Decadence Quotes - Page 2

• An age which is incapable of poetry is incapable of any kind of literature except the cleverness of a decadence.

  Raymond Chandler

  Age, Literature, Kind

  Raymond Chandler, Dorothy Gardiner, Kathrine Sorley Walker (1977). “Raymond Chandler Speaking”, p.75, Univ of California Press

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• The fate of nations is intimately bound up with their powers of reproduction. All nations and all empires first felt decadence gnawing at them when their birth rate fell off.

  Benito Mussolini

  Fate, Birth Rate, Empires

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• There is an old song which asserts 'the best things in life are free.' Not true! Utterly false! This was the tragic fallacy which brought on the decadence and collapse of the democracies of the twentieth century; those noble experiments failed because the people had been led to believe that they could simply vote for whatever they wanted...and get it without toil, without sweat, without tears. Nothing of value is free. Even the breath of life is purchased at birth only through gasping effort and pain.

  Robert A. Heinlein

  Song, Pain, Believe

  Robert A. Heinlein (1987). “Starship Troopers”, p.76, Penguin

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• I studied the Koran a great deal. I came away from that study with the conviction there have been few religions in the world as deadly to men as that of Muhammad.

  Alexis de Tocqueville

  Men, World, Paganism

  "The Tocqueville Reader: A Life in Letters and Politics". Book by Alexis de Tocqueville; edited by Olivier Zunz and Alan S. Kahan, p. 229, 2002.

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• Ultimately we must concern ourselves with pulling out by its roots the decadence that controls our culture, the profit motive that controls our culture.

  Jane Fonda

  Roots, Culture, Profit

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• I have always thought of sophistication as rather a feeble substitute for decadence.

  Christopher Hampton

  Class, Substitutes, Sophistication

  Christopher Hampton (2014). “Christopher Hampton Plays 1: Total Eclipse; The Philanthropist; Savages; Treats”, p.120, Faber & Faber

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• I studied the Quran a great deal. I came away from that study with the conviction that by and large there have been few religions in the world as deadly to men as that of Muhammad. As far as I can see, it is the principal cause of the decadence so visible today in the Muslim world and, though less absurd than the polytheism of old, its social and political tendencies are in my opinion more to be feared, and I therefore regard it as a form of decadence rather than a form of progress in relation to paganism itself.

  Alexis de Tocqueville

  Men, Political, Islam

  "The Tocqueville Reader: A Life in Letters and Politics". Book by Alexis de Tocqueville; edited by Olivier Zunz and Alan S. Kahan, p. 229, 2002.

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• Decadence is wonderful.

  Jack L. Chalker

  Wonderful

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• America is a country in which I see the most persistant idealism and the blandest of cynicism and the race is on between its vitality and its decadence.

  Alistair Cooke

  Country, Race, America

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• The civilization of one epoch becomes the manure of the next.

  Cyril Connolly

  Civilization, Next, Epoch

  1944 The Unquiet Grave, pt.2.

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• I wanted him to feel what I felt when I was with him: that incredible combination of comfort, decadence, and wonder; the knowledge that, with just a single taste of him, I was addicted.

  Jodi Picoult

  Comfort, Taste, Wonder

  Jodi Picoult (2009). “Handle with Care: A Novel”, p.208, Simon and Schuster

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• I wanted to be an actor from a young age, but actually becoming one and seen the ugly side of the world does feel different and sometimes unwelcome. There are shallow, vapid, untalented people zombieing the streets of Hollywood, adding decadence and immorality to an already extravagant business.

  Fran Kranz

  Becoming One, People, Age

  "Interview with Fran Kranz, Star, CBS’s Welcome to the Captain". Interview with Alex Remington, www.huffingtonpost.com. March 5, 2008.

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• To have humanism we must first be convinced of our humanity. As we move further into decadence this becomes more difficult.

  Thomas Pynchon

  Moving, Humanity, Firsts

  Thomas Pynchon (2012). “V.”, p.214, Penguin

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• In all nations an exceptional man exists that compensates the deficiencies of the remainder. In those moments, when humanity is found collectively in a state of decadence, there always remain those exceptional beings as point of reference.

  Augusto Roa Bastos

  Men, Humanity, States

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• To have to fight the instincts - that is the definition of decadence: as long as life is ascending, happiness equals instinct.

  Friedrich Nietzsche

  Happiness, Fighting, Long

  Friedrich Nietzsche (2016). “Twilight of the Idols”, p.27, Friedrich Nietzsche

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• History shows that male homosexuality, which like prostitution flourishes with urbanization and soon becomes predictably ritualized, always tends toward decadence.

  Camille Paglia

  Urbanization, Males, Homosexuality

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• Fame introduced me to a world of instant gratification and decadence I hadn't seen before.

  Jesse Metcalfe

  World, Fame, Instant Gratification

  "Jesse Metcalfe's Addiction Battle". More! Magazine Interview, www.contactmusic.com. February 02, 2013.

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• We must carry the war into every corner the enemy happens to carry it, to his home, to his centers of entertainment: a total war. It is necessary to prevent him from having a moment of peace, a quiet moment outside his barracks or even inside; we must attack him wherever he may be, make him feel like a cornered beast wherever he may move. Then his moral fiber shall begin to decline, but we shall notice how the signs of decadence begin to disappear.

  Che Guevara

  War, Moving, Home

  Che Guevara (2002). “Guerrilla Warfare”, p.174, Rowman & Littlefield Publishers

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• The desire to build a risk-free society has always been a sign of decadence. It has meant that the nation has given up, that it no longer believes in its destiny, that it has ceased to aspire to greatness, and has retired from history to pet itself.

  Henry Fairlie

  Believe, Greatness, Destiny

  "Paralysis in a Risk-Free Society" by Henry Fairlie, www.washingtonpost.com. July 22, 1979.

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• Sunset Boulevard' - the story of Hollywood movies draped on a depressing sex affair - is an uncompromising study of American decadence displaying a sad, worn, methodical beauty few films have had since the late twenties.

  Manny Farber

  Depressing, Sex, Sunset

  Manny Farber (2016). “Farber on Film: The Complete Film Writings of Manny Faber: A Special Publication of The Library of America”, p.644, Library of America

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• It may well be a sign of the decadence of the Church and the failure of Christianity that gifts have to be coaxed out of people, and that often they will not give at all unless they get something for their money in the way of entertainment or of goods. Giving which is real giving has a certain recklessness in it.

  William Barclay

  Real, People, Giving

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• It is the psychic depression of decadence which has come to this place and time. It is what happens to people who ignore their artists and deny their children. It is a terminal case of involutional melancholia which comes from within and cannot be cured by T.V. or psychotherapy or anything but a creative life, which is hard to come by in a country where it doesn't pay to do anything for yourself.

  Jennifer Stone

  Country, Children, Artist

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• Waiting for Godot was not allowed. Neither was Henry Miller. The Soviets condemned them both. Miller would have been used as an example of decadence, being a very good analyst of how terrible and monstrous American culture was. That they liked, but they wouldn't publish him. I guess it must have been the sex. With Beckett, it must have been the hopelessness.

  Barney Rosset

  Sex, Waiting, Example

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• All writing, all art, is an act of faith. If one tries to contribute to human understanding, how can that be called decadent? It's like saying a declaration of love is an act of decadence. Any work of art, provide it springs from a sincere motivation to further understanding between people, is an act of faith and therefore is an act of love.

  Truman Capote

  Art, Motivation, Spring

  Truman Capote, M. Thomas Inge (1987). “Truman Capote: Conversations”, p.19, Univ. Press of Mississippi

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• Here, I thought, I had found the human race in its final stages of decadence perverse, insouciant, without ambition. And I could not blame them. After all, they had no future.

  Michael Moorcock

  Ambition, Race, Finals

  "Phoenix in Obsidian". Book by Michael Moorcock, 1970.

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