The fact is that moving matter about, while a certain amount of it is necessary to our existence, is emphatically not one of the ends of human life. If it were, we should have to consider every navvy superior to Shakespeare. We have been misled in this matter by two causes. One is the necessity of keeping the poor contented, which has led the rich, for thousands of years, to preach the dignity of labor, while taking care themselves to remain undignified in this respect. The other is the new pleasure in mechanism, which makes us delight in the astonishingly ...
For there is no art where there is no style, and no style where there is no unity, and unity is of the individual.
Materialism
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Category: Quotation
Work: In Praise of Idleness
The notion that the desirable activities are those that bring a profit has made everything topsy-turvy.