“Advertising is the modern substitute for argument; its function is to make the worse appear the better.”

Last update June 3, 2021. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "Advertising is the modern substitute for argument; its function is to make the worse appear the better." by George Santayana?

George Santayana109

20th-century Spanish-American philosopher associated with P… 1863–1952

Related quotes

“Aristophanes turns Socrates into ridicule in his comedies, as making the worse appear the better reason.”

Diogenes Laërtius (180–240) biographer of ancient Greek philosophers

Socrates, 5.
The Lives and Opinions of Eminent Philosophers (c. 200 A.D.), Book 2: Socrates, his predecessors and followers

“Nine-tenths of the activities of a modern Government are harmful; therefore the worse they are performed, the better.”

Bertrand Russell (1872–1970) logician, one of the first analytic philosophers and political activist

The Problem of China (1922), Ch. XII: The Chinese Character
1920s

“tt>/* This bit of chicanery makes a unary function followed by a parenthesis into a function with one argument, highest precedence. */

Larry Wall (1954) American computer programmer and author, creator of Perl

toke.c
Source code, Other files

“Fate [is] the supreme order to which even gods are subject. And what of men, what is their function. To challenge order, to change fate. For the better. For better or for worse, it makes no difference, the point is to keep fate from being fate.”

José Saramago book The Year of the Death of Ricardo Reis

O destino é a ordem suprema, a que os próprios deuses aspiram, E os homens, que papel vem a ser o dos homens, Perturbar a ordem, corrigir o destino, Para melhor, Para melhor ou para pior, tanto faz, o que é preciso é impedir que o destino seja destino.
Source: The Year of the Death of Ricardo Reis (1993), p. 288

“The object of Parliament is to substitute argument for fisticuffs.”

Winston S. Churchill (1874–1965) Prime Minister of the United Kingdom

Speech in the House of Commons (June 6, 1951) ; in Churchill by Himself (2008), ed. Langworth, PublicAffairs, p. 22 ISBN 1586486381
Post-war years (1945–1955)