It is not the truth of Marxism that explains the willingness of intellectuals to believe it, but the power that it confers on intellectuals, in their attempts to control the world. And since, as Swift says, it is futile to reason someone out of a thing that he was not reasoned into, we can conclude that Marxism owes its remarkable power to survive every criticism to the fact that it is not a truth-directed but a power-directed system of thought.

The culture of a civilization is the art and literature through which it rises to consciousness of itself and defines its vision of the world.

States are more like people than they are like anything else: they exist by purpose, reason, suffering, and joy. And peace between states is also like peace between people. It involves the willing renunciation of purpose, in the mutual desire not to do, but to be.

There are no chords in modernist architecture, only lines - lines that may come to an end, but that achieve no closure

There is a sort of mystery to kitsch. When did it begin? If it is just simply another name for faking emotions, it ought to have been a permanent part of the human condition.

Classical buildings endure because they are loved, admired and accepted, and enjoy an innate adaption to human needs and purposes.

When art becomes merely shock value, our sense of humanity is slowly degraded.