William Barrett (philosopher)

"The decline of religion in modern times means simply that religion is no longer the uncontested center and ruler of mans life, and that the Church is no longer the final and unquestioned home and asylum of his being."

"The will to power is weakness as well as strength, and the more it is cut off and isolated from the rest of the human personality, the more desperate, in its weakness, it can become."

"That existence has meaning, finally, only as the liberty to say No, and by saying No to create a world."

"We do not ask ourselves what the ultimate ideas behind our civilization are that have brought us into this danger; we do not search for the human face behind the bewildering array of instruments that man has forged; in a word, we do not dare to be philosophical."

"Jaspers sees the historical meaning of existential philosophy as a struggle to awaken in the individual the possibilities of an authentic and genuine life, in the face of the great modern drift toward a standardized mass society."

"The bomb reveals the dreadful and total contingency of human existence. Existentialism is the philosophy of the atomic age."

"Faith can no more be described to a thoroughly rational mind than the idea of colors can be conveyed to a blind man."

"Journalism has become a great god of the period, and gods have a way of ruthlessly and demonically taking over their servitors."

"Where feudalism is concrete and organic, with man dominated by the image of the land, capitalism is abstract and calculating in spirit, and severs man from the earth."

"A recognition of limits, of boundaries, may be the only thing that prevents power from dizzy collapse."

"Anyone who attempts to gain a unified understanding of modern art as a whole is bound to suffer the uncomfortable sensation of having fallen into a thicket of brambles."

"The peasantry are wiser in their ignorance than the savants of St Petersburg in their learning."