
“Music is a pastime, a relaxation from more serious occupations.”
Letter to V A Krylov, 1867, in Borodin: Collected Letters.
Pt. I, sec. 2, ch. 1
Lectures on the Philosophy of History (1832), Volume 1
“Music is a pastime, a relaxation from more serious occupations.”
Letter to V A Krylov, 1867, in Borodin: Collected Letters.
“Degeneracy can be fun but it's hard to keep up as a serious lifetime occupation.”
Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance (1974), Afterword (1984)
Context: The hippies had in mind something that they wanted, and were calling it "freedom," but in the final analysis "freedom" is a purely negative goal. It just says something is bad. Hippies weren't really offering any alternatives other than colorful short-term ones, and some of these were looking more and more like pure degeneracy. Degeneracy can be fun but it's hard to keep up as a serious lifetime occupation.
“Well, for future reference, this is my serious face.”
Source: Dark Days
They are persons who identify themselves by signs on their residences and who are ready at the dinner hour in correct attire, so that they can be quickly called upon if a dinner party should consist of thirteen persons. In the measure of its expansion, the city offers more and more the decisive conditions of the division of labor. It offers a circle which through its size can absorb a highly diverse variety of services.
Source: The Metropolis and Modern Life (1903), p. 420
Statement in Detroit, Michigan (10 November 1963).
Attributed
"Rien du tout, ou la conséquence" ("Nothing, or the Consequence"), in A Perfect Vacuum (1971), tr. Michael Kandel (1978)
Source: The Tales of Alvin Maker, The Crystal City (2003), Chapter 5 “Crystal Ball” (p. 98).
Source: Growing Up Absurd (1956), p. 37.