Novalis (1829)
Context: The ideal of Morality has no more dangerous rival than the ideal of highest Strength, of most powerful life; which also has been named (very falsely as it was there meant) the ideal of poetic greatness. It is the maximum of the savage; and has, in these times, gained, precisely among the greatest weaklings, very many proselytes. By this ideal, man becomes a Beast-Spirit, a Mixture; whose brutal wit has, for weaklings, a brutal power of attraction.
“A satirist is a man whose flesh creeps so at the ugly and the savage and the incongruous aspects of society that he has to express them as brutally and nakedly as possible to get relief.”
"Grosz Comes to America," Esquire, 1936
Help us to complete the source, original and additional information
John Dos Passos 25
novelist, playwright, poet, journalist, painter 1896–1970Related quotes
Interview, Feb 3 1964, reproduced in Talks With Authors, ed. Charles F. Madden
Source: Following the Equator: A Journey Around the World
“Modern man has much to learn from the people he calls 'savages.'”
Reflections (1981)
Context: The pygmies are one of the most cultured peoples on the face of the earth. They live a wonderful life, a life of purity. Not only are they busy and productive, they're happy and healthy as well. If we puny Americans had to live under their conditions, we'd perish in a day. Modern man has much to learn from the people he calls 'savages.' Before we are down to the last blade of grass it would be wise to study the life of the Pygmies. The secret of our own survival rests with them, the people who know how to make the most out of very little and find complete happiness with the bare essentials.
pp. 57–58 https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=nyp.33433068235500;view=1up;seq=87
Ecce Homo (1866)
1963, Address at the Free University of Berlin