Herbert Read

“I know of no better name than Anarchism.”

“I am not going to claim that modern anarchism has any direct relation to Roman jurisprudence; but I do claim that it has its basis in the laws of nature rather than in the state of nature.”

“I can imagine no society which does not embody some method of arbitration.”

“It does not seem that the contradiction which exists between the aristocratic function of art and the democratic structure of modern society can ever be resolved.”

“Freud has shown one thing very clearly: that we only forget our infancy by burying it in the unconscious; and that the problems of this difficult period find their solution under a disguised...”

“In the evolution of mankind there has always been a certain degree of social coherence.”

“These groups within a society can he distinguished according as to whether, like an army or an orchestra, they function as a single body; or whether they are united merely to defend their co...”

“Creeds and castes, and all forms of intellectual and emotional grouping, belong to the past.”

“But the further step, by means of which a civilization is given its quality or culture, is only attained by a process of cellular division, in the course of which the individual is different...”

“Progress is measured by the degree of differentiation within a society.”

“A man of personality can formulate ideals, but only a man of character can achieve them.”

“The principle of equity first came into evidence in Roman jurisprudence and was derived by analogy from the physical meaning of the word.”

“There are a few people, but a diminishing number, who still believe that Marxism, as an economic system, off era a coherent alternative to capitalism, and socialism has, indeed, triumphed in...”

“The worth of a civilization or a culture is not valued in the terms of its material wealth or military power, but by the quality and achievements of its representative individuals - its phil...”

“It is already clear, after twenty years of socialism in Russia, that if you do not provide your society with a new religion, it will gradually revert to the old one.”

“We may be sure that out of the ruins of our capitalist civilization a new religion will emerge, just as Christianity emerged from the ruins of the Roman civilization.”

“It was Nietzsche who first made us conscious of the significance of the individual as a term in the evolutionary process-in that part of the evolutionary process which has still to take plac...”

“The sense of historical continuity, and a feeling for philosophical rectitude cannot, however, be compromised.”

“The assumption is that the right kind of society is an organic being not merely analogous to an organic being, but actually a living structure with appetites and digestions, instincts and pa...”

“Morality, as has often been pointed out, is antecedent to religion-it even exists in a rudimentary form among animals.”