

  Tags in Law

• The modern work of art, as I have said, is a symbol.

  Sir Herbert Edward Read

  Topics in Art, Work

• The farther a society progresses, the more clearly the individual becomes the antithesis of the group.

  Sir Herbert Edward Read

  Topics in Society

• The characteristic political attitude of today is not one of positive belief, but of despair.

  Sir Herbert Edward Read

  Topics in Attitude

  Tags in Today

• The assumption is that the right kind of society is an organic being not merely analogous to an organic being, but actually a living structure with appetites and digestions, instincts and passions, intelligence and reason.

  Sir Herbert Edward Read

  Topics in Society

  Tags in Right

• That is why I believe that art is so much more significant than either economics or philosophy. It is the direct measure of man’s spiritual vision.

  Sir Herbert Edward Read

  Topics in Art

  Tags in Believe

• Progress is measured by the degree of differentiation within a society.

  Sir Herbert Edward Read

  Topics in Progress

Sir Herbert Edward Read (40)

Birth:	4th December, 1893
Death:	12th June, 1968
Nationality:	British
Profession:	Critic, Poet

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Today's Anniversary - 21st January

Births

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• 1884 - Texas Guinan
• 1962 - Marie Trintignant
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Deaths

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• 1870 - Alexander Herzen
• 1932 - Lytton Strachey
• 2008 - Evan G. Galbraith
• 1997 - Colonel Tom Parker