Lewis Mumford
Lewis Mumford
Lewis Mumford, KBEwas an American historian, sociologist, philosopher of technology, and literary critic. Particularly noted for his study of cities and urban architecture, he had a broad career as a writer. Mumford was influenced by the work of Scottish theorist Sir Patrick Geddes and worked closely with his associate the British sociologist Victor Branford...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionSociologist
Date of Birth19 October 1895
CountryUnited States of America
abyss boredom classes devices earlier inventing labor man modern privileged success
By his very success in inventing labor-saving devices modern man has manufactured an abyss of boredom that only the privileged classes in earlier civilizations have ever fathomed
dream cities people
The cities and mansions that people dream of are those in which they finally live.
intelligence ironic irony
One of the functions of intelligence is to take account of the dangers that come from trusting solely to the intelligence.
adventure justified should
If we never met again in our lives I should feel that somehow the whole adventure of existence was justified by my having met you.
dream art expression
Whereas Freud was for the most part concerned with the morbid effects of unconscious repression, Jung was more interested in the manifestations of unconscious expression, first in the dream and eventually in all the more orderly products of religion and art and morals.
discovery europe birth-place
The settlement of America had its origins in the unsettlement of Europe. America came into existence when the European was already so distant from the ancient ideas and ways of his birthplace that the whole span of the Atlantic did not widen the gulf.
time cutting reality
The convenience of timekeeping is greatly overrated; and the people who practice it so faithfully that they lose the capacity for appreciating the fixed and the static and the spatially related experiences cut themselves off from a good part of reality.
optimism possibility pessimist
I'm a pessimist about probabilities; I'm an optimist about possibilities.
tombstone men fool
I would die happy if I knew that on my tombstone could be written these words, "This man was an absolute fool. None of the disastrous things that he reluctantly predicted ever came to pass!"
drama war supreme
War is the supreme drama of a completely mechanized society.
democracy groups citizenship
Neither democracy nor effective representation is possible until each participant in the group...devotes a measurable part of his life to furthering its existence.
architecture prophecy tombs
Architecture is either the prophecy of an unformed society or the tomb of a finished one.
civilization eggs growth
By putting business before every other manifestation of life, our mechanical and financial civilization has forgotten the chief business of life: namely, growth, reproduction, development. It pays infinite attention to the incubator-and it forgets the egg!
mystery consciousness life-is
The ultimate gift of conscious life is a sense of the mystery that encompasses it.