Quotes About Decadence

What could destroy us more quickly than working, thinking, and feeling without any inner necessity, without any deeply personal choice, without pleasure - as an automaton of duty? This is the very recipe for decadence, even for idiocy.

These wisest men of all ages should be scrutinized closely. Were they all perhaps shaky on their legs? Tottery? Decadent? Late? Could it be that wisdom appears on earth as a Raven, attracted by a little whiff of carrion?

Morality as it has hitherto been understood- and formulated by Schopenhauer, lastly, as 'denial of the will to life' is the decadence instinct itself making an imperative out of itself: it says 'perish!' - it is the judgement of the condemned...

Woman! One-half of mankind is weak, typically sick, changeable, inconstant... she needs a religion of weakness that glorifies being weak, loving, and being humble as divine: or better, she makes the strong weak--she rules when she succeeds in overcoming the strong... Woman has always conspired with the types of decadence, the priests, against the 'powerful', the 'strong', the men.

He reacts slowly to every kind of stimulus, with that slowness which a protracted caution and a willed pride have bred in him – he tests an approaching stimulus, he is far from going out to meet it. He believes in neither 'misfortune' nor in 'guilt': he knows how to forget – he is strong enough for everything to have to turn out for the best for him. Very well, I am the opposite of a décadent: for I have just described myself.

What is the sign of every literary decadence ? That life no longer dwells in the whole. The word becomes sovereign and leaps out of the sentence, the sentence reaches out and obscures the meaning of the page, the page gains life at the expense of the whole—the whole is no longer a whole.

Fourth proposition. To divide the world into a 'real' and an 'apparent' world, whether in the manner of Christianity or in the manner of Kant (which is, after all, that of a cunning Christian –) is only a suggestion of décadence – a symptom of declining life.…

The harshest daylight, rationality at any cost, life bright, cold, circumspect, conscious, without instinct, in opposition to the instincts, has itself been no more than a form of sickness, another form of sickness – and by no means a way back to 'virtue', to 'health', to happiness…. To have to combat one's instincts – that is the formula for décadence: as long as life is ascending, happiness and instinct are one. –

Quiere esto decir que todos esos grandes sabios no sólo han sido decadentes, sino que ni siquiera han sido sabios?

For this remains as I have already pointed out the essential difference between the two religions of decadence : Buddhism promises nothing, but actually fulfils; Christianity promises everything, but fulfils nothing.

She was vanilla ice cream with meringue and maple syrup on

The accepted version of his life story provides the world with something it apparently needs: the perfect example of papal decadence.

America is the only country that went from barbarism to decadence without civilization in between.

You know what they say: 'Why sit at a table that doesn't have key lime pie on it if you don't have to?'

Every two months, I allow myself a splurge day where I eat thick, doughy pizza from Pizzeria Uno or an ice cream sundae from my store with birthday-cake ice cream, Marshmallow Fluff, and toppings mixed in.

I have always thought of sophistication as rather a feeble substitute for decadence.

I never knew anyone actually buy cakes when they were hot ...

As they say, 'It's all downhill from cupcakes.

The waiters' eyes sparkled and their pencils flew as she proceeded to eviscerate my wallet – paté, Whitstable oysters, a sole, and a favorite salad of the Nizam of Hyderabad made of shredded five-pound notes.

Cuanto más depravado se vuelve un pueblo, más se indigna públicamente contra la inmoralidad.

Drink and dissipation had done their work on the coin-clean profile and now it was no longer the head of a young pagan prince on new-minted gold but a decadent, tired Caesar on copper debased by long usage.

I think steak is the ultimate comfort food, and if you're going out for one, that isn't the time to scrimp on calories or quality.

As societies grow decadent, the language grows decadent, too. Words are used to disguise, not to illuminate, action.

When my face is flushed with blood, it becomes red and obscene. It betrays at the same time, through morbid reflexes, a bloody erection and a demanding thirst for indecency and criminal debauchery.