Quotes About Culture

Frederick II of Prussia (known as "the Great," reigned 1740–1786) famously ran his Berlin court—and the associated Academy of Sciences—in French. When Voltaire visited in 1750, he wrote to the Marquis de Thibouville that "I find myself here in France. One speaks only our language. German is for the soldiers and for the horses; it is only necessary on the road."187f

Esperanto not as just an international auxiliary, but as something close to an ethnic language.

Learning a foreign language, and the culture that goes with it, is one of the most useful things we can do to broaden the empathy and imaginative sympathy and cultural outlook of children.

The accumulation of cultural capital - the acquisition of knowledge - is the key to social mobility.

The Classical civilisation, which Greece originated, is the only civilisation which is spread out before us, from beginning to end.

One thing that is clear is that we do not always want to relive the experience of the Romans; although sometimes what they did is entirely to be admired and envied, in other respects they were detestable. Most of what they achieved was based upon the use of force. The culture that has given us their unequaled masterpieces was created and maintained, in the last resort, by violent means that modern societies could not, or should not, tolerate today…

We are, in large part, a culture that expects its boys to initiate themselves into manhood. But holistic or even minimal initiation into manhood through relatively unguided self-experimentation is rare. Boys cannot become whole men without men and women making them into men.

Cairo is one of the greatest storehouses of human achievement on earth, ranging from the pharaonic through the Christian and Islamic periods to the Belle Epoque.

Cairo is an exploding modern metropolis which nevertheless preserves within its heart the finest medieval city in the world...

This analogy can also be found in Jon Pahl, Empire of Sacrifice (New York: New York University Press, 2010), 20. [19]

have you ever wondered about how, in the original West Side Story, Tony manages to wander randomly onto a street in a Puerto Rican neighborhood, shout, "Maria!" and only one woman answers him?)

Marx had it backwards. In the US at least, it should be "Opiates are the religion of the masses.

Anyone who pretends to "understand" Latin America is a fool.

ESPN and every other media outlet in the country, and world, had a statement from the Patriots and an apology from the Herald Reporter John Tomase, who wrote the errant story about the Rams walk-through, apologized in print and on television. Yet Spygate, not even a year old, was embedded in the culture. There was no delineation between what the Patriots actually did, what they were accused of doing, and what analysts and writers imagined they could be doing.

It's impossible to say "good eye might" without sounding Australian.

a little known fact that the tan became popular in what's now known as the Bronze Age.

I distinguish, between nationalism and patriotism.

I'm going to marry a Jewish woman because I like the idea of getting up Sunday morning and going to the deli.

Bhutanese believe that economic development should never come at the cost of their people's happiness. Therefore, in every trade deal the government enters into (for example, the sale of hydroelectric power to neighboring India), culture is valued more than cash.

A cultura judaica, eu começava a entender, colocava uma estrutura e um ritual em volta dessa transição [da infância para a vida adulta], instruindo essas formas de vida emergentes a reconhecer e aceitar suas responsabilidades consigo mesmo, com suas famílias e com os outros. Elas são aclamadas e celebradas bem quando estão mais suscetíveis a se sentir indesejadas e incompreendidas. (p. 180)

The "myth of redemptive violence undergirds American popular culture, civil religion, nationalism, and foreign policy," argues Walter Wink.48 It underwrites the belief that killing and/or dying for the national interest is a sacred duty and even privilege. Service to the nation—especially military service, and particularly dying for one's country—is the highest form of both civic and religious devotion.

Human beings seem to have a need to attribute a sacred, or at least quasi-sacred, character to their political bodies, their rulers, and the actions of those entities. One tragic but frequent result is the sacralization of one's own people, whether nation, race, or tribe, and the demonization of the other. Out of such religion comes a culture of hatred and even violence

Particular messages may be especially appropriate to particular churches in their unique historical situations. A persecuted church might need to hear the message to Smyrna or Philadelphia, while a church that has accommodated to the norms of its host culture, especially to its lust for power and its civil religion, needs to hear the message to Pergamum or Laodicea. In fact, Harry Maier proposes that privileged Christians in the West need to read Revelation "as a Laodicean."20

What remains under consideration is how Cincinnatus, the early Republic, and the other examples, cultures, and structures of governance will be considered in future decisions of how human beings will live in a globally connected commercial, technological, and cultural world.