Quotes About Culture

At a time when Maecenas, that celebrated arbiter of taste, was busy introducing the heated swimming pool to Rome, the Princeps's house struck those familiar with top-end properties as 'notable neither for scale nor style'.

Everyone knew that Syrians were 'natural businessmen, and the greediest of mortals'.

American-style iced tea is the perfect drink for a hot, sunny day. It's never really caught on in the UK, probably because the last time we had a hot, sunny day was back in 1957.

I think English film is very embarrassed by patriotism, generally.

American movies are often very good at mining those great underlying myths that make films robustly travel across class, age, gender, culture.

American cinema tends to express a patriotic relationship to national identity on a regular basis.

Homosexuals are thus drawn to certain grimy urban neighborhoods,

If cooking becomes an art form rather than a means of providing a reasonable diet, then something is clearly wrong.

More objective sources had told Hamilton that people with different diets will smell different, no matter their personal hygiene habits.

One of the constants of mass psychology is that, for example, when the Huns show up, the Goths move on looking for greener pastures without any Huns. In the United States we can see this, in proto form, in California, where the population of the culturally Anglo are leaving in greater numbers than are coming in.

We now find ourselves facing the Christian West's oldest and most steadfast opponent, Islam.

How U.S forces conduct themselves after the battle might be as important in Fourth Generation war as how they fight the battle. What the USMC calls cultural intelligence is of vital importance in Fourth Generation war, and it must go down to the lowest rank. In Iraq, the Marines seem to be grasping this much better than the U.S. Army.

Soms is minder gewoonweg wat het is. Minder. En laat net mij gespogen en gescheten zijn, en onherstelbaar voorbestemd, en onherroepelijk verminkt, door een cultuur van 'Mag het iets meer zijn, madam'. En zelfs los daarvan, in alle eerlijkheid: 'minder' is een leugen. 'Minder' is een laffe constructie, gemakzuchtig bedrog, minimalistische kitsch.

Zijn ambtswoning lag om de hoek, in de Pelikaanstraat. Niet ver van onze diamantbeurs, die ondanks alle krijgsperikelen en gevluchte slijpers toch aan bedrijvigheid leek te herwinnen. Het steentje. Zo noemen wij, met onze kluchtige voorliefde voor verkleinwoorden, de industrie die onze stad al eeuwen onderstut en opstuwt. Zolang het steentje draait, draait de wereld rond. En zolang dat gebeurt, komt diezelfde wereld bij ons haar edelstenen kopen, klieven en verkopen.

Zeg nooit: ik heb gisteren een goed toneelstuk gezien. Zeg: ik was gisteren getuige van een relevante toneelervaring.

Eclecticisme voert de boventoon, zoals overal in België, van bouwstijl tot grondwet, van burgerlijk interieur tot moraal. De een noemt het anarchie, de ander liberalisme, een derde bric-à-brac.

Wat is de duurtijd van een boek in tijden die zich van boeken lijken af te wenden?

We're the noblest savages of all.

People need foundation myths.

For anthropologists, even the exotic's not exotic, let alone the everyday.

But now there are no natives – or we're the natives.

Neglect of what is genuinely human is the major reason why so many people in American business right now feel more victimized than helped by the latest management techniques and companywide processes for improvement.

I think I'm fascinated by the power of religion in our culture. Like a lot of secular, liberal people, I ignored it for a long time. Lately, of course, just from a political perspective, it's impossible to ignore.

When I was writing 'The Abstinence Teacher ' I really tried to immerse myself in contemporary American evangelical culture.