Quotes About Culture

This turns out not to be true. Darwinian change is inevitable in any system of information transmission so long as there is some lumpiness in the things transmitted, some fidelity of transmission and a degree of randomness, or trial and error, in innovation. To say that culture 'evolves' is not metaphorical.

If culture consisted simply of learning habits from others, it would soon stagnate. For culture to turn cumulative, ideas needed to meet and mate.

Culture is the endeavour to know the best and to make this knowledge prevail for the good of all humankind.

explanation of the difference between a language and a dialect:

Scientists now tell us that evolution has been supplanted on this planet by culture. Human culture moves at so rapid a pace that it has far outrun and outstripped the natural processes of change and adaptation. This

Our culture places a very high premium on self-expression, but is relatively disinterested in producing selves that are worth expressing.

I have to speak carefully now because I have this strange habit of imitating British people without even realizing that I'm doing it.

In all our family portraits growing up, I looked like a short, half-Jewish kid being held captive by a family of Vikings. "So

The mind of our country, taught to aim at low objects, eats upon itself.

On one of these gatherings, a guest speaker informed us that in 30 years, no one in America except the homeschoolers would know how to read or write. 

So it is with Moslem women and their veils,' Michelangelo said. 'When they saw Muhammad's wives wearing veils, they sought to imitate them, and so now nearly all Islamic women wear veils even though there is no stipulation in their Holy Koran that they do so.

Even if our dealings with the lowly animals, this sort of relativism works its evils. What makes Mr. Komatsu's argument so insidious is its denial that there are realities about animals, that these realities are in crucial respects knowable, and that once known, we are morally obliged to accept and to act upon them regardless of culture or personal preference.

While we are dealing with different people, different cultures, and different standards, we are still dealing with the same whale.

Such.... evenhandedness. If we are exploiting one kind of animal, by this standard, why then it is only fair to exploit all others of comparable capacities. From there Mr. Komatsu returns to his collective guilt theme: Who are we to judge X when we ourselves are doing the same thing, and where do Westerners get off judging Japan or any other culture, and just what is so special about whales?

Which do you think is an index of the more advanced civilization, knowing where the soap comes from, or not knowing?

They always ate and made tea on the alcohol lamp before going to bed. This was quite in the German tradition, Tilda said. Germans in their homes ate six meals a day: breakfast, second breakfast, dinner, afternoon coffee, supper and in the evening tea or beer with sandwiches and kuchen. Betsy, in the cherry-red bathrobe, and Tilda in a blue one, feasted merrily.

According to a Wall Street Journal article some 59 percent of Americans don t own a single book. Not a cookbook or even the Bible.

Whatever (its) virtues, (the) writing explores the culture of work but marginalizes work itself.

American women are evolving backward--becoming more focused on their looks than ever. Feminism has been defeated by narcissism.

It was clearly one of those mornings when I was particularly American.

Why Paris? Paris needs no reason. Paris is its own reason.

Why are Americans so fascinated by Ireland?" Keith asked... "you all think you're Irish. What's the appeal? Do you like the accent more? Is it all the magical rocks? Oh, look, a lep­rechaun...

People were freaked out, but they showed it in weird ways. Back home, people would have been weeping and doing a lot of very public group hugs. At Wexford people just aggressively pretended nothing had happened.

Although it was very cold, he wore no coat. I think some English people think coats are for the weak.