Provincialism Quotes

• In the last analysis, provincialism is your belief in yourself, in your neighborhood, in your reality. It is patriotism without belligerence. Convincing cases have been made to show that all great art is provincial in the sense of reflecting a place, a time, and a Zeitgeist.

  Richard M. Weaver

  Art, Reality, Analysis

  Richard M. Weaver (1987). “The Southern Essays of Richard M. Weaver”, Liberty Fund

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• Much of human history can, I think, be described as a gradual and sometimes painful liberation from provincialism, the emerging awareness that there is more to the world than was generally believed by our ancestors.

  Carl Sagan

  Thinking, World, Belief

  Carl Sagan, Jerald F. TerHorst, Allan J. Mayer, Sharon S. McKern, Laurence J. Peter (1980). “Broca's brain: reflections on the romance of science”

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• Nobody of any real culture, for instance, ever talks nowadays about the beauty of sunset. Sunsets are quite old fashioned. To admire them is a distinct sign of provincialism of temperament. Upon the other hand they go on.

  Oscar Wilde

  Beauty, Real, Sunset

  Oscar Wilde, Isobel Murray (2008). “Oscar Wilde - The Major Works”, p.233, Oxford University Press

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• Life is just one damned thing after another.

  Elbert Hubbard

  Life, Success, Justice

  Philistine Dec. 1909, p. 32. The saying is often attributed to Frank Ward

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• In dress, habits, manners, provincialism, routine and narrowness, he acquired that charming insolence, that irritating completeness, that sophisticated crassness, that overbalanced poise that makes the Manhattan gentleman so delightfully small in its greatness.

  O. Henry

  New York, Greatness, Gentleman

  O. Henry (2013). “Delphi Complete Works of O. Henry (Illustrated)”, p.660, Delphi Classics

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• To speak from a particular place and time is not provincialism but part of a writer's identity.

  Dana Gioia

  Identity, Speak, Particular

  "My California: Journeys by Great Writers". Book edited by Donna Wares, 1999.

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• I feel that when a white child goes to school only with white children, unconsciously that child grows up in many instances devoid of a world perspective. There is an unconscious provincialism, and it can develop into an unconscious superiority complex just as a Negro develops an unconscious inferiority complex.

  Martin Luther King, Jr.

  Children, Growing Up, School

  Source: www.theatlantic.com

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• There are few who would not rather be taken in adultery than in provocation.

  Aldous Huxley

  Marriage, Taken, Adultery

  'Antic Hay' (1923) ch. 10

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• Narrow-minded provincialism: Sad to say but true - I am more interested in the mountain lions of Utah, the wild pigs of Arizona, than I am in the fate of all the Arabs of Araby, all the Wogs of Hindustan, all the Ethiopes of Abyssinia.

  Edward Abbey

  Fate, Pigs, Utah

  Edward Abbey (2015). “A Voice Crying in the Wilderness”, p.46, RosettaBooks

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• The war against Vietnam is only the ghastliest manifestation of what I'd call imperial provincialism, which afflicts America's whole culture-aware only of its own history, insensible to everything which isn't part of the local atmosphere.

  Stephen Vizinczey

  War, America, Atmosphere

  Stephen Vizinczey (1988). “Truth and Lies in Literature: Essays and Reviews”, p.197, University of Chicago Press

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• Imagination has to do with one's awareness of the reality of other people as well as of one's own reality. Imagination is a bridge between the provincialism of the self and the great world.

  Paula Fox

  Reality, Self, Bridges

  Biography/Personal Quotes, www.imdb.com.

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• I think provincialism is an endemic characteristic with mankind, I think everybody everywhere is provincial, but it is particularly striking with Texans, and we tend to be very Texcentric.

  Molly Ivins

  Thinking, Characteristics, Mankind

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• The American has no language, he has a dialect, slang, provincialism, accent and so forth

  Rudyard Kipling

  Insulting, Dialect, Language

  Rudyard Kipling (2015). “Collected Works of Rudyard Kipling (Illustrated): 5 Novels & 350+ Short Stories, Poetry, Historical Military Works and Autobiographical Writings from one of the most popular writers in England, known for The Jungle Book, Kim, The Man Who Would Be King”, p.4737, e-artnow

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• What is Milan's character? Let's not be closed in by our provincialism.

  Franca Sozzani

  Character, Milan

  Source: wwd.com

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• A brilliant inquiry into the contemporary Iranian predicament and what it means for the world. At a time when all too many of our leading thinkers are mired in the weeds of provincialism and narrow ideological wars, Postel has written a work of grace, intelligence, and towering integrity. Reading 'Legitimation Crisis' in Tehran is nothing less than a masterpiece of moral and political criticism.

  Afshin Molavi

  Weed, War, Integrity

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• I have begun to feel that there is a tendency in 20th Century science to forget that there will be a 21st Century science, and indeed a 30th Century science, from which vantage points our knowledge of the universe may appear quite different than it does to us. We suffer, perhaps, from temporal provincialism, a form of arrogance that has always irritated posterity.

  J. Allen Hynek

  Arrogance, Suffering, Doe

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• The diversity of India cannot thrive on facile attempts to create the homogeneous category of "Indian." Nor can it thrive on dubious attempts to gloss over xenophobic provincialism or a highly culpable state-sponsored marginalization of a minority community.

  Nyla Ali Khan

  Diversity, Community, Dubious

  "The Hidden Tragedy of Kashmir". Interview with Souad Sharabani, www.counterpunch.org. September 15, 2016.

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• How can it fail to smash and shatter the petty provincialism and narrow nantionalism ... making of this world a tragic mosaic of hostility and hate? How can this fabulous new force in the sky fail to serve the hope of teh world and the peace of the world?

  Juan Trippe

  Hate, Sky, World

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• I find the elitism and blatant provincialism of many (Manhattan-based) New Yorkers unattractive. Just as place can be an identity crutch that helps a person feel individual, place can be a crutch in poetry.

  Cate Marvin

  Identity, Manhattan, Unattractive

  Source: www.redividerjournal.org

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• By challenging anthropocentricism and temporal provincialism, science fiction throws open the whole of civilization and its premises to constructive criticism.

  Alvin Toffler

  Civilization, Challenges, Criticism

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