The Fortunes of Permanence Quotes

“The true democrat wishes to share the great works of culture with all who are able to appreciate them; the egalitarian, recognizing that genuine excellence is rare, declares greatness a fraud and sets about obliterating distinctions.”
― Roger Kimball, The Fortunes of Permanence: Culture and Anarchy in an Age of Amnesia

“(Some people regard the astonishing collapse of manners and civility in our society as a superficial event. They are wrong. The fate of decorum expresses the fate of a culture’s dignity, its attitude toward its animating values.)”
― Roger Kimball, The Fortunes of Permanence: Culture and Anarchy in an Age of Amnesia

“And let’s not forget “Dane-Geld”: It is always a temptation to a rich and lazy nation, To puff and look important and to say: “Though we know we should defeat you, we have not the time to meet you. We will therefore pay you cash to go away.” And that is called paying the Dane-geld; But we’ve proved it again and again, That if once you have paid him the Dane-geld You never get rid of the Dane.”
― Roger Kimball, The Fortunes of Permanence: Culture and Anarchy in an Age of Amnesia

“History,” Bagehot wrote, “is strewn with the wrecks of nations which have gained a little progressiveness at the cost of a great deal of hard manliness, and have thus prepared themselves for destruction as soon as the movements of the world gave a chance for it.”
― Roger Kimball, The Fortunes of Permanence: Culture and Anarchy in an Age of Amnesia

“Do not be proud of the fact that your grandmother was shocked at something which you are accustomed to seeing or hearing without being shocked.... It may be that your grandmother was an extremely lively and vital animal, and that you are a paralytic. —G. K. Chesterton, As I Was Saying”
― Roger Kimball, The Fortunes of Permanence: Culture and Anarchy in an Age of Amnesia