The individual's life is of importance to none besides himself: the point is whether he wishes to escape from history or give his life for it. History recks nothing of human logic
Oswald SpenglerRead
It is the Late city that first defies the land, contradicts Nature in the lines of its silhouette, denies all Nature. It wants to be something different from and higher than Nature. These high-pitched gables, these Baroque cupolas, spires, and pinnacles, neither are, nor desire to be, related with anything in Nature. And then begins the gigantic megalopolis, the city-as-world, which suffers nothing beside itself and sets about annihilating the country picture.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote reflects on how cities, in their quest for grandeur, detach themselves from nature and reshape the world around them.
Oswald Spengler's quote critiques the modern city as an entity that rebels against nature, striving to achieve a distinct identity that elevates it above the natural world. He describes the urban landscape, adorned with ornate architectural features, as being in conflict with the essence of nature, leading to a 'gigantic megalopolis' that disregards and alters the rural landscape, ultimately prioritizing its existence over that of the natural environment.
Themes
CityNatureUrbanizationArchitecturePhilosophy
In practice
Example use cases
In a discussion about urban development, this quote could illustrate the tension between city growth and environmental preservation.
More from Oswald Spengler
All quotes →In place of a world, there is a city, a point, in which the whole life of broad regions is collecting while the rest dries up. In place of a type-true people, born of and grown on the soil, there is a new sort of nomad, cohering unstably in fluid masses, the parasitical city dweller, traditionless, utterly matter-of-fact, religionless, clever, unfruitful, deeply contemptuous of the countryman and especially that highest form of countryman, the country gentleman.
Oswald SpenglerRead
Man makes history; woman is history. The reproduction of the species is feminine: it runs steadily and quietly through all species, animal or human, through all short-lived cultures. It is primary, unchanging, everlasting, maternal, plantlike, and cultureless. If we look back we find that it is synonymous with life itself.
Oswald SpenglerRead
Every Socialist outbreak only blazes new paths for Capitalism.
Oswald SpenglerRead
If few can stand a long war without deterioration of soul, none can stand a long peace.
Oswald SpenglerRead
Through money, democracy becomes its own destroyer, after money has destroyed intellect.
Oswald SpenglerRead
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