"It struck him that the true characteristic thing about modern life was not its cruelty and insecurity, but simply its bareness, its dinginess, its listlessness."

Modernity, Life, Insecurity, Truth, Reality

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"It struck him that the true characteristic thing about modern life was not its cruelty and insecurity, but simply its bareness, its dinginess, its listlessness."

Exlpore more Modernity quotes

"Widespread commercial distribution of ice was so new that 300 tons of the precious commodity melted at one port while customs officials tried to figure out how to classify it."

Bill Bryson, American Writer

Modernity, Innovation, History, Novelty, Bureaucracy

"With the daguerreotype everyone will be able to have their portrait taken-formerly it was only the prominent-and at the same time everything is being done to make us all look exactly the same, so we shall only need one portrait."

Soren Kierkegaard, Danish Philosopher

Modernity, Technology, Identity, Progress, Irony

"For millions of years, man spoke only to what he could see. Suddenly, in just one decade, 'seeing' and 'speaking' have been separated. We think we're used to it, yet we don't realize the immense impact it's had on our reflexes. Our bodies are simply not used to it. Frankly, the result is that, when we talk on the telephone, we enter a state that is similar to certain magical trances; we can discover other things about ourselves."

Paulo Coelho, Brazilian Novelist

Modernity, Communication, Technology, Awareness, Discovery

"The critical method which denies literary modernity would appear - and even, in certain respects, would be - the most modern of critical movements."

Paul de Man, Belgian Critic

Modernity, Literary

"This new world was a vicious, sleek world made of street lights and tight jeans, sharp smiles and fast cars. This was a city, edited. A city, pared down to its bare minimums, beautiful and abusive."

Maggie Stiefvater, American Author

Modernity, City, Life, Beauty, Abuse

"In modern time slowness is new sickness."

Amit Kalantri, Indian Author

Modernity, Time, Disease, Society, Life

"A selfie has more face and fewer feelings."

Amit Kalantri, Indian Author

Modernity, Feelings, Expression, Life, Image

"We can no longer create the feeling of an era...of time being particular to one spot in time."

Doug Coupland, Canadian Author

Modernity, Time, Loss, Truth

"He died with his tie on. Do you think that could be our generation's equivalent of that old saying about dying with your boots on? Harry Blakemoor died with his tie on. I like it, Larry."

Stephen King, American Author

Modernity, Mortality, Truth, Wisdom, Power

"You don't really need modernity in order to exist totally and fully. You need a mixture of modernity and tradition."

Theodore Bikel, Austrian Actor

Modernity, Order, Tradition

Explore more quotes by George Orwell

"Mankind is not likely to salvage civilization unless he can evolve a system of good and evil which is independent of heaven and hell."

Civilization

"How does one man assert his power over another, Winston?Winston thought. "By making him suffer, he said."Exactly. By making him suffer. Obedience is not enough. Unless he is suffering, how can you be sure that he is obeying your will and not his own?..."

Power

"Language ought to be the joint creation of poets and manual workers."

Creation

"He was a lonely ghost uttering a truth that nobody would ever hear."

Isolation

"It is almost universally felt that when we call a country democratic we are praising it; consequently, the defenders of every kind of regime claim that it is a democracy, and fear that they might have to stop using the word if it were tied down to any one meaning."

Fear

"Sooner or later it would happen: strength would change into consciousness."

Strength

"The paperweight was the room he was in, and the coral was Julia's life and his own, fixed in a sort of eternity at the heart of the crystal."

Memory

"Do you know why you're here? Shall I tell you why we brought you here? To cure you.To make you sane."

Mental Health

"Whatever is funny is subversive, every joke is ultimately a custard pie... a dirty joke is a sort of mental rebellion."

Fun

"To walk through the ruined cities of Germany is to feel an actual doubt about the continuity of civilization."

Civilization