"To be authentically modern is, in each and every age, a sign of mediocrity."

Nicolás Gómez Dávila Philosophy See all quotes by Nicolás Gómez Dávila →

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“An individual declares himself a member of some group or other with the goal of demanding in its name what he is ashamed to claim in his own name.”

“No public cause deserves the unlimited allegiance of an intelligent man.”

“Genuine allegiance to an idea surpasses every psychological or social motivation.”

“The enemies of myth are not the friends of reality but of triviality.”

“The individual shrinks in proportion as the state grows.”

“To be intelligent without ideas is the privilege of the artist.”

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"Gertrude Johnson could feel no real respect for, no real interest in, anybody who wasn't a writer. For her there were two species: writers and people; and the writers were really people, and the peopl…"

— Randall Jarrell

Literature1914–1965

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"Nobody disputes, I believe, that our nuclear weaponry is negligible in comparison with that of Russia: if we could destroy 16 Russian cities, she could destroy practically every vestige of life on the…"

— Enoch Powell

Politics1912–1998

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Politics1757–1804

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