Lewis Mumford Quotes

Modern Man is the victim of the very instruments he values most. Every gain in power, every mastery of natural forces, every scientific addition to knowledge, has proved potentially dangerous, because it has not been accompanied by equal gains in self understanding and self discipline.

discipline

I would die happy if I knew that on my tombstone could be written these words, This man was an absolute fool. None of the disastrous things that he reluctantly predicted ever came to pass

The artist does not illustrate science (but) he frequently responds to the same interests that a scientist does

art science

New York is the perfect model of a city, not the model of a perfect city.

cities newyork

The way people in democracies think of the government as something different from themselves is a real handicap. And, of course, sometimes the government confirms their opinion.

democracy government people

Every generation revolts against its fathers and makes friends with its grandfathers

family generations

What was once called the objective world is a sort of Rorschach ink blot, into which each culture, each system of science and religion, each type of personality, reads a meaning only remotely derived from the shape and color of the blot itself

goals world

Life is the only art that we are required to practice without preparation, and without being allowed the preliminary trials, the failures and botches, that are essential for training.

art failure life trials