“The monks of the earliest days had not counted on the human ability to generate a new cultural inheritance in a couple of generations if an old one is utterly destroyed, to generate it by virtue of lawgivers and prophets, geniuses or maniacs; through a Moses, or through a Hitler, or an ignorant but tyrannical grandfather, a cultural inheritance may be acquired between dusk and dawn, and many have been so acquired. But the new "culture" was an inheritance of darkness, wherein "simpleton" meant the same thing as "citizen" meant the same thing as "slave."”

The monks waited. It mattered not at all to them that the knowledge they saved was useless, that much of it was not really knowledge now, was as inscrutable to the monks in some instances as it would be to an illiterate wild-boy from the hills; this knowledge was empty of content, its subject matter long since gone. Still, such knowledge had a symbolic structure that was peculiar to itself, and at least the symbol-interplay could be observed. To observe the way a knowledge-system is knit together is to learn at least a minimum knowledge-of-knowledge, until someday — someday, or some century — an Integrator would come, and things would be fitted together again. So time mattered not at all. The Memorabilia was there, and it was given to them by duty to preserve, and preserve it they would if the darkness in the world lasted ten more centuries, or even ten thousand years...
Ch 6
A Canticle for Leibowitz (1959), Fiat Homo

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update June 3, 2021. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "The monks of the earliest days had not counted on the human ability to generate a new cultural inheritance in a couple …" by Walter M. Miller, Jr.?
Walter M. Miller, Jr. photo
Walter M. Miller, Jr. 37
American fiction writer 1923–1996

Related quotes

Charles Lyell photo
Adrianus Sunarko photo

“Indonesians must grateful for what the founding fathers have inherited through Pancasila, which stresses inclusivity in a plural society. In Indonesia, religion is challenged to learn from local cultures and not to underestimate humanity”

Adrianus Sunarko (1966) Indonesian Roman Catholic bishop

Source: Indonesian prelate becomes a theology professor https://www.ucanews.com/news/indonesian-prelate-becomes-a-theology-professor/85179 (14 May 2019)

Mark Steyn photo
Aga Khan IV photo

“Conflict situations are driven by concepts of victory, power, and elimination of inherited culture, and not by the underlying values of civilization. There are many interpretations of Islam within the wider Islamic community, but generally we are instructed to leave the world a better place than it was when we came into it.”

Aga Khan IV (1936) 49th and current Imam of Nizari Ismailism

Interview with Robert Ivy (FAIA), in Architectural Record (31 August 2001)
Context: Conflict situations are driven by concepts of victory, power, and elimination of inherited culture, and not by the underlying values of civilization. There are many interpretations of Islam within the wider Islamic community, but generally we are instructed to leave the world a better place than it was when we came into it. The Aga Khan Award for Architecture seeks to make a better place in physical terms. This means trying to bring values into environments, buildings, and contexts that improve the quality of life for future generations.

Yusuf Qaradawi photo

“The Iraqis have a country that inherited cultures thousands of years old while the Americans have a culture only two hundred years old. Two hundred years will teach thousands of years!? Oh Americans, leave Iraq for its people.”

Yusuf Qaradawi (1926) Egyptian imam

Sheikh Al-Qaradhawi Reacts to the Murder of Four Americans in Al-Fallujah: 'How could you punish an entire people because four corpses were mutilated?' http://www.memritv.org/clip_transcript/en/31.htm April 2004.

Vasyl Slipak photo

“Mother once said our grandfather Vasyl, after whom my brother was named, had sung very well and been a very interesting person in general. So it is believed that Vasyl inherited his talent. He supposedly had a unique voice.”

Vasyl Slipak (1974–2016) Ukrainian opera singer

2017
Orest Slipak, the brother of singer. Brother about brother. The Day. Кyiv.ua. - 2017. - 27 April. https://day.kyiv.ua/en/article/topic-day/brother-about-brother

Henry David Thoreau photo
Eric Hobsbawm photo
Learned Hand photo

“The law, being an inherited accumulation, imposes itself on each generation willy-nilly.”

Learned Hand (1872–1961) American legal scholar, Court of Appeals judge

"Mr. Justice Holmes at Eighty-Five" (1926).
Extra-judicial writings
Context: The law, being an inherited accumulation, imposes itself on each generation willy-nilly. Any society whose members enter and leave it severally must for very convenience, to say nothing of deeper reasons, proceed by tradition; the neophyte must adopt existing habits and ways of acting, if for no better reason, through inexperience and diffidence. Mere custom will do the rest as he proceeds. And so the rule is canonized, its origins, and therefore its meaning, are ignored. But genuine learning is quite different.

Related topics