The makers of the American Revolution had been quite content to work with man as he is, shaped by traditional kinship, local, and religious institutions. For the Jacobins, however, nothing would do but the remaking of man through the power of the state. Hence, the abolition, commencing in 1790, of the ancient estates, the monarchy, the aristocracy, the communes and provinces, the patriarchal family, the guild, the school and university, and any other structures which, by their long existence, might interfere with the state’s work of remaking human consciousness.
—Robert Nisbet (b. 1913)
The whole idea of image is so confused. On the one hand, Madison Avenue is worried about the image of the players in a tennis tour. On the other hand, sports events are often sponsored by the makers of junk food, beer, and cigarettes. What’s the message when an athlete who works at keeping her body fit is sponsored by a sugar-filled snack that does more harm than good?
—Martina Navratilova (b. 1956)
We all have—to put it as nicely as I can—our lower centres and our higher centres. Our lower centres act: they act with terrible power that sometimes destroys us; but they don’t talk.... Since the war the lower centres have become vocal. And the effect is that of an earthquake. For they speak truths that have never been spoken before—truths that the makers of our domestic institutions have tried to ignore.
—George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950)