Progress is measured by the degree of differentiation within a society.
Herbert Read

That is why I believe that art is so much more significant than either economics or philosophy. It is the direct measure of man's spiritual vision.
Herbert Read

The assumption is that the right kind of society is an organic being not merely analogous to an organic being, but actually a living structure with appetites and digestions, instincts and passions, intelligence and reason.
Herbert Read

The characteristic political attitude of today is not one of positive belief, but of despair.
Herbert Read

The farther a society progresses, the more clearly the individual becomes the antithesis of the group.
Herbert Read

The modern work of art, as I have said, is a symbol.
Herbert Read

The most general law in nature is equity-the principle of balance and symmetry which guides the growth of forms along the lines of the greatest structural efficiency.
Herbert Read

The only sin is ugliness, and if we believed this with all our being, all other activities of the human spirit could be left to take care of themselves.
Herbert Read

The point I am making is that in the more primitive forms of society the individual is merely a unit; in more developed forms of society he is an independent personality.
Herbert Read

The principle of equity first came into evidence in Roman jurisprudence and was derived by analogy from the physical meaning of the word.
Herbert Read

The sense of historical continuity, and a feeling for philosophical rectitude cannot, however, be compromised.
Herbert Read

The sensitive artist knows that a bitter wind is blowing.
Herbert Read

The slave may be happy, but happiness is not enough.
Herbert Read

The worth of a civilization or a culture is not valued in the terms of its material wealth or military power, but by the quality and achievements of its representative individuals - its philosophers, its poets and its artists.
Herbert Read

There are a few people, but a diminishing number, who still believe that Marxism, as an economic system, off era a coherent alternative to capitalism, and socialism has, indeed, triumphed in one country.
Herbert Read

These groups within a society can he distinguished according as to whether, like an army or an orchestra, they function as a single body; or whether they are united merely to defend their common interests and otherwise function as separate individuals.
Herbert Read

To realize that new world we must prefer the values of freedom and equality above all other values - above personal wealth, technical power and nationalism.
Herbert Read

We may be sure that out of the ruins of our capitalist civilization a new religion will emerge, just as Christianity emerged from the ruins of the Roman civilization.
Herbert Read

What I do deny is that you can build any enduring society without some such mystical ethos.
Herbert Read

You might think that it would he the natural desire of every man to develop as an independent personality, but this does not seem to be true.
Herbert Read