Ethos Quotes

“Courage is the most important of all the virtues because without courage, you can't practice any other virtue consistently.”
― Maya Angelou

“No to laugh, not to lament, not to detest, but to understand.”
― Benedict de Spinoza, Theological-Political Treatise

“It's actually quite a good ethos for life: go into the unknown with truth, commitment, and openness and mostly you'll be okay.”
― Alan Cumming, Not My Father's Son

“Regarding the need to pray, the anarch is again no different from anyone else. But he does not like to attach himself. He does not squander his best energies. He accepts no substitute for his gold. He knows his freedom, and also what it is worth its weight in. The equation balances when he is offered something credible. The result is ONE.

There can be no doubt that gods have appeared, not only in ancient times but even late in history; they feasted with us and fought at our sides. But what good is the splendor of bygone banquets to a starving man? What good is the clinking of gold that a poor man hears through the wall of time? The gods must be called.

The anarch lets all this be; he can bide his time. He has his ethos, but not morals. He recognizes lawfulness, but not the law; he despises rules. Whenever ethos goes into shalts and shalt-nots, it is already corrupted. Still, it can harmonize with them, depending on location and circumstances, briefly or at length, just as I harmonize here with the tyrant for as long as I like.

One error of the anarchists is their belief that human nature is intrinsically good. They thereby castrate society, just as the theologians ("God is goodness") castrate the Good Lord.”
― Ernst Jünger, Eumeswil

“A worldview is a commitment, a fundamental orientation of the heart, that can be expressed as a story or in a set of presuppositions (assumptions which may be true, partially true or entirely false) which we hold (consciously or subconsciously, consistently or inconsistently) about the basic constitution of reality, and that provides the foundations on which we live and more and have our being.”
― James W. Sire

“J'ai décidé d'être admirable, en tout, pour tout !”
― Edmond Rostand, Cyrano de Bergerac: nouveau programme (Classiques & Cie Collège (38))

“...the Pope vigorously upholds the real power of redemption to liberate the human heart from the domination of lust, calling men and women to a new "ethos.”
― Christopher West, Heaven's Song

“in America we have people from all kinds of backgrounds, all in a cluster, together, and consequently law has become very important in this country. Lawyers and law are what hold us together. There is no ethos.”
― Joseph Campbell

“It's less about technology for me, and more about religion. [on hacking]”
― Adrian Lamo

“The general ethos of the people they have to govern determines the behaviour of politicians.”
― T.S. Eliot, Christianity and Culture: The Idea of a Christian Society and Notes Towards the Definition of Culture

“With each new course, he offers up little bites of the ethos that drives his cooking, the tastes and the words playing off each other like a kaiseki echo chamber.
Ark shell, a bulging, bright orange clam peeking out of its dark shell, barely cooked, dusted with seaweed salt.
"To add things is easy; to take them away is the challenge."
Bamboo, cut into wedges, boiled in mountain water and served in a wide, shallow bowl with nothing but the cooking liquid.
"How can we make the ingredient taste more like itself?With heat, with water, with knifework."
Tempura: a single large clam, cloaked in a pale, soft batter with more chew than crunch. The clam snaps under gentle pressure, releasing a warm ocean of umami.
"I want to make a message to the guest: this is the best possible way to cook this ingredient."
A meaty fillet of eel wrapped around a thumb of burdock root, glazed with soy and mirin, grilled until crispy: a three-bite explosion that leaves you desperate for more.
"The meal must go up and down, following strong flavors with subtle flavors, setting the right tone for the diner."
And it does, rising and falling, ebbing and flowing, until the last frothy drop of matcha is gone, signaling the end of the meal.”
― Matt Goulding, Rice, Noodle, Fish: Deep Travels Through Japan's Food Culture

“Humans - from this other perspective, which is just as extreme in its own way - are at best an arbitrary constellation of cultural elements, perhaps assembled according to some prevailing spirit, code or ethos, and which society ends up with which ethos is treated as beyond explanation, little more than a random roll of the dice.”
― David Graeber, David Wengrow, The Dawn of Everything: A New History of Humanity

“İnsanoğlu Tanrı'nın muhitinde ikâmet eder.”
― Heidegger, Martin

“Antes de la tragedia, cada hombre se consideraba unido inescindiblemente a los demás, en pensamiento, palabra y obra, no existiendo separación alguna entre él y su comunidad: él era su comunidad y su comunidad era él. A esto los griegos del siglo V a. C., lo denominaban «Ethos», que quiere decir «Eticidad» o «Civilidad».

Cuando los griegos perdieron aquella unidad orgánica entre ellos mismos, cuando comenzó a aparecer entre ellos la idea de que cada uno era socialmente distinto de los otros porque tenían entre sí diferentes intereses, en ese preciso momento, apareció la reflexión filosófica. Y, entonces, la epopeya se transformó en tragedia.”
― José Rafael Herrera, Principios de filosofía de la praxis

“None of us commences life utterly alone. We each carry within our granular mass the protoplasm residue of past generations’ ideas, customs, values, infatuations, prejudices, ethics, and mores. The lees wrought from our seedlings contribute to the social order that oversees a newborn’s future. How we conduct ourselves in the here and now emulates our heritage, delineates the parameters of the present culture, and sets the embryonic stage for the emergent ethos of our future and for the generations of people whom we will never meet.”
― Kilroy J. Oldster, Dead Toad Scrolls

“We come into a world with a history shaped by the subtle dichotomy of culture and ethos, the dynamic forces of ideas and philosophy, and the mesmerizing undercurrent and of science and religion. The relentless clicking of time binds generations of people together. Family, country, cultural trends, and shared historical precepts link people. How we act in our lifetimes will affect the continuum of history. Our deeds will construct the industry, companies, commerce, cities, and governmental intuitions that shape our children’s lives. Our economic choices and environmental policies will determine the quality of the water that our children drink and the air they breathe. Our collective consciousness as depicted through works of literature, poetry, music, films, personal charity, and political benevolence will affect the cultural atmosphere for generations to come.”
― Kilroy J. Oldster, Dead Toad Scrolls

“A minute these days feels like an eternity
Dreams are hard to trace, cryptocurrencies

No sense
Nobody gives two fucks today
Devil grins
Say hello to our folks today”
― Soroosh Shahrivar, Letter 19

“Nihilists... F#$% me. I mean say what you will about the tenets of national socialism dude, at least it's an ethos”
― Big Lebowski

“A bullying occasion should not be about the bully. That’s just what the bully wants. It’s about the audience. And a bully can give you the chance to enhance your ethos to that audience.”
― Jay Heinrichs, Thank You for Arguing: What Aristotle, Lincoln, and Homer Simpson Can Teach Us About the Art of Persuasion