Quotes About Culture

I had broken the most basic commandment of our culture: Thou shalt pretend there is nothing wrong.

I no longer see Descartes' statement as arbitrary. It is representative of our culture's narcissism. This narcissism leads to a disturbing disrespect for direct experience and a negation of the body.

The fundamental difference between civilized and indigenous ways of being is that for even the most open-minded of the civilized, listening to the natural world is a metaphor. For traditional indigenous peoples it is not a metaphor; it is how you relate to the real world.

This book is about fighting back. The dominant culture -civilization- is killing the planet, and it is long past time for those of us who care about life on earth to begin taking the actions necessary to stop this culture from destroying every living thing.

Consumer culture and the capitalist mindset have taught us to substitute acts of personal consumption (or enlightenment) for organised political resistance

Our lawns manifest our cultural desire: they are static, they are artificial, and they are kept sexually immature.

Someone asked me once at a talk why I so stress the positive with my students yet am such an unstinting critic of those who run our culture and who are killing the planet. I answered immediately, "Power. If I've got power or authority over someone, it's my responsibility to use that only to help them. It's my job to accept and praise them into becoming who they are.

Within this culture wealth is measured by one's ability to consume and destroy.

We cannot hope to create a sustainable culture with any but sustainable souls.

To pretend that civilization can exist without destroying its own landbase and the landbases and cultures of others is to be entirely ignorant of history, biology, thermodynamics, morality, and self-preservation.

A culture that values production over life values the wrong things, because it will produce things at the expense of living beings, human or otherwise.

There is a story, which is fairly well known, about when the missionaries came to Africa. They had the Bible and we, the natives, had the land. They said "Let us pray," and we dutifully shut our eyes. When we opened them, why, they now had the land and we had the Bible.

The roots of our Soccer Tribe lie deep in our primeval past.

Clearly, then, the city is not a concrete jungle, it is a human zoo.

The city is not a concrete jungle, it is a human zoo.

Clearly, then, the city is not a concrete jungle, it is a human zoo. The

Detrás de la fachada de la ciudad moderna, sigue morando el viejo mono desnudo. Sólo los nombres han cambiado: en vez de caza, decimos "trabajo"; en vez de campo de caza, "barrio comercial", en vez de cubil, "hogar", en vez de apareamiento, "matrimonio"; en vez de compañera, "esposa", etcétera.

Religious or secular, all myths make profound sense to one group of people. Not to everyone. They cannot be rationalized beyond a point. In the final analysis, you either accept them or you don't.

As per some Vedic marriage rites, a woman is first given in marriage to the romantic moon-god, Chandra, then to the highly sensual Gandharva named Vishwavasu, then to the fire-god, Agni, who cleanses and purifies all things, and finally to her human husband. Thus, the 'four men' quota is exhausted. Clearly this was an attempt of society to prevent Hindu women from remarrying.

The notions of creation, preservation and destruction in Hindu mythology thus deal with culture, not nature.

It's the Indian headshake. It means you are probably right, or probably wrong. Who knows? Varuna has but a thousand eyes, Indra a hundred, you and I only two.

Our behaviour towards others is based on what we see and how we process our observation. But not all things can be seen. Jati can be seen but not varna.

Prakriti is nature. Brahmanda is culture. Prakriti creates man. Man creates Brahmanda. Prakriti is objective reality. Brahmanda is subjective reality. Atma witnesses Prakriti, aham constructs Brahmanda.

In nature, the strong overpower the weak in order to improve their chances of survival. But in culture, the strong must protect the weak. That is dharma.