Wells/culture

Famous quotes containing the words wells and/or culture:

    The books we think we ought to read are poky, dull, and dry;
    The books that we would like to read we are ashamed to buy;
    The books that people talk about we never can recall;
    And the books that people give us, oh, they’re the worst of all.
    —Carolyn Wells (1870–1942)

    Cynicism makes things worse than they are in that it makes permanent the current condition, leaving us with no hope of transcending it. Idealism refuses to confront reality as it is but overlays it with sentimentality. What cynicism and idealism share in common is an acceptance of reality as it is but with a bad conscience.
    Richard Stivers, U.S. sociologist, educator. The Culture of Cynicism: American Morality in Decline, ch. 1, Blackwell (1994)