Lewis Mumford

“The earth is the Lord's fullness thereof: this is no longer a hollow dictum of religion, but a directive for economic action toward human brotherhood.”

“Today, the notion of progress in a single line without goal or limit seems perhaps the most parochial notion of a very parochial century.”

“Today, the degradation of the inner life is symbolized by the fact that the only place sacred from interruption is the private toilet.”

“Nothing is unthinkable, nothing impossible to the balanced person, provided it comes out of the needs of life and is dedicated to life's further development.”

“The artist does not illustrate science (but) he frequently responds to the same interests that a scientist does.”

“A man of courage never needs weapons, but he may need bail.”

“Our national flower is the concrete cloverleaf.”

“In war, the army is not merely a pure consumer, but a negative producer.”

“One of the functions of intelligence is to take account of the dangers that come from trusting solely to the intelligence.”

“Every new baby is a blind desperate vote for survival: people who find themselves unable to register an effective political protest against extermination do so by a biological act.”

“War is the supreme drama of a completely mechanized society.”

“Traditionalists are pessimists about the future and optimists about the past.”

“The chief function of the city is to convert power into form, energy into culture, dead matter into the living symbols of art, biological reproduction into social creativity.”

“The cities and mansions that people dream of are those in which they finally live.”

“A certain amount of opposition is a great help to a man. Kites rise against, not with, the wind.”

“Life is the only art that we are required to practice without preparation, and without being allowed the preliminary trials, the failures and botches, that are essential for training.”

“War vies with magic in its efforts to get something for nothing.”

“Misery, mutilation, destruction, terror, starvation and death characterize the process of war and form a principal part of the product.”

“Every generation revolts against its fathers and makes friends with its grandfathers.”

“To curb the machine and limit art to handicraft is a denial of opportunity.”