I can't help thinking that science would be more appealing if it had no practical use.
Claude Levi-StraussNo contact with savage Indian tribes has ever daunted me more than the morning I spent with an old lady swathed in woolies who compared herself to a rotten herring encased in a block of ice.
Claude Levi-StraussOur system is the height of absurdity, since we treat the culprit both as a child, so as to have the right to punish him, and as an adult, in order to deny him consolation.
Claude Levi-StraussNot all poisonous juices are burning or bitter nor is everything which is burning and bitter poisonous.
Claude Levi-StraussOur students wanted to know everything: but only the newest theory seemed to them worth bothering with. Knowing nothing of the intellectual achievements of the past, they kept fresh and intact their enthusiasm for 'the latest thing'. Fashion dominated their interest: they valued ideas not for themselves but for the prestige that they could wring from them.
Claude Levi-Strauss