“It is everywhere present, in habits, tastes, dress, thoughts and ideas.”
"The Individual, Society and the State" (1940) http://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/goldman/works/1940/individual.htm
Context: The strongest bulwark of authority is uniformity; the least divergence from it is the greatest crime. The wholesale mechanisation of modern life has increased uniformity a thousandfold. It is everywhere present, in habits, tastes, dress, thoughts and ideas. Its most concentrated dullness is "public opinion." Few have the courage to stand out against it. He who refuses to submit is at once labelled "queer," "different," and decried as a disturbing element in the comfortable stagnancy of modern life.
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Emma Goldman 109
anarchist known for her political activism, writing, and sp… 1868–1940Related quotes
“There are well-dressed foolish ideas just as there are well-dressed fools.”
As quoted in The Cynic's Breviary : Maxims and Anecdotes from Nicolas de Chamfort (1902) as translated by William G. Hutchison, p. 37
“There are well-dressed foolish ideas just as there are well-dressed fools.”
Sometimes attributed to Ackerman this actually originates with Nicolas Chamfort, as quoted in The Cynic's Breviary : Maxims and Anecdotes from Nicolas de Chamfort (1902) as translated by William G. Hutchison, p. 37
Misattributed
“Let dull critics feed upon the carcasses of plays; give me the taste and the dressing.”
6 February 1752
Letters to His Son on the Art of Becoming a Man of the World and a Gentleman (1774)
“Language is the dress of thought.”
The Life of Cowley
Lives of the English Poets (1779–81)
“Style is the dress of thoughts.”
24 November 1749
Letters to His Son on the Art of Becoming a Man of the World and a Gentleman (1774)
“Ideas are everywhere, but knowledge is rare.”
Source: 1980s–1990s, Knowledge and Decisions (1980; 1996), Ch. 1 : The Role of Knowledge
Je m’entretiens avec moi-même de politique, d’amour, de goût ou de philosophie ; j’abandonne mon esprit à tout son libertinage ; je le laisse maître de suivre la première idée sage ou folle qui se présente … Mes pensées ce sont mes catins.
Variant translations:
My ideas are my whores.
My thoughts are my trollops.
Rameau's Nephew (1762)
“Yielding more wholesome food than all the messes
That now taste-curious wanton plenty dresses.”
Second Week, First Day, Part i. Compare: "Herbs, and other country messes, Which the neat-handed Phillis dresses", John Milton, L'Allegro, line 85.
La Seconde Semaine (1584)