Classical music is a special taste like Greek language or pre-Columbian archeology, not a common culture of reciprocal communication and psychological shorthand.
Allan BloomRead
These sociologists who talk to facilely about the sacred are like a man who keeps a toothless old circus lion around the house in order to experience the thrills of the jungle.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote criticizes those who superficially engage with deep subjects without understanding their true significance.
Allan Bloom uses the analogy of a 'toothless old circus lion' to illustrate how some sociologists may discuss the 'sacred' or profound subjects without grasping their genuine essence. He suggests that their experiences are as shallow as keeping a harmless lion for the thrills of the exotic, implying that true understanding requires more than mere surface-level engagement; it demands a deeper connection with the realities of life.
Themes
SociologyUnderstandingShallowSacredExperiencePhilosophy
In practice
Example use cases
In a lecture on sociology, one might use this quote to emphasize the need for deep understanding rather than superficial discussions.
More from Allan Bloom
All quotes →The humanities are like the great old Paris Flea Market where, amidst masses of junk, people with a good eye found cast away treasures...They are like a refugee camp where all the geniuses driven out of their jobs and countries by unfriendly regimes are idling.
Allan BloomRead
Our Nation, a great stage for the acting out of great thoughts, presents the classic confrontation between Locke's views of the state of nature and Rousseau's criticism of them... Nature is raw material, worthless without the mixture of human labor; yet nature is also the highest and most sacred thing. The same people who struggle to save the snail-darter bless the pill, worry about hunting deer and defend abortion. Reverence for nature, mastery of nature- whichever is convenient.
Allan BloomRead
Reason transformed into prejudice is the worst form of prejudice, because reason is the only instrument for liberation from prejudice.
Allan BloomRead
There is no real education that does not respond to felt need; anything else acquired is trifling display.
Allan BloomRead
Students now arrive at the university ignorant and cynical about our political heritage, lacking the wherewithal to be either inspired by it or seriously critical of it.
Allan BloomRead
Similar quotes
Compared to the unleashed forces of warfare and of faith, Mount Vesuvius was kinder to the legacy of antiquity.
Stephen GreenblattRead
Not to think of yourself / as someone who did not count -- / Festival of the Souls.
Matsuo BashoRead
Order is the sanity of the mind, the health of the body, the peace of the city, the security of the state. Like beams in a house or bones to a body, so is order to all things.
Robert SoutheyRead
Who can tell truth from falsehood any more? I say it, and you feel it in your hearts: no man or woman on this big small earth. How should our sages miss the mark of life, and our most skillful players lose the game? your hearts will tell you, as my heart has told me: because all know, and no one understands.
E. E. CummingsRead
XXIX Traveler, there is no path. The path is made by walking. Traveller, the path is your tracks And nothing more. Traveller, there is no path The path is made by walking. By walking you make a path And turning, you look back At a way you will never tread again Traveller, there is no road Only wakes in the sea.
Antonio MachadoRead
I don't want a future, I want a present. To me this appears of greater value. You have a future only when you have no present, and when you have a present, you forget to even think about the future.
Robert WalserRead