Classical music is a special taste like Greek language or pre-Columbian archeology, not a common culture of reciprocal communication and psychological shorthand.
Allan BloomRead
These sociologists who talk to facilely about the sacred are like a man who keeps a toothless old circus lion around the house in order to experience the thrills of the jungle.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote criticizes those who superficially engage with deep subjects without understanding their true significance.
Allan Bloom uses the analogy of a 'toothless old circus lion' to illustrate how some sociologists may discuss the 'sacred' or profound subjects without grasping their genuine essence. He suggests that their experiences are as shallow as keeping a harmless lion for the thrills of the exotic, implying that true understanding requires more than mere surface-level engagement; it demands a deeper connection with the realities of life.
Themes
SociologyUnderstandingShallowSacredExperiencePhilosophy
In practice
Example use cases
In a lecture on sociology, one might use this quote to emphasize the need for deep understanding rather than superficial discussions.
More from Allan Bloom
All quotes →The humanities are like the great old Paris Flea Market where, amidst masses of junk, people with a good eye found cast away treasures...They are like a refugee camp where all the geniuses driven out of their jobs and countries by unfriendly regimes are idling.
Allan BloomRead
Our Nation, a great stage for the acting out of great thoughts, presents the classic confrontation between Locke's views of the state of nature and Rousseau's criticism of them... Nature is raw material, worthless without the mixture of human labor; yet nature is also the highest and most sacred thing. The same people who struggle to save the snail-darter bless the pill, worry about hunting deer and defend abortion. Reverence for nature, mastery of nature- whichever is convenient.
Allan BloomRead
Reason transformed into prejudice is the worst form of prejudice, because reason is the only instrument for liberation from prejudice.
Allan BloomRead
There is no real education that does not respond to felt need; anything else acquired is trifling display.
Allan BloomRead
Students now arrive at the university ignorant and cynical about our political heritage, lacking the wherewithal to be either inspired by it or seriously critical of it.
Allan BloomRead
Similar quotes
There is still much debate about whether torture has been effective in eliciting information - the assumption being, apparently, that if it is effective, then it may be justified.
Noam ChomskyRead
Equal protection under the law - for race, religion, gender or sexual orientation - should not be subject to the most popular sentiments of the day.
Cory BookerRead
Americans swept away the instruments of English hereditary inequality - entails and titles of nobility - even before we had a constitution.
Steven WeinbergRead
Auschwitz stands as a tragic reminder of the terrible potential man has for violence and inhumanity.
Billy GrahamRead
No experimental result can ever kill a theory: any theory can be saved from counterinstances either by some auxiliary hypothesis or by a suitable reinterpretation of its terms.
Imre LakatosRead
The judgment: You are now before Yama, King of the Dead. In vain will you try to...deny or conceal the evil deeds you have done. ... the mirror in which Yama seems to read your past is your own memory, and also his judgment is your own. It is you yourself who pronounce your own judgment.
Gautama BuddhaRead