Johan Huizinga

From whichever angle one looks at it, the application of racial theories remains a striking proof of the lowered demands of public opinion upon the purity of critical judgment.

The repudiation of the primacy of understanding means the repudiation of the norms of judgment as well, and hence the abandonment of all ethical standards.

History is the interpretation of the significance that the past has for us.

It is the goal of the American university to be the brains of the republic.

Whether the aim is in heaven or on earth, wisdom or wealth, the essential condition of its pursuit and attainment is always security and order.

In Europe art has to a large degree taken the place of religion. In America it seems rather to be science.

A superstition which pretends to be scientific creates a much greater confusion of thought than one which contents itself with simple popular practices.

Every age yearns for a more beautiful world. The deeper the desperation and the depression about the confusing present, the more intense that yearning.

It is impossible to strive for the heroic life. The title of hero is bestowed by the survivors upon the fallen, who themselves know nothing of heroism.

Play is a uniquely adaptive act, not subordinate to some other adaptive act, but with a special function of its own in human experience.

Life is made too easy. Mankind's moral fibre is giving way under the softening influence of luxury.

Culture must have its ultimate aim in the metaphysical or it will cease to be culture.